YourCommunicationsEdge

"The News Business Really Is Cratering"   - Jack Shafer,  Politico , January 27, 2024. It might not be the end of journalism per se. There will always be a necessary role for investigative reporting. What is going poof is journalism as a career path. Those full-time employees at prominent media centers such as the LA Times and Business Insider who were axed may never find their way back in. Freelancers might never have another article published again. Who knows, even indie Substack might also be selling what has fewer and fewer buyers. Shafer does, however, mention exceptions to the collapse. One is The New York Times. And, if we connect the dots the source of that growth is not necessarily the quality of the journalism.  As you might have already noticed, it's gaming. Everything from the crossword puzzle to Wordle. Vanity Fair  details the evolution of The New York Times from news to a subscription bundle including that traditional media service (in less demand) and gami

   It was in grade school that I began publishing articles for payment. The first was in The Advocate in Newark, New Jersey. The fee was five bucks for a youth's view of Alaska's becoming a state of the United States. That was 1958. It was in 1982 that I had my first op-ed published in The New York Times. It focused on bringing pet grief out of the closet. I am still a columnist for a magazine on retail. Although I never worked full-time in journalism I know that the  100 let go today at the LA Times  today are my brothers and sisters. Last week many also lost their jobs at Sports Illustrated. Conde Nast publications will experience a walkout by those trying to prevent Reductions in Force. The tragedy is not the end of a purpose-driven job. That happens all the time. It's that most will not be able to land comparable positions. Not now. Probably not ever.  Yes,  jobs in media will be among the sectors hit hard by AI.   Meanwhile, what is available typically pays, you got it

   "Harvard Teaching Hospital Seeks Retraction of Six Papers by Top Researchers -  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is reviewing more than 50 papers, including work of the hospital’s CEO [Laurie Glimcher]" -  The Wall Street Journal ,  January 22, 2024 In addition to the retractions, 31 other papers are being corrected. More are being looked over. In the loop for being responsible for these research problems are senior cancer researchers and administrators. As yet, misconduct has not been charged. Of course, the timing couldn't be worse for confidence in the Harvard brand. And, what a blockbuster brand it has been. So recent is the stepping down of the president Claudine Gay because of alleged plagiarism. Earlier at Harvard Business School, professor Francesca Gino was put on administrative leave because of allegations that she fudged data. Part of this review at Dana-Farber had been triggered outsider biologist Sholto David. He noticed image manipulation in some of the studi

  Everywhere I go, including driving cross-country, folks stop me to ask about my cute two-door Smart Car. You bet, it's the analogue of the Counterculture VW Bug.   Among the questions, since the car appears so "odd," is: Is that an EV or hybrid? My answer: Not yet, and hopefully never. I am getting 40 miles to a gallon and so don't count me in with those supposedly destroying planet earth. EV had become a platform for virtue signaling.  We who don't want to transition to the EV may have hope. The corporate economics of the Smart Car are not panning out. Ford is showcasing that by pulling back on production. Tesla is in a pickle. On the operational side there are problems ranging from tough charging in cold weather to the probability of more accidents than with gas-powered vehicles. About the latter, it accelerates faster and there is only one peddle, making it more difficult to brake quickly enough. In addition, resale value is low. Timing is almost everything.

  Humor is a cruel weapon. And, an unusually effective one. British comic John Oliver has the world's attention in what he is doing to the branding of McKinsey and Elon Musk. It's becoming increasingly difficult to take them seriously. THE CORPORATE ACCENT A satiric tone also is being applied to what is being called by Generation Z on social media such as TikTok the "corporate accent." We Boomers jaw-jawed about that in private as "corporatese." "That manager from marketing wants us to 'get our ducks in a row,'" we would laugh. We overdid the way the brass talked around the corridors of the Fortune 50. As Business Insider details, the dark comedy of Gen Zers relates to business language, intonation and pacing. Despite how off-putting it is the corporate accent continues to dominate professional communications. So many of us recognize that before we hop on a Zoom call. You bet, we shift into the corporate accent.  ALSO FACIAL AND BODY LANG

