ASBPE Cleveland

Cleveland rocks!

noreply@blogger.com (Pilot Light) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:49:00 +0000

Ok, I know it's not the most inspired of headlines, but I think it's a good sentiment to kick off a new era of the ASBPE Cleveland chapter.

My name is Stephanie Ricca, and I'm your new blog host (hostess?). I am the editor in chief of Hotel Management magazine, and the new Cleveland chapter president.

Cleveland has a fantastic history of ASBPE greatness, and I think it's important now more than ever for us to communicate, share ideas and use each other as resources. Oh, and have fun. We are journalists, right?

To that end, I'll be reaching out to current Cleveland chapter members in the next few weeks with the goal of announcing a date and time for a Cleveland chapter happy hour. We'll get together and reconnect, and start brainstorming ideas for future projects.

Please email me (sricca at questex dot com) if you'd like to be part of the planning team. I look forward to a fantastic Cleveland chapter.

No Solid Answer to 'What’s Next for B2B?'

noreply@blogger.com (Vicki Burt) — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:38:00 +0000

On April 21, the Cleveland chapter of ASBPE held its first event in several years called "What's next for B2B?" The meeting was held downtown and over 20 people attended. We had four panelists with four different perspectives. Richard Jones is Group Editor for Meister Media Worldwide's Ornamental publications, Nathan Kievman is a Social Media strategist and trainer, and co-founder of Woovertise, Inc., Joe Pulizzi is a thought leader, speaker, writer and evangelist for content marketing, is founder and chief content officer for Junta42, and Mike Malley is director of advertising sales for Crain's Cleveland Business.

Everyone who attended felt the meeting was very worthwhile and wanted the discussion to go on all day.

If you couldn't make it to this event, stay tuned for more through the rest of the year.

And be sure to read vice president Marisa Palmieri's recap of the event.

Benchmarking your web presence

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:50:00 +0000

Surfing around on social bookmarking site Delicious is an interesting educational exercise for editors -- exploring the tags that you habitually use can bring new sources into your research universe. I was on the site yesterday, organizing a social bookmarking pilot for a project, and came across Compete.com, an analytics site that offers a quick, free benchmarking snapshot of your site versus your main competition.

The free tools let you sort by unique visitors, monthly rank and average stay, as well as velocity, which is used to determine the relative growth of a domain over a particular time frame or compared to other sites. Velocity can be useful in measuring the impact of things like events, trade shows, and/or ad campaigns on your site's competitive landscape.

Depending on the results of your benchmarking exercise, it could also potentially be useful to pry a little more web budget out of reluctant publishers and business managers!javascript:void(0)

A Couple Corrections for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:48:00 +0000

In the Christmas spirit, a little gift of laughter, courtesy of the factchecking fanatics at the Regret The Error blog.

From Dave Barry in the Miami Herald:

In yesterday’s column about badminton, I misspelled the name of Guatemalan player Kevin Cordon. I apologize. In my defense, I want to note that in the same column I correctly spelled Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarak, Poompat Sapkulchananart and Porntip Buranapraseatsuk. So by the time I got to Kevin Cordon, my fingers were exhausted.

Here's one from Slate:

In the June 20 “Culturebox,” Jonah Weiner stated that Lil Wayne was the first hip-hop artist to fantasize about eating his competition. Other rappers have contemplated consuming their rivals.

And from the UK's Press and Journal:

We have been asked to point out that Stuart Kennedy, of Flat E, 38 Don Street, Aberdeen, who appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court on Monday, had 316 pink, frilly garters confiscated not 316 pink, frilly knickers.

Did the editors really need to correct that? (Did we really need to know in the first place?)

This post is apropos of absolutely nothing, except to suggest that you take advantage of every opportunity to introduce a little fun into your publication.

Plus, if you laugh at yourself, then everyone else has to laugh with you (instead of at you) right?

Happy holidays and safe passage into the New Year.

Brad

Giving thanks for innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:56:00 +0000

At the rate things are going, someone will figure out a software algorithm that will write our stories for us. Until then, there are tools cropping up to take some of the pain out of an editor's pain-dense life.

Textflow is the latest example. Lifehacker's Adam Pash describes this new tool as a "word processor with a new and innovative take on document collaboration. Rather than offer real-time updates when multiple users are working on a document like Google Docs, Zoho Writer, or previously mentioned Gobby, TextFlow imports multiple Microsoft Word documents, analyzes all of the differences, and provides robust tools for merging, accepting, or rejecting any of the changes therein by a master editor."

As far as I can tell, it's just a modified version of a tool that software coders have been using for years for version control/error reduction.

Best of all, it's free for download at the Textflow site.

