Perhaps you saw our Nov. 30 analysis of narrative story formulas that continually appear in Tier 1. The idea would be for PR pros to contour their story pitches to fit one of these formulas, since publications are writing these kinds of stories anyway.
Ten years ago last month, we published a list of narrative story formulas that often showed up in Tier 1 publications. Our research back then determined that a small number of edit formulas provided structure for a large number of pitchable, high share-of-voice feature stories.
“The Future of Work” affects every industry and every company. Top edit brands swarm for insights and scramble for an edge. So where are all the tech PR victories — the big hits?
Sponsored content is a tool in the toolbox. Considering the expense, it’s smart to know exactly what one hopes to accomplish with it, and that it’s the right tool for the job. To that end, our sponsored content deep-dive spotted five prominent themes/purposes in 2021.
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.”
The following is an analysis of nine recent pieces by WSJ technology columnist Chris Mims, comprising headline and deck and experts quoted.
Most in-house PR pros crave lengthy Tier 1 narratives focused only on their company. Agencies want them focused on the lucrative client. Mock-ups can help. Why not write — at length — the story you envision? We did just that for a subscriber and here’s what we learned.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
Another scoop from Sara Fischer at Axios: Refinery29 is “taking over” B2C event brand Beautycon, among the most successful F2F events in the beauty space. The idea is to augment the R29 brand and make the title less vulnerable to a weak advertising market.
It’s dangerous to publish content that antagonizes the powerful.
Nic will stay on as editor-at-large.
That BI announced no successor implies that this situation has a life of its own, and is not under Axel Springer’s full control.
Quoted by the UK-based Press Gazette, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson said, “Courtship is preferable to courtrooms – we are wooing not suing. But let’s be clear, in my view those who are repurposing our content without approval are stealing.”
The Gen AI titans are currently paying publishers between $1M and $5M a year to train their LLMs on publishers’ content, the Press Gazette reports.
While the NYT pursues its suit against OpenAI, the Financial Times has chosen to license its content to help OpenAI train current and future LLMs. The NYT seems to be on the wrong side of this issue, with the Associated Press and Axel Springer also choosing to see OpenAI as a source of income, rather than an enemy.
Here’s the opposing view, from Press Gazette’s Dominic Young, who advises publishers to play a game of chicken with OpenAI and its LLM competitors.
… and it has no problem disclosing how. Reporters still run the joint, but they are getting AI assistance.
The Atlantic’s Karen Hao, in conjunction with the Pulitzer Center, is designing a course in AI for journalists. Classes begin next month. Details here. Might be something to alert your friendlies about. Karen hopes to help train 1,000 journalists in AI over the next two years.