  It's the ultimate fantasy of those of us who perceive injustice (or just ham-handed management) in the workplace.  On January 10th, now-former marketing executive at Cloudflare Brittany Pietsch  both recorded and posted on social media the Zoom call of her termination by two in HR . During the axing procedure, she refuted their contention that her performance wasn't up to par. Also, as the world was made aware, it was peculiar that the process was handled by those in HR, not a higher-up in her function. How disrespectful.  Her experience mirrors so many of our own. Working for a living can be brutal and be given the boot even more so. So, we have empathy for Pietsch. But those of us who 1) know even a bit about the law about privacy and 2) need to move on to getting other work size up her behavior as reckless. This does not seem to be not a trust-funder or nepo baby who can afford to take a high-profile stand. She needs income from working. On her  LinkedIn profile , she iden

Publishers Weekly reports that the Barbra Streisand memoir "My Name Is Barbra" only sold a bit over 200k copies since its November 2023 release.  That could have been predicted. It consists of almost 1k pages and retails at about 50 bucks. Way too much Barbra and too high a price point and anyway along her career journey she irritated a lot of people. Moreover, the world of entertainment has moved on. She is 81 and unlike Elton John it left her behind.  Obviously the Streisand legacy is dinged. The first line of her obit in establishment media such as The New York Times and The Economist could be about her struggle to remain on the radar. In most cases you have only one shot in communications. Jane Genova is a communications coach and content-creator. Complimentary consultation (please text 203-468-8579 or email janegenova374@gmail.com) 

  Under lots of different word choices the issues in the old-line cultural wars continue.  In fact, the Eurasia Group documents in its 2024 report that those are among top corporate risks, especially in this election year. As you know, the business of both industry and investment firms likely is conducted in both blue and red states. So, those matters not only still impinge on business but also that the force field of influence they create is expanding with fierce political campaigning. All political players are entering this election year locked and loaded.  But businesses determined to make a profit are erasing from their messaging the term "ESG" (Environmental Social Goverance). That seems way too associated with extreme stances as well as lackuster returns on investments. A linguistic reset is going on.  And perhaps law firms such as Paul, Weiss, management consultants like McKinsey and asset managers such as Apollo should also ditch the umbrella term "ESG," alo

After the fall of the assumed untouchable Tucker Carlson it was bandied about that he used that crude "c" term at Fox to refer to not only females but also, for some peculiar reason, males. Now in the current print edition of Vanity Fair we find out how Carlson wound up in that oddball linguistic box.  In the article titled "Outfoxed" by Brian Stelter it is reported the Carlson sized up the usual expletive - the "f" word - as overused. Well, about that, Carlson was right. Even in professional settings, it doesn't take long for the participants who might be relative starngers to plunge into the verbal stylistics of emphasizing a point through the "f" word. As Carlson points out, that has become too common. So much so that it doesn't achieve its rhetorical objective of highlighting a bit of content here and there.  Most of those with whom we do business, though, won't cut slack for what Carlson had been verbally up to at Fox. He crossed

The World Economic Forum meets in Davos January 15th - 19 this year. It's been a while since that event dominated world news before, during and after.  In 2024, the goings-on might be even of less interest and relevance to global affairs. And, who cares any more who could afford to be a member of the WEF and attend. Billionaires are a dime a dozen. No, attendees, don't struggle to squeeze into a photo-op.  In short, Davos Man is over. Instead of close media analysis of what will be covered next week - the theme is Restoring Trust - the digital front pages are obsessed with the deepening fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein doc drops. "Three Ways" demand as much attention as had what Bill Clinton didn't define as sex decades ago. That media focus could be sustained while the supposed global influencers trudge through the snow in Davos. The Epstein-related story lines are too juicy not to exploit. Among them is what is Clinton up to jaw-jawing with Gavin Newsom in Mexi

That was fast. In 2020 "ESG" was the designated way of virtue signaling. Now, documents The Wall Street Journal, the term has become verboten in the language of business. That extends to investing niches. However, this story isn't really new. Several months ago I analyzed the shift in O'Dwyer's Public Relations .  In the WSJ article chair of law firm Paul, Weiss Brad Karp notes that the terminology is out but not the concepts it embodies such as the overall values of business. He's right. After all, business is a social institution. It exists in society and like the rest of us it has to conform.  But there is a lesson to be learned. Here it is: The next stab at designatting values or virtue signaling should be positioned and packaged more generically.  For decades, IBM had been respected for its policy of being "a good corporate citizen." It made the point that such an approach to business was not only good for society but also good for its global g