Check out the video for a better sense of it:

Happy Thanksgiving!

More competition?

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:39:00 +0000

As if the blogosphere hadn't democratized content production enough, now comes word of a new tool from HP Labs that the company says will allow anyone who can create a PDF to publish a magazine.

From the HP Labs site:

"Called MagCloud, the service makes it possible to create digitized magazines and economically print, promote, sell and deliver them on demand.

It costs nothing to publish a magazine on MagCloud.com. You simply upload a high-resolution PDF file, and the system takes care of the rest: printing, mailing, subscription management and more."

I guess our only solace lies in the fact that while anyone can now create a magazine, very few can create a good one.

Where to get good Web photos?

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:18:00 +0000

Now that digital photography has pushed photojournalism into the hands of the masses -- in much the same way that blogging pushed journalism the same direction -- it stands to reason that there should be some cooperation between the two.

I've always wanted someone to explain in simple terms how Creative Commons licensing works on Flickr and other photosharing sites -- most of my questions were answered by this post by Skelliewag.

Copyblogger also has a good post on the same subject. Happy hunting!

A new (?) video resource

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:28:00 +0000

This may be old news to you, but I just got hip to Newsmarket, a resource for journalists looking for online video content. I came across the site on Environmental Leader (a great resource in itself for business writers looking to stay on top of green trends).

It seems as if most of the video content on Newsmarket comes from corporate communication sources, which makes it both familiar, and suspect. You do have to register and create an account, but once that hurdle is passed, it seems like most -- if not all -- video content is free.

Best of all, the site content is broken down by "beat," which IMHO is a great way to organize a website!

Not sure if the embed is as easy as YouTube, though. Still, a quick search for the companies that you cover is never a bad idea, no matter the platform.

Coolest thing ever

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:31:00 +0000

OK, that's a big statement to make, and an award I don't give out often. ("Coolest thing ever, that I've seen so far today" would probably be more accurate, and that's an award I give out at least once daily.)

Anyway, by now you should know that it's important to take time to tag your stories; however, keeping it simple is sometimes hard, as tag discipline falls apart in the face of long, wordy articles.

If you want to get to the meat of the story in a cool way, you could do a lot worse than working with Wordle. This tool, created by IBM researcher (and ex-They Might Be Giants drummer) Jonathan Feinberg, shows you exactly what your story is about.

For example, here's a Wordle-generated tag cloud of a recent story I wrote about Intel's green business practices.

Kind of easy to see what the highlights are, no?

(FYI Wordle works for resumes too. If you want to get a quick snapshot of your career, post your entire resume into the "create" box -- and be prepared to be boiled down to a set of meta-tags!)

Hello to Everyone In The Cleveland Area

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Sparks) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:21:00 +0000

Hey everyone,

A thank-you to Brad Kenny for recruiting me to be the new local ASBPE president. Still getting my feet wet, to be honest, but will try to make the most of the opportunity. I look forward to talking with all of you!

Brian Sparks

Azbee Regional Finalists Announced

noreply@blogger.com (ASBPE) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:31:00 +0000

The list of finalist publications in the Midwest-South Region competition of the Azbee Awards of Excellence has been released; exactly which publications won which awards will be announced at the regions awards banquet, to be held July 17 in Washington, D.C.

The national awards ceremony will take place the evening of July 24 at the ASBPE National Editorial Conference in Kansas City. Names of national finalist publications will be posted soon at www.asbpe.org.

Aggregating the Aggregators and the "Editorial Layer"

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:35:00 +0000

Just read an interesting post on the future of media consumption from Matt Dickman, digital marketing guru at Fleishman-Hillard and author of the Techno//Marketer blog. They've got a group of trendspotters that have taken a stab at what the future of the media business might look like (available as a downloadable .pdf here).

Of course, he's talking cutting-edge consumer culture, so it's a little trend-forward for the B2B world, but couple of things stood out for me as applicable to where this market we inhabit might be in 3, 5 and most definitely 10 years. Definitely worth a read, especially for gems like these few sentences about competing with your own "newsmaster" readers, and how media companies might adapt one of our advantages -- putting news into proper context -- to stay relevant.

RSS and the Growth of ‘Newsmasters’
As content floods the Web, RSS has made youth ruthlessly efficient media consumers. They are much better synthesizers of information than older generations and can handle many more information streams per day. However, many young people still desire editors to trim away the fat and give us the skinny on what’s cool, important, and newsworthy. As a result, RSS-based services with an editorial layer are beginning to emerge. RCRD LBL, a collection of free, exclusive tracks by handpicked artists gives access to tour dates, new tracks, artist information, and editorial content — all via RSS.
RSS will ultimately enable newsmasters to “set their preferences” and hone their feeds to perfection so they no longer have to do the work of combing through all news. This can only happen once they’ve specialized and refined their niches, or become hyper-aggregators (aggregating aggregators).

