Christopher Mims isn’t your typical Tier 1 columnist. Chris reports his theses. Coming from a science background, he surrounds his opinions with lots of evidence — much of it empirical. Given the challenges associated with pitching someone like Chris, it might be best to think of him as a proxy for all of “Tier 1.”
Few topics captivate reporters more than the future. SWMS this week studied the past two “The Future of Everything” reports in the WSJ — and a dozen stories in Fast Company’s The Shape of Tomorrow section — to identify pitch approaches that might work for you.
Are you struggling to interest Tier 1 reporters in lesser-known clients? So is Jason Calacanis. The former journalist and well-known investor and podcaster sounded off Jul. 7 to CNBC’s Jon Fortt and two other hosts about the trouble he and other VCs have had in breaking through — especially to the New York Times.
Fast Company technology editor Harry McCracken sheds light on newsgathering at physical and virtual events, and changes in FC edit coverage brought on by Covid and other factors. Interview was conducted July 2020.
Barron’s associate editor Eric Savitz weighs in on virtual events — those from Barron’s and others — and what it might take for them to succeed. One thing is for sure, Eric says: “People are trying to make them work.”
The top ten companies gracing this year’s CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list received scant Tier 1 coverage during the previous 12 months. Based on SWMS research, the coverage that companies did receive was overwhelmingly from verticals. We did see three flattering profiles, worth deconstructing to see the elements they required.
If it wasn’t before, Fast Company’s Work Life section became perfectly positioned when legions of readers began working where they lived and living where they worked. “I will say what our editor-in-chief, Stephanie Mehta, has said about Work Life, which is, it’s table stakes for us,” says deputy editor Kathleen (Kate) Davis.
Our subscribers long have sought Tier 1 coverage, but these days there’s an urgency like never before. As part of this week’s SWMS Tier 1 deep-dive, we explore some fascinating numbers from SimilarWeb. Read on for eye-openers that will change the way you think about the edit landscape.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
Former NYT reporter and Google Cloud EIC Quentin Hardy also interviewed Eric Savitz about his career and move to GM. Good reading.
The UK-based newsletter company called Trending Now uses AI to scrape what’s trending across 27 areas of B2B. Press Gazette has additional detail. The company employs ten, none of whom are journalists (by traditional definition).
The full union membership needs to ratify it on July 24, but it looks like no editors can be laid off or suffer a salary cut if the publication goes big in its use of generative AI. More detail here from Neiman.
Goldman Sachs took 32 pages to say pretty much that. The media business may turn out to be an outlier, an industry perfectly suited to synthetic, multilingual words, sounds and images at scale. As for everyone else, well, the global consultancies will learn the truth first because they have rushed to monetize Gen AI — they aren’t yet succeeding.
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