  "I manage the job by pretending I’m an actor playing a lawyer. It is even sillier than it sounds, but I’ve had really good results over the years. When I put my 'lawyer hat' on, I’m fully engrossed in the character, their motivations, desires, the highs of victory and the lows of defeat." Fishbowl January 8, 2024 This is a way to get beyond imposter syndrome.  It also has provided me a template for managing difficult professional situations. For instance, where there are challenging interactions I take on the persona of Brad Karp. As head of law firm Paul, Weiss his signature is charm and calm. I ask myself:  What would Brad Karp do in this context?  Never have I  lost a client when I leverage Karpenism. In most cases you have only one shot in communications. Jane Genova is a communications coach and content-creator. Complimentary consultation (please text 203-468-8579 or email janegenova374@gmail.com)

  A lot of our work time is waiting for phone calls, digital mail and texts. So, those of us fortunate enough to WFH or who can close the office door do Netflix or Hulu. Much of the better fare is based in the UK. That ranges from "The Crown" to "WhiteChapel."  That has evolved into background noise in our work worlds. So, I wonder is it at all possible that we professionals will start using British pronunciations and word choice. Yesyesyes, slang especially. Already I am referring to higher education as "uni" (short for "university"). What mitigates against that is the depreciated value of a British accent. At one time, it was a prestige dialect. Back in the 1970s when I was at uni in the US those who had done a summer or a year in England returned talking like a Royal. And they attempted to sustain it, until gunned down by ridicule.  Now that the economy of the UK isn't so hot, verbally emulating the Brits has lost value. For example, as ef

  Dealogic and LSEG rank Kirkland and Ellis  number-one in volume as a legal advisor for mergers and acquisitions. The total is $406.4 billion. Such recognition is a first for Kirkland and Ellis and, of course, can be leveraged in its marketing.  However, essentially the ranking serves as a kind of snapshot of the business from a certain vantage point and at a certain point in time. It doesn't necessarily provide useful insights about what is going on in the business that prospects, clients, the media and those being recruited for employment want to know.  For example, those constituents might gather more intelligence from connecting the dots on Paul, Weiss' representing Chevron in the proposed $60 billion all-stock acquisition of Hess. That could signal unique experience in energy dealmaking, including understanding the minds of the players in the niche and what obstacles should be anticipated in the future. The same kind of snapshot phenomenon happens with another touted rank

  Professional anonymous network Fishbowl Consulting captured the shock: The demand (and respect) for erudite management consulting (with all its slide decks) had plummeted. And the sector might not bounce back, with only MBB (McKinsey, BCG and Bain) and small affordable shops left standing.  As the nerdy absorbed those realities, what would emerge now and then was the term  "French Revolution."  That referred to the rebellion by industry against being told by management consultants it couldn't come up inhouse with its solutions itself.  And for the services of the management consultants it would have to pay through the nose. Well, that language, it is turning out, might not be hyperbolic.  The successful toppling of the President at Harvard - Claudine Gay - could be experienced as analogous to the Storming of the Bastille. The humiliation of Harvard will continue, especially since the governance folks okayed Gay's salary to continue to be $900k annually. Already fewe

"Harvard’s Claudine Gay set to keep her near $900K annual salary despite resigning as  university president" New York Post , January 2, 2024 Obviously the "accidental" activists in higher education have a long road ahead in bringing academic institutions under control. As a strategy for impact, they targeted donations. Those reformers range from Apollo CEO Marc Rowan to Pershing Square Capital Management's founder Bill Ackman. To paraphrase Hamlet:  Something is very rotten in the state of higher education.  The core of the rot is in the system of governance. ESG might have found a second life with the new focus on the governance part. Bring in the expert investigators from law firms Skadden Arps, Quinn Emanuel, Paul, Weiss and more. Have them go in with a prosecutorial mindset.  Meanwhile has having or studying for a Harvard degree become a professional liability? I might be wise to keep my matriculation there under wraps.  In most cases you have only one shot

As the world is now learning,  Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned .  That follows the resignation of Liz Magill from the position of President at the University of Pennsylvania. This is likely just the beginning of a broad-based shakeup of higher education, starting with the elite institutions and rippling on down to the small liberal arts ones in New England. What put this in play has been the extreme self-confidence, power and wealth of leaders on Wall Street. CEO of alternate asset management firm Apollo Marc Rowan kicked it off. Soon enough head of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management Bill Ackman got in and in a big way. The pile-on grew.  Governance will never be the same in academia. That's where seismic disruption will erupt because accountability will be demanded.  Those giant brandname law firms which usually parachute in to assist with the governance matters of corporations could be handling lots of work in the non-profit sector of higher education. They