Sure, you might not be there yet. You might be nowhere near being an aggregator's aggregator. But it's about time to start that conversation.

Digital tutorials, this time with rhythm...

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:25:00 +0000

I know there's been a lively debate, on Paul Conley's blog and elsewhere around the B2B community, about how journalists are supposed to acquire the training we need to compete in a WWW world.

A simple Google search is a good place to start; we've also posted some links on the ASBPE Cleveland tools page. That said, even a dedicated searcher might miss this gem -- m0serious, AKA the Poetic Prophet, AKA the SEO Rapper, has a YouTube channel that, if it doesn't help you learn everything about anything, at least will teach you how to talk about Web design and search engine optimization etc.

One quick example of the m0serious flow, on W3C (Web coding) compliance standards, and how they differ from common text formatting terminology:

"Don't use 'bold' -- please use 'strong' -- 'cause if you use 'bold' that's old and wrong."

Genius...

Design creativity in the b2b world

noreply@blogger.com (Paul J. Heney) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:41:00 +0000

How many times have you been frustrated at your magazine's lack of an art budget? I know that I have grumbled about this many times over the years. More often than not, my magazine is at the mercy of using photographs submitted by engineers working on a system they designed. (Certainly not the stuff an artist dreams of!) We're lucky to have a fantastic art director, and he always makes the most out of what we give him, bless his heart.

Yesterday, winners were announced in the first ever TABPI Design Challenge, a project developed to showcase some of the fantastic artistic talent that we have in the b2b world. But just as importantly, it is geared to get design professionals in our industry engaged in discussions about best practices.

This first challenge envisioned an art director for the fictional Concrete Times magazine caught in a proverbial crossfire. The magazine publisher wants the focus of the April 2008 cover to showcase the fact that it is the magazine's 40th anniversary issue. An important event, to be sure. But the editor-in-chief feels that the main feature story, focusing on the first ever "Top 100 Leaders" ranking, is more important. Of course, there is little or no art budget. So, what to do? TABPI asked b2b design professionals across the globe to weigh in with their solutions to this dilemma by submitting their own cover proposal.

I find the results of this Challenge to be fascinating. You can see the winner as well as five honorable mentions at www.tabpi.org/designchallenge.htm. There are also comments from the judges on both the positives and negatives that each solution brings. I invite you to look at the winners, forward the link to your art director or designer, and start a discussion as to how your team would have handled this issue. Which of the submitted solutions do you feel worked best? Would any of them have worked or not worked specifically for your magazine's audience?

Talking about design with your art director shouldn't be forgotten in these days of increased competition and shorter deadlines. Don't forget how crucial design is to a successful b2b magazine property.

Proven Sex Tips Results Improve Immediately!

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:12:00 +0000

Thought I'd pass these along -- magazine consultant John Brady has collected a set of what he calls "power words" that he says magazines of all kinds can use to raise their readership rates.

At least some of these would work just as well for B2B e-newsletters and blogs (although probably not in the combination I used in the title, as they'd probably get you spamblocked -- actually, I hope this post didn't get spamblocked for any of our email subscribers!)

Here are 32 proven magazine marketing power words (source: Curtis Circulation Co.). Use them in heads and coverlines when possible:
Improve
Trust
Immediately
Discover
Profit
Learn
Know
Understand
Powerful
Best
Win
Complete
Hot
Special
More
Bonus
Exclusive
Extra
You
Free
Health
Guarantee
New
Proven
Save
Safety
Money
Now
Today
Results
Protect
Help

PS. Someone has pointed out that sex is not included in this list. That is one of the editorial mysteries of all time. Another reader noted that tips is not on the list either. For the sake of expediency, therefore, let's add sex tips to the mix.

Any that he missed? Other than the always popular "sex tips" (I try to limit my use to every third day), does this type of come-on work as well in B2B?

If you're looking for some suggestions, check out the keyword suggestion tool at Google AdWords or at SEOBook.

A Webcast On How To Do Webcasts = Meta-Training!

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:47:00 +0000

From the fine folks at the national org comes the latest in our 2008 Webinar series: Taking Your Webcasts to the Next Level.

The webinar will teach you what it takes to produce a compelling content model and profitable business model for webcasts (a fast-growing revenue source in many a B2B brand's product portfolio). Content will include how to:

• pick a compelling topic and present it for maximum impact.

• involve print and on-line staff editors in content development and presentation of webinars.

• manage the "church-state" divide and address common ethical issues when conducting webinars.

