It’s been true for years: Tier 1 loves to craft “can they do it?” stories. Some PR pros avoid pitching “can they do it” stories because “what if they can’t?” Why encourage a reporter to think that the company might come up short?
It’s one thing to know that Fortune reporter Jane Thier writes CEO profiles, and quite another to know the ingredients. We analyzed the 12 CEO/founder profiles Jane produced so far this year — and asked Anthropic’s Claude 3 to do the same.
Forbes this week began accepting applications for this year’s Cloud 100 List as well as the accompanying Cloud 100 Rising Stars list, which focuses on private cloud startups with less than $25 million in funding.
For most tech PR pros, the Financial Times isn’t top-of-mind. That may change. Last month the FT expanded its San Francisco-based bureau to “deepen its coverage of technology companies, venture capital and the intersection of money and technology.”
Just for fun, try creating the story pitch after the story is written. We did that this week, using generative AI. We pasted an already-published story into each of three GenAI tools and asked it to write a compelling PR pitch based on that article.
It’s 2026. You’ve got a new job, earning $250K a year as “VP, Pitch Analytics.” You’ve got a modest budget to retain freelance tech reporters. You manage an intern.
You need to be logged in to view this content. Please Log In. Not a Member? Join Us
Who does John Kell write for again? Fortune? Fast Company? Business Insider? Well, all of them. John might have to rein things in starting this week, however, once he starts producing Fortune’s new CIO Intelligence newsletter.
Is TikTok worth the attention of tech PR pros? Based on fresh SWMS research, the answer is no, not really.
What exactly is Tier 1 publishing on TikTok, and is it pitchable? So few PR pros know because when they do find themselves on TikTok, they are probably not visiting, say, The Economist.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
Should PR pros stop visiting X, with all its lies and hate? It’s only going to get worse. Or are tidbits from targets too important to walk away from? Click here to watch tech edit vet David Strom and I disagree (at high speed) about this, as one compelling visual after another pops up on your screen. In 2025, SWMS will officially launch “SWMS Sound Thinking,” designed to be “argumentative insight in six minutes or less.” Each segment will explore a timely and controversial topic of interest to tech comms pros. This prototype runs 5:25. Hope you enjoy it — feedback vital and welcome! –Sam
New EIC Jamie Heller has asked her reporters to start going on camera — for the BI TikTok channel — to explain the big, deep-divey story they just published. Other publications do this — especially archival Fortune. BI is now on that too. Game on.
At this time last year, Eric Newcomer and his two podcast co-hosts — Max Child and James Wilsterman — each formed an “AI startup fantasy team” and picked five AI startups to seed their rosters. We’re now in year 2 and it’s time to draft again. The podcasters wonder… which startups do they dump? Which do they add? The player whose startups accumulate the most total value by Nov. 1, 2028 is the winner, so there’s plenty of time to make adjustments. Here’s a link to the AI fantasy team podcast — you may need a password. Not sure.
This timeless explainer — a powerful blend of visuals and text — will explain the psychology of how we read, as in, how does the mind actually work? Hats off to Message Labs, the producer.
Ars Technica recently filed this revealing piece on how the NYT uses gen AI to analyze gargantuan transcripts, ones that would overwhelm mere mortals. The results still need to be reviewed by humans, but the grunt analysis is done by the LLM. Investigative reporting becomes easier. Journalism is served.
It was announced long ago, but on Nov, 26 we learn whether TechTarget stockholders want to join forces with Informa and its legion of IT media brands, not least of which is Industry Dive. It will be hard to imagine a rival of equal power, with IDG/Foundry now a shadow of its former self. IDG/Foundry’s lack of investment and focus on cost-cutting will look unwise if TechTarget and Informa do merge.
