To honor a life, it is essential to get the details right–and to do it well. And, you only get one crack at it.
Category Archives: News Industry
Blago: ever the victim.
Twenty summers ago, on a warm mid-July night, my wife, Bridgett, and I ambled out of a Chicago bar. Sauntering toward the corner, we passed an older gentleman sweeping the sidewalk. On the fire escape directly above us, a woman gazed at us with a deep melancholy. And all around were scores of people, each […]
Gallons of ink, mostly cyber-based, have already been spilled. More will surely flow. This is in the wake of recent events on the campus of my alma mater, Northwestern University—events set in motion by an on-campus speech last week by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to a group of Republican students. From what I […]
What? Who? When? Where? Why? How? In simple terms, those questions drive story-telling. Beyond the “what?”–which obviously covers a lot of essential ground–the most vital question to answer is “why?” Tackling the “why” of something that has happened or is happening requires expertise and insight and nuance and, yes, even sticking out your neck with […]
I began inhaling Sports Illustrated cover-to-cover when I was 10 years old, after my dad hooked me up with a subscription for my historic double-digit birthday. It was summer on the South Shore of Boston, my beloved Red Sox were miles ahead in the American League East, and the cover of my inaugural issue featured a […]
Do you have the gift of gab? It’s actually a trick question–because it’s not a gift at all, but a series of choices. The biggest one is to choose to put your focus on others rather than yourself. Professional, ethical, effective journalists cannot write with long gazes into their navels. They must seek input from other […]
“The problem with most news releases: they mimic other news releases—which fall far short of furthering organizational goals.” That was my closing remark in an email last week to a senior executive with a company that appears to be kicking butt in business. Alas, it is struggling to communicate its rapid growth–and the reasons behind […]
It’s an inspiring and humbling thing to be providing public relations and media relations support for the Guinness World Record Attempt: Living Donor Rally on Saturday, April 21st at Millennium Park in Chicago. Through contacts I have made in myriad media markets around the United States–all after gathering information from organ donors who are attending […]