• package and market online events for potential viewers and sponsors.

• leverage webinars for related editorial content, including virtual trade shows, podcasts and e-newsletters.

Details are below, reservation form is at ASBPE.org, a huge discount is available for members so sign up today!

When: Friday, March 21st, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EST.

Where: Your computer. A web conference dial-in number and access code is required, and will be provided to registrants in a subsequent e-mail.

How to attend: To reserve your place, submit a completed reservation form (attached) by March 17th to b2beditor@gmail.com or 201-221-8655 (fax). Questions may be directed to Steve Roll at 703-341-5926. You may also RSVP online at www.asbpe.org.

Charge: This webinar is $10.00 for all ASBPE members and $35.00 for non-members.

About the Presenters

KRISTIN BEAULIEU is the Vice President of Client Services at InXpo, a leading provider of virtual online communities and tradeshows. She works with leading publishers such as Nielsen, The Wall Street Journal, CMP, IDG, Ziff Davis Enterprise and others to strategize their event businesses.

Kristin was formerly the Vice President of Digital Events for the Consumer Small Business Division of Ziff Davis Media. She managed two online event divisions for Ziff Davis: eSeminars and PCMagCast. eSeminars was launched in 2000 and grew steadily to become a highly profitable division of Ziff Davis with year-over-year exponential growth in revenue and events. In January 2006, PCMagCast was launched as the dedicated online event division of PCMagazine.

PCMagCast received both Gold and Bronze 2006 Folio Fame Awards for "Best Online Events of the Year" for its "Security and Mobility Virtual Tradeshow" and the webcast, "Selecting and Setting up an HDTV Set". Additionally eSeminars received the 2005 Folio Fame Gold Award for "Best Online Event" for its Security Solutions Tradeshow "Protect Yourself Against Attacks."

ELLIOT MARKOWITZ is Editorial Director of Nielsen Business Media Webcasts and Virtual Events and is responsible for the content of all web seminars across Nielsen's publications and brands. He is also Editorial Director of Nielsen's Small Business Resource Center and Mediajobmarket.com.

Previously, Markowitz was Editorial Director of Ziff Davis Media eSeminars, where he helped build the company's eSeminar business and launched its award-winning Virtual Tradeshow concept. Markowitz is an 18-year publishing veteran and before Ziff Davis, he was Editor of Hotel Business magazine and HotelJournal. Before that he was Editor-in-Chief of CRM Magazine and the destinationCRM.com website and related live events. Before CRM Magazine, he was Business Editor at TechTV, responsible for helping to manage the TV station's website as well as conducting live on-air interviews with key industry executives.

Another Azbee Deadline Extension

noreply@blogger.com (Marisa Palmieri) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:10:00 +0000

You now have until Feb. 22.

The deadline was revised due to technical difficulties with the new online option. For more information, visit www.asbpe.org.

Microblogging Scoopers, Widget Ninjas and Bluecasting

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:25:00 +0000

Today I went to an interesting lunchtime meeting sponsored by the Web Association, a group of Cleveland-based digital media and marketing professionals. Although the content was more geared towards the ad side of the church/state equation, I thought some of it was relevant for business editors looking down the road at where the media is headed. These marketers are the kind and generous people, after all, who stock the bank accounts from which our precious paychecks are drawn.

(Speaking of meetings, stay tuned for our own announcement for an early March meeting of the Cleveland ASBPE chapter—we're going to do a digital coaching session on Google Tools, RSS and podcasting.)

After introducing the panelists (Mark Geyman of OhioBiz, Matt Dickman of Fleishman-Hillard who also produces the Techno//Marketer blog, and Shawn Riegsecker of digital media firm Centro), WebAssociation president Jon Eggleton of American Greeting’s Interactive division led off with a recap of a survey that the association conducted over the past few months, predicting “modest” growth for 2008’s online spend. In an economy teetering on the brink of (if not already knee-deep in) a recession, any growth is good growth. My colleague Michael (web marketing manager) said he had answered “modest” growth even though IW’s online growth has consistently fallen into the “significant” category in past years. I guess he’s either a modest fellow by nature, or he doesn’t want to jinx himself.

Mark Geyman from OhioBiz spoke next on the state of local search in the B2B and B2C worlds. According to the figures Mark cited, 30% of all searches contain a city name or a zip code; a key metric that magazines with a regional focus or readership should definitely factor into their own online marketing efforts (via metadata, Google AdWords buys etc.)

Mark also sees mapping usage rates on the rise, and counseled business owners to doublecheck their mapping locations and check their basic biz data against the major search engines and big database companies (InfoUSA was one he mentioned prominently).

