[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] They’re the bane of guilty players everywhere. They pop out from behind buildings and bushes as you’re scrambling to get into your car. They run you down with a microphone stuck in your face and a Frezzi light blinding you. You’re trapped like a deer in a headlight with an […]
The media love to tell “horse race” stories. And if you’ve been watching/reading about the presidential race over the last year, you’ve seen a lot of them. While horse race stories are certainly legitimate storytelling “frames,” we’re not sure democracy is best-served with an overabundance on that particular frame. From Poynter in a piece written by […]
From The New York Times: For some people, public speaking comes naturally. But if you are like me, you may um and ah too much, spurred by the worry that nerves may get the best of you, that you might speak too fast or mess up in some way. So I have been practicing my public […]
Laura Reiley’s first investigation was a small one. But it proved to be a nibble into something much bigger, a story the Tampa Bay Times’ food critic took on this week. Four years ago, over dinner at Tampa’s famous Bern’s Steak House, Reiley listened as the waiter expounded on specials that came from the restaurant’s […]
It’s no secret that journalists get exasperated with PR pros who pitch wholly inappropriate stories to them. Even those PR pros who are experts at researching a particular journalist’s beat and outlet and successfully land an interview for their company’s lead spokesperson—say, a CEO—can aggravate time-strapped journalists if that spokesperson is ill-prepared or has a […]
People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating? Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions. In her new book, “Presence,” Cuddy says that people quickly answer two questions when they first […]
From our colleague, Caitlin Rourk: The 2016 presidential election has been nothing short of a spectacle, turning traditional political conventions (no pun intended) squarely on their head. And just as this election has forced the political establishment to alter its strategies, business organizations must reevaluate how to approach the unpredictable and unforgiving crises they face […]
From Jim VandeHei, writing in TheInformation.com: Digital media companies are caught in the “crap trap,” mass-producing trashy clickbait so they can claim huge audiences and often higher valuations. Here is how they fell into this lethal trap: They got into the content game to produce news or info they might be proud of, believing they […]
From an article written by John Myers for AudibleRange.com: In January, I joined Audible’s Original Content team after spending seven years as a producer at National Public Radio’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. There, part of my job involved homing in on the most interesting parts of an interview: distilling longer conversations into tight, broadcast-ready […]
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] I recently returned from a media training assignment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and had a communications revelation: whatever your corner of the world, whatever your language, to gain the upper hand in a news interview, you must arm yourself with clear, quotable messages, you must believe them, and you must […]