Next Out the Door: Forbes’s Alex Konrad
January 31, 2025
1:56 pm
“I’m leaving to build something new,” Alex posted on X today. He spent 12 years at Forbes as a reporter and a builder of databases
>> Sam Whitmore
IDG/Foundry: From One Private Equity Owner to Another
January 31, 2025
11:24 am
Axios reported on Jan. 24 that private equity firm Blackstone will sell IDG/Foundry, publishers of InfoWorld, Computerworld and Network World (and owners of IDC) to
Key Editorial Union Stands Up To AI
January 31, 2025
10:36 am
Unionized writers have secured new protections governing the use of generative AI in member newsrooms, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The union — Writers Guild of
TechCrunch Calls Out Quartz For Its Crummy AI Stories
January 29, 2025
5:45 am
TC’s Rebecca Bellan finds fault with Quartz for how poorly its AI rewrote a recent story of hers. Quartz doesn’t attempt to hide its use
Paging Dr. Diane Hamilton, Forbes Contributor
January 21, 2025
10:40 am
Dr. Diane Hamilton has posted 37 articles on Forbes’s CHRO Network page since Dec. 1. She has an active LinkedIn profile, which advertises a book
Semafor Launches Newsletter for CEOs
January 21, 2025
9:05 am
Today’s Press-Gazette has a fascinating interview with Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, who left the FT to launch The CEO Signal, a weekly newsletter built for CEOs of
TechCrunch Layoffs
January 15, 2025
5:39 am
Less than ten individuals were impacted, says a Jan. 15 report in Business Insider. Monitor Fridge Notes for the names as they become known.
‘Bloomberg Tech’ Now Open for Registration
January 6, 2025
11:58 am
Registration is now open for the ‘Bloomberg Tech’ F2F event, being held Jun. 4-5 in San Francisco. With the current early-bird discount, a ticket runs
Congress to Investigate the Omnicom-IPG Deal
December 20, 2024
1:40 pm
Well, for now it’s Jim Jordan… but such news illustrates the kind of world we seem to be headed for. Adweek has the details, subscription
Talk About Confidentiality…
December 10, 2024
7:16 am
According to Adweek, Omnicom CEO John Wren and IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky were in merger talks for eleven and a half months before the transaction
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
Nieman Labs 2026 Predictions for B2B Media
November 11, 2025
Good vision here from Jay Lauf. Interestingly, Jay suggests that B2B publishing will become a service business to B2B pros, providing value directly to individuals and organizations. Static content is dying very quickly. This is the point of the analysis from this great media organization.
SWMS ‘Sound Thinking’ Topics: Literacy Rate, Ad Trends
November 9, 2025
America can’t read anymore. The good news: advertisers can advertise against different kinds of emotion in the copy. So even if the numbers of readers drop, there are more ways to attract ads. So perhaps the bad news will get cancelled out by the good. Sam Whitmore and David Strom discuss.
Xania Rockets Up the Charts
September 22, 2025
Can you imagine not needing to be a human being to be a superstar? You may remember Max Headroom. There’s plenty of examples of technology personas, but AI is a different world altogether. Is there a tech media angle to this item? Not really, but here she is — Xania.
BI, Wired Tricked By AI Freelance ‘Author’
August 21, 2025
This is a must-read article about both Business Insider and Wired being tricked by a phony freelance reporter writing phony stories. If BI and Wired can be fooled, everybody can be fooled.
SWMS ‘Sound Thinking’: David Strom on AI
July 21, 2025
Veteran tech journalist David Strom is working with a couple of AI developers to understand exactly the nature of his writing as it has unfolded over the years. In this edition of Sound Thinking, David shares his learnings and where everything might go.