I thought it was interesting that OhioBiz is looking to offer embedded blog applications as a value-add for Ohio-based businesses that don’t have a Web presence of their own. Great idea, as it combines the ability to post/edit/re-post information quickly with the ease of a “plug and play” consumer platform. (Maybe I should offer him my services as a “widget ninja”…)

Next up was Matt Dickman, who has a day job at Fleishman Hillard but is probably better known as a blogger (he’s got a pretty well-trafficked and informative blog called Techno/Marketing). Interesting side point to be made here—the multiple roles that we inhabit in this fractured media landscape can make it hard to self-identify (I’ve got four blogs myself) much less describe ourselves to others.

Anyway, Matt was speaking today mostly on behalf of his work as a blogger, doing his Evangelism 2.0 thing (with some impressive powerpointing skills, I might add).

He spent most of his time talking about the marketing and communications potential of new social media tools, and along the way he gave some pretty powerful examples of how things like “micromedia” are filtering into the public consciousness. For instance, he described how users of the microblogging service Twitter were able to scoop both the national and local press by almost an hour immediately following the Minneapolis bridge collapse. He described learning about it via Twitter, and going again and again to CNN.com looking for the story to no avail. Finally, after an hour, it appeared on the local Minneapolis news.

Listening to Matt today, I was reminded of a conversation I’ve had with a couple of other B2B editors, where we’ve come to realize that most trade press Web sites serves two main purposes:

1) To give the audience the up-to-date and relevant news they need to do their jobs in an effective manner; and

2) To offer our opinions and insights to our audience on that news, and place it in context, so that they can relate to it and know what to think of it (or, maybe just as often, and definitely just as importantly, what not to think).

It corresponds well with Matt's presentation as the first point is all about timeliness (and here Twitter- or Seesmic-enabled business journalists might be one method of staying ahead of the pack) and the second is all about “voice” (and what is a blog if not a plug-and-play column?)

The panel discussion concluded with a presentation by Centro's Shawn Riegsecker. Shawn began by making the unequivocal point that the digital age is here to stay, both for marketers and the publishers that rent them space. "This is 2008," he said. "The test is over."

According to Shawn, we've seen an incredible growth in the amount of available media (3-10 times was the figure he quoted) without a corresponding growth in marketing budgets (something that we’ve also seen, especially in the trade press).

He also noted that magazine circulations peaked in 2000, and are now back to 1994 levels. That was the bad news.

The good news, or at least what I took from his talk, is that even the most traditional marketers are starting to catch on to the idea behind the "integrated media" phenomenon. Along these lines (and especially relevant to B2B mags struggling with delivering returns via traditional metrics) is that the current emphasis on clickthroughs may be less than relevant/effective, and for some companies that model is broken altogether. What marketers want now is to surround their consumer with 360 degrees of media, and seeing as we're the media that most of these people are allowed to openly read while at work, we have a definite part to play.

Although you might not care that much, I'll bet your ad sales team will probably be happy to hear that an expert says that online marketing, and marketing in general, are moving towards a more holistic view of the ROI of on- and offline integrated marketing campaigns. “If you’re only doing banners and buttons and only tracking clicks, you’re missing a huge opportunity,” Riegsecker says.

He cites a major telecom provider as an example of an advertiser who thought they had “horrible” ROI from ad clicks alone, but noticed that once they pulled their online campaigns that their Google searches/clicks decreased 30-40%.

To accompany this trend, Riegsecker forecasted a rise in analytics companies that are going to be helping advertising agencies and marketing departments judge the “total impact” of integrated campaigns. Will some of those be in B2B? Probably, but probably (as usual) a little behind the adoption curve. Which isn't that bad of a place to be, if you believe like "The World Is Flat" author Tom Friedman does that "the second buyer always wins."

Following the panel, there was also a really great, if kind of short, Q&A with the panelists. In response to a question about popup ads, Riegsecker stated unequivocally that his company will not work in what he calls “interruptive” advertising/marketing models (i.e., popups, floating ads, interstitial ads etc.) for his clients. “They’re bad for the brand, bad for the consumer and bad for the publisher,” he observed. I agree completely, and was reminded of the flap a few months back when Paul Conley called out Ziff-Davis (among others) for inserting ads in editorial content. Although ZD ceased and desisted, the fact that they are like poison for all concerned certainly isn't stopping other publishers (who I won't link to here) from offering them, or any of the other interruptive ad models, for that matter. It does, however, serve to reinforce the fact that the smarter marketers know that interruptive advertising should be resisted by all parties at all times at all costs.

