Analysis/Cheat Sheet: Getting Beyond the Grief of the Layoffs
June 8, 2025
12:03 pm
In 1991, back when I was running PC Week, I once flew to New York to meet to with the big boss, Ziff-Davis CEO Eric Hippeau.
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Cheat Sheet: Reporters Who Cover Funding News
June 3, 2025
11:58 am
Below are 23 reporters known to cover funding news. The idea behind this cheat sheet is to capture the core group. To do this, we sometimes had to include more than one reporter per publication.
Cheat Sheet: Customer Success Podcasts
February 11, 2025
6:26 am
Here’s a baker’s dozen’s worth of podcasts focused on customer success. Included are podcasts from Forrester and vendor Intercom — those may not be overly pitchable. The rest probably are.
SWMS ‘Sound Thinking’: Analytics In the Newsroom
February 7, 2025
2:04 pm
Watch and listen as SWMS contributing editor David Strom discusses with Sam Whitmore his analytics experiences at CSO Online and elsewhere. Hear why analytics are both useless and valuable, and be ready to jump on the one thing all passionate PR pros should do upon completing this breezy, under-ten-minute video podcast.
Cheat Sheet: Substack Cybersecurity Targets
February 3, 2025
12:27 pm
Here’s a cheat sheet with ten authors of cybersecurity newsletters on Substack. All are men, and few are Americans.
Cheat Sheet: Substack AI Newsletters
January 23, 2025
5:44 am
Here’s an updated cheat sheet with 11 Substack newsletters focused on AI. The selection comprises a combo of analysis-driven work from experts, and newsletters that blend original work with ICYMI links to “AI news of the week.”
Cheat Sheet: Substack Fintech Newsletters
January 21, 2025
8:36 am
Substack is producing a fair amount of talented fintech experts; here’s a cheat sheet with eight of them, with contact info and more.
Cheat Sheet: Data Privacy Reporters
January 20, 2025
1:13 pm
Below are the names of 16 reporters — mostly from the trades — who regularly cover issues of data privacy. Their articles run the gamut from politics, to law, to breaches, to VC funding of startups in the data privacy space.
Cheat Sheet: DC-based Cybersecurity Targets
January 9, 2025
9:39 am
This revision of a June 2023 cheat sheet doubles the number of cybersecurity targets based in the Washington, DC area — from 13 to 26. You’ll find multiple reporters from a single publication only if they write frequently.
Cheat Sheet: Targets Who Cover AI-Powered Search
December 18, 2024
3:26 pm
Back in the late 1980s, Computerworld employed an Internet reporter. That’s right — one reporter to cover every aspect of the Internet. That’s the way it became with the AI beat.
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FRIDGE NOTES
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.
Catch Up on SDxCentral
July 20, 2025
It’s been tough to keep track of SDxCentral this year, with the sale… management moves… Here’s a podcast and an article that will help you catch up.. thank you, Ben, for the assistance.
Layoffs at Informa Techtarget
July 18, 2025
Newly merged TechTarget and Informa this month laid off 10 percent of their employees. Check out the euphemism in the 8-K: “[the] net reduction [will be] up to approximately 10% of the Company’s current global colleague base.” That just beats all, doesn’t it?
BI Lets You Advertise Against Emotion
July 13, 2025
Using NLP software, Business Insider assesses how readers will react to its content emotionally, and then sells advertising based on that info. For example, an advertiser can choose to advertise against a story (or video) that makes you feel good or optimistic or pessimistic. This is where content is headed; and this trend may someday affect the way that you pitch.