You Gotta Believe

I’ve never made a putt I didn’t visualize. Never struck a ball I didn’t watch to the barrel of the bat. Never swished a 20-footer I didn’t see in my mind’s eye.
Each takes belief. 
With enough practice and repeated success, belief becomes instinct, overtaking fear of missing, fear of falling short, fear of failure.
In many ways, [...]

10 Questions About the Future of News

As the news industry morphs into something different and exciting (not to mention, scary for some), a few questions:

Will the number of press passes be capped at the White House and both houses of Congress?
Will the U.S. Supreme Court allow cameras or tape recorders in the press gallery?
Will local bloggers sit through 4-hour city council [...]

WWJJD? (What Would Jeff Jarvis Do?)

It’s a brave new world full of a billion voices, tapping away, sounding off, getting snarky, demanding their due. Anyone with a computer or smartphone can jump in and say something. And somewhere, someone is listening, if just for a nanosecond. 
So does traditional “media” including newsprint still matter?
Simple test:
When I sent an @ Twitter message [...]

Twilight: Take That, Big Studios — and Critics

When a $37 million movie brings in almost $80 million during its first box office weekend, who really cares about “playability” — a term one industry watcher used this weekend to describe how a movie appeals to more than one demographic? One demographic can carry the day.
Some Twilight “fangirls” who queued up for Nov. 21 [...]

Writing Fun: Tell it to Mom

Do you love concise? I mean, really short bursts and bites of copy? Seth Godin’s advice to write a 6-word classified ad is a good start on how to nail the message you want to send. For Generation Y members, write a Craigslist posting. You may have never seen a classified ad.
Here’s another fun way. [...]

Tuesday Quiz: Writing as Obsession

If you’ve ever been in the dark hole of a writing project, you’ll appreciate a pop quiz. Which author said this?
“I sometimes think it’s important for writers to have an unhealthy obsession. Besides writing, that is.
A. Carl Hiaasen
B. J.K. Rowling
C. Ernest Hemingway
D. F. Scott Fitzgerald
E. None of the above
Writing, said now-deceased newspaper [...]

Blogging To Death

This cautionary tale in the NYT may be a little over the top, but it illustrates the downside for bloggers trying to publish technology scoops.
I remember when news radio was a major player in the San Diego market. The competing stations — and their reporters driving from story to story — would get the headlines, [...]

“Just” as Filler

Seth Godin, popular blogger, author and guru of marketing, is striking the word “just” from his vocabulary. Same for “sort of.”
We get into habits. We use certain words more than others. “Just” is not that bad (when used sparingly). There’s no harm in it. Seth wants to use it less.
Imagine if Nike had taken the same tact.  Just [...]

When Authors Fake It

Q: Why would a major publishing house print a memoir without checking basic facts?
A: Intense competition to sell books.
News this week of the bogus biography of a woman who claimed to have run drugs for a Los Angeles gang as a kid is yet another reminder to publishers that non-fiction must be vetted and fact-checked. Magazines work to do it. Newspapers work [...]

Signal-to-Noise Ratio: Dialing the Right Message

If you work in marketing, PR or journalism, you’re reading constantly. Email. Websites. Text messages. Blogs. Project briefs. Ad copy. Scripts. Court filings. Government documents. Speeches. Talking points. Press releases. White papers. Case studies. 
Time permitting, you probably read books and magazines. Possibly you groom your screenplay or novel (the most ambitious of you out there).
Words come at us through pixels, [...]