Finally, and speaking of “interruptive advertising,” Matt Dickman told us a story about how he was on the street in NYC recently and someone in one of the stores had set up a server that was broadcasting—or “bluecasting”, as it's known—an intrusive advertising campaign to every Bluetooth-enabled cellphone in the area.

Although I completely agreed with him that this is uncalled for (as soon as I heard this I disabled the Bluetooth on my Curve) and probably mostly counterproductive, I also found it kind of ironic that Matt was shocked at this violation of his personal mobile phone space only minutes after telling us that his 400-some friends on Twitter are constantly keeping his phone abuzz with “tweets” (Twitter’s name for the text message blog posts). I guess Seth Godin is right--these days, the savvy marketers know that it's all about permission.

My hope is that smart marketers like these three keep spreading the gospel of non-intrusiveness, as our audiences, not to mention our businesses, will benefit as a result.

Your Source Gets Fired, And You Get Sued -- All In A Day's Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:45:00 +0000

One of the more compelling stories I read last year concerned a BusinessWeek editor who was sued for breach of a confidentiality agreement she had verbally made with a source. According to the story at IT News:

"A former Microsoft executive who ended up jobless, broke, and separated from his wife after being identified by name and quoted in a BusinessWeek story about dysfunctional workplaces has lost a lawsuit he filed against the magazine and the reporter who wrote the story..

The jury rejected a claim by former Microsoft director of IT audits Peter Tilton that BusinessWeek reporter Michelle Conlin had promised him anonymity in exchange for an interview on the work environment at the software maker."

The story resonated for me on a couple of different levels. Normally, I don't have any trouble finding sources to spout off on whatever topic happens to be on IndustryWeek's monthly editorial schedule. On the contrary, they usually flood my inbox, and it's usually more a question of picking the right voice out of the crowd.

However, I recently wrote a piece on IT outsourcing, and judging from the number of people who didn't want to talk at all, much less on the record (as well as some of the angry posts I've received on the subject at our Reader TalkBack forum) this is an extremely touchy subject. I had to be very specific in my assurances to one source in particular that I wouldn't specify even the industry of his/her company for fear of the knowledge being traced back to him/her (see, I'm still doing it!).

On one hand, any journalist knows that when there's that much paranoia and controversy, it's a topic worth pursuing. However, I'm definitely proceeding with caution, because as much as I enjoy writing about controversial topics, the last thing I want anyone to do is lose their job over a story of mine (much less get sued by the source based on a "he said/she said" oral agreement!)

As if that wasn't enough reason for me to tread extra-carefully with my contacts, I recently experienced the dark side of the coin myself when I served as a source for a Folio: article -- an article I originally thought was about the "digital journalist's toolbox" but ended up being titled "Job Hunting In '08" (and featuring, quite prominently, my LinkedIn profile page as the article artwork!) I don't mean to say that I was misled in the slightest -- in fact, author Matt Kinsman and I had a very interesting and wide-ranging conversation that covered both these topics and quite a few besides -- but I have to say that I was more than a little floored when my group publisher (read: my boss's boss's boss) inquired how my job search was going...!

Azbee Season Is Upon Us!

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:07:00 +0000

Katy over at ASBPE's DC Chapter reminds us that it's that it's the New Year, and time for some professional recognition for your hard-earned work:

Enter ASBPE's Azbee Awards of Excellence
'Tis the season--awards season, that is.

The deadline for ASBPE's Azbee Awards of Excellence is Feb. 1. We've made it easier than ever to enter this year with a new Web-based entry system that allows you to enter most editorial and digital categories completely electronically--including uploading files. For those categories still requiring hard-copy entries (all design categories, magazine of the year, and a few others), you can still submit entry information and pay online all at one time. For more details on the entry process, download the entry brochure and instructions from ASBPE's home page.

While you're there, be sure to download ASBPE's latest member benefit--the ASBPE Tip Sheet. In our first Tip Sheet, award-winning B2B editors provide tips and tricks for winning more awards--from the planning stages through the entry process.

Couldn't have said it better myself. A quick reminder that the categories have been refined over the last couple of years, and now include an expanded "How-To" category (among others) and even new categories (such as Web site redesign). Want some recognition for your hard work, and possibly a bullet point to beef up your resume? Go to the national site and read about the Azbee awards program.

Best of luck to everyone!

New Years Resolutions For Busy Business Editors

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:04:00 +0000

Happy New Year to everyone!

One of my resolutions as a writer and an editor this year is to become more Web savvy in order to better reach and engage this "expanded audience" of ours. (After all, we're in a pretty good position as most trade magazines are natural sources of expertise.)

To expand my reach in an efficient manner, and keep you informed in the process, I'll be using all the tools I can find, including my new "link blog" available at right and here (basically my Google Reader's "shared items" on RSS).

