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Our 2021 Predictions Turned Out… Sorta…
One year ago we fielded eight predictions for 2021. How did we do? Not great, honestly. Let’s look at each.
One year ago we fielded eight predictions for 2021. How did we do? Not great, honestly. Let’s look at each.
In an SWMS spot check, journalists weigh in on whether CES 2022 is now safe to attend and worth attending, now that show organizers announced that all attendees will need to prove they are vaccinated against Covid-19.
Whoever thought this would ever be a beat? Well, strictly spreaking it’s not a beat but part of a broader swath of territory patrolled by journalists covering the path forward from the catastrophe that is Covid-19. Here’s a short list of those who are covering apps that will help detect infection.
As the Covid-19 crisis moves well into its second month, we’ve noticed a dwindling number of new story approaches to try. Roundups, with their low-payoff SOV, still rule, especially in B2B. This week did spot a few emerging approaches — pretty much special reports — but still providing paths for most tech companies and agencies.
[PR pro Amanda Orr writes:] Like much of the country, communications teams both in-house and at PR firms have been in a holding pattern. As we look at the Johns Hopkins tracker on a daily basis, watching the numbers of infections and fatalities climb, we knew (at least I hope most of us knew) that this wasn’t the time to send emails or make cold calls…
Last week we polled B2B contributed content gatekeepers, nearly all of whom wanted the same kinds of pitches they received before the Covid-19 nightmare. Our research echoed what we heard last month from reporters and editors.
“Pitch the reporters but study the analysts” has been our mantra for a while now. In that spirit, we recently checked in with Constellation Research founder R “Ray” Wang, who has been busy presenting to clients — and listening to them, too.
David Strom says: “My inbox is overflowing with a virus: all Covid, all the time, with pitches and experts offered from all walks of life. It isn’t just the infosec vendors, either: I’ve gotten pitches from genealogy vendors, and how sports reporters are coping now that there are no professional games being played.”
With few exceptions, contributed content gatekeepers are operating the way they always did before Covid-19 — serving the readers who buy products, manage teams and have projects to deliver. Here’s what nine of them said this week.
Last week at this time we saw strategic content from levels high above the reporter level, on “What will it take to get past this coronavirus thing?” Here’s what’s coming this week, and how you can get a piece of it.
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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