Here at ASBPE Cleveland, we'll also be posting links and tools throughout the year, starting with a couple quickies below.

Redesigning (or refreshing, revamping, whatever) your Web site on your magazine's resolution list? Here's a whole page of Web usability tips developed through eye-tracking studies. Big takeaway? "Design your site for the average user, not yourself."

Looking to get a better insight into exactly what that elusive "average user" is looking for, content-wise? Try a little keyword research around your magazine's area of expertise, and you might find different, more effective ways to categorize -- or even expand -- your coverage. Here's a whole page of keyword research tools at SEOBook (hat tip to Paul Conley).

And finally, looking to track down elusive sources? Here's a tutorial from one of my favorite sites, Lifehacker, on how to track down anyone online (which also serves as an effective tutorial on why we need to pay attention to Internet privacy issues in '08....!)

Stocking Up

noreply@blogger.com (Marisa Palmieri) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:06:00 +0000

Inexpensive stock art Web sites are one of the modern marvels of the journalism world – so I hear. As a relatively young editor (I'm 24), they’re all I’ve ever really known when it comes to selecting supplemental images for feature stories and news sections in b2b publishing.

Until I read a recent article from Slate, I had never really thought about how easily mix-ups or misunderstandings can occur with stock images – especially on lean editorial staffs where reporters rather than photo editors choose artwork.

The Slate story is about article in Nature Medicine that profiles the BBC's apology about a documentary that chronicles the treatment of a group of HIV-positive foster children in Harlem. The story includes an image of a black toddler in a crib with the vague caption, “Foster children took part in trials of AIDS drugs.” One would assume this photo is actually of an HIV-positive foster child in Harlem. It’s not, though. The photo was taken in an Ethiopian orphanage, according to iStockphoto, a popular stock photography site where the image can be purchased.

It’s one thing to slap a generic caption onto an image of a light bulb representing a marketing article (if we must use photos like that), but what about news stories? Or stories with stock images of people?

Though I never sought stock art “the old way,” I would agree with Slate’s Jack Shafer when he says:

It's all to the good that today's publications have instantaneous access to millions of photos. And, generally speaking, it's a good thing that the Web reduces the amount of human skill required to find quality art.

What's lost in the new order is harder to quantify. Although the visual catalog has grown larger thanks to the Web, the images selected by publications often seem generic. The Web's bounty in untrained hands can conjure sameness as easily as variety.

Interestingly, though Nature Medicine's editor admitted a fact-checking error and conceded impropriety to Shafer, the article appears online with an uncorrected caption.

This issue begs the question: How deliberate is your staff’s stock-art selection process? Who chooses this art, how is it credited and how well is it edited – not just for grammar and style, but for content and accuracy?

The Three-Way Street (Remix)

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 02:51:00 +0000

Back when I was in college (the early 90s), I wrote an entire research paper for a class on publishing history on the concept of the "letters page" and how important the interactivity is to making people feel a part of the readership experience. I predicted at the time that magazines and newspapers would expand into online letters pages to expand the surface area and stickiness of this section (without having to pay for expensive print pages).

Little did I know at the time that this interactivity would explode into these things called blogs and reader forums, and due to the ease of finding author contact information (often with nice, easy hyperlinks) even our own email inboxes would become receptacles for reader responses (I've posted on this topic, including more abusive of these over at my work blog, where I was savaged for writing an article that was critical of Apple CEO Steve Jobs).

Anyway, every writer worth his reader's salt knows that in the Internet Age, there's always someone out there, waiting to pounce on any critical point you make and vent their frustration in the form of a nasty email, forum post, blog comment (or in the case of the following story, voicemail box). Me, I received about 20 or so hate emails per day for a month or so, along with some perfectly legitimate criticisms of my original article, and ended up repurposing the more well-reasoned of the responses into our magazine's letters page for that month.

Others have used different tactics to deal with similar situations, including the use of the rest of the readership to "crowdsource" a response.

The following story deals with such a situation, and comes in two parts: first check out this podcast taken from the voicemail inbox at the SF Chronicle newsdesk.

A pretty harsh response for what was a slight redundancy. However, the editors there got the last word by inviting someone to remix the voicemail message:

And here's
the remix.

It's fitting that the internet's interactivity allows for some extra creativity in crafting "extra-editorial" responses, especially to some of our more salty readers.

Happy Birthday To "Blog"

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:38:00 +0000

I read a Scobleizer post on the bus ride into work this morning that the term "blog" turns 10 today, which has me in a bit of a reflective mood. Robert Scoble has been a professional blogger since 2000, recently announced that he's joining the ranks of the magazine world (a spot on staff at FastCompany), further blurring the lines between citizen and professional journalism.

Me, I've been using the medium in one form or another since about 1999-2000, when I started using the reverse-chronology, threaded format that has been codified into the common blog we all know and love (or love to hate -- I also hear there's a lot of resentment and pushback from business journalists). If I were being looser about the term, I'd also probably count everything with that "online journal" feel, from my mid-1990s AOL and Geocities pages, thankfully (hopefully?) long-deleted by now, as well as the usual suspects -- a LiveJournal site and now, counting this one, four Blogger pages. The whole enterprise has gotten much easier to use -- both for writers and readers -- along the way, and has evolved from being just something to do with my spare opinions and into a professional competency for myself and many of my B2B peers. If you've got a blog (work or otherwise), post the link in the comments and I'll check it out.

Wow, ten years old. I wonder if that explains the rampant immaturity in the blogosphere? ;)

"For certain reasons this blog post of yours is not suitable for open publication and has been locked"

noreply@blogger.com (Brad Kenney) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:42:00 +0000

Those of you within complaining distance of me (and the reach of my whine is long) know that I'm in business school -- right now I'm studying financial accounting and "business law and ethics". I could make the cheap joke about law, ethics and business being some sort of extended oxymoronic menage-a-trois, but I do think that it makes sense to take them both at once, as accounting is a grey art at best, and although creative writing might be more synergistic (those quarterly reports are some great magical realism), studying law and ethics simultaneously makes for a good counterbalance.

Besides the balance, there seems to be another thread that I'm uncovering both in my studies and in my work at IndustryWeek -- namely, although all politics may be local, all business is global. What this means for us as trade journalists is pretty obvious -- the flattening of the world has enabled wider horizons, and new opportunities dot this newly revealed landscape if you've got the time to look around for them. Your readers should be doing the same.

With these global opportunities, though, may come some new threats and challenges that might be foreign to U.S. journalists. I have a cousin who is teaching in Myanmar, and she basically communicates to the rest of the family by blog. (Here's a link to her husband's community service organization if anyone's interested in donating to help the people of Myanmar.) When the crackdown came, the government shut down all lines of communication in and out of the country (I must admit, I didn't even know that was remotely possible) and although my cousin is smart and resourceful, it seemed a strange and dislocating experience to have those lines cut. I'm glad its over (for now at least), and truly hope it doesn't happen again, but I also hope that the people there get the right to determine their own destiny.

But are our rights right for everyone? I was listening to "On the Media" on NPR the other morning, and a Russian journalist was railing against the show for trying to impose values like "freedom of the press" onto other societies that might not appreciate them so much. (I know we hold certain truths to be self-evident, but does that make us self-obsessed?) All studies of ethics aside, I might be singing that same tune if my colleagues were dying in all sorts of interestingly accidental ways.

That argument had been percolating in my head for a day or two when, while doing some research for a class presentation on China, I came across some blog posts from the front lines of the battleground between the forces of censorship and the forces of a burgeoning free press in that country. (Rebecca McKinnon sums them up nicely -- her experience getting censored by Tianya, a Google-funded Chinese blog service, and others provided me with the title for this post). All around the world, people are dying to do the same thing I'm doing here, for bigger and better reasons.

Which brings me to a quick story. I was at a software conference in Germany earlier this year, and got to meet and strike up a friendship with an IT guy from Tehran. We both agreed that peace and prosperity are two universal desires, and agreed just as much that our leaders were acting, shall we say, counterproductively to our achieving those shared goals (our conversation happened at the height of the recent war drum crescendo from the White House). It was a great conversation -- he absolutely didn't believe me when I told him that Barack Hussein Obama, the bi-racial son of a single mom with Muslim roots on his fathers side, was running in a close race for the Democratic nomination for President.

I truly felt as if I had the opportunity to express one of those "freedoms" that our politicians have taken us to war over, not to mention damn near talking to death by now. Since that day, I've kept up our correspondence, and even took to forwarding a couple of his more insightful emails around to friends, but I noticed that every time I did, I made sure to wipe his name out from the signature and address line.

Why? I'm feeling a little paranoid these days. "For his sake, not mine" I tell myself as I delete the thread. The thing that bothers me is, I don't sound as sure as I'd like to on that front anymore. I get that "all alone and you hear something in the house, and you start talking loudly -- too loudly -- to yourself" feeling, and I'm not used to it.

Not like I really think I'm the target of a warrantless wiretap, it's just that the freedom to express myself -- no matter how trivial the subject -- is something that I am taking a little less for granted these days, and I'll be listening closely to what the politicians who desire to lead this free country of ours are saying about our civil liberties -- freedom of speech among them -- this election season.