Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Your Story - Think Outside the Book

Daily I answer my phone and there is this little voice at the other end.  The person has a story to tell and needs a ghostwriter.  Now I cut right to the chase: Ghostwriting services are expensive.  Silence.  Usually this person with the great story isn't comfortable with or experienced in writing.  Given that disconnect between them and the traditional medium of the book, this potential storyteller doesn't think outside the book.

"I never met Tim Russert, but that didn't matter - I loved him," Marsha Keeffer

This tribute comes from Marsha Keefer, a public-relations giant in Silicon Valley:

"I loved Tim Russert.  I never met him, but that didn't matter - I loved him.

"In times when truth seemed hard to find, he unearthed it.  He was unafraid of the tough questions.  If you were in public life over the past decade and Tim didn't interview you, you probably didn't count.

Tim Russert - Did he die of a broken heart

I was still pondering the message of "Happening" when I turned on the Internet.  There it was: Tim Russert had died.  Here was this commentator from nowhere who became our everyman.  Through his eyes we saw the world.  And that world, like the one in "Happening," was a disturbing one.  Perhaps Tim Russert saw too much and perhaps he died of a broken heart. 

Princess Bea & The Bikini - Indeed a Weighty Issue

Prince Andrew's daughter Princess Bea is, like her father, built big. The Princess was caught by the tabloids having a good time in the water.  Unfortunately for her, she was in her itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini.  Maybe it was the camera or the particular pose but her big built thundered through.  This weighty issue is not about weight per se or even the appropriateness of a bikini on a full-figured girl.  The issue is that Princess Bea is 19 years old.  In the U.S. the media were hands-off on First-Daughter Chelsea until she was of the age of majority.

Bonnie "Next" Fuller Moving On to New Next

We should all be curious about what's the new next for Bonnie "Next" Fuller.  No surprise, she's leaving - her own choice, she claims - American Media.  Since she took that tabloid gig the gossip category has become not only glutted.  Free digital sites such as TMZ.COM provide dirt in real time and we don't have to pony up a few bucks in the supermarket for our once-fave rag.  Her attempt to bring STAR upscale and charge more was badly time.  Whatever.

Print Diva Tina Brown - Can She Make Splash online?

The differences between print and online media are both subtle and not so subtle.  Many bigfoots in old media are floundering in new media because they can't or won't pick up on these differences.  Yeah, they are the Resistniks.  Will print diva Tina Brown be able to beat these odds and make a splash online?  As Keith J. Kelly reports in the NEW YORK POST, Brown is in the beginnings of a web venture.

Convergence - Talking about Social Media, So Yesterday

Social or new media proved such a useful advocacy and marketing tool that almost overnight that media went from early adopter to mature.  Its power has been absorbed into the communications and selling mix.  So, anyone who's still talking about "social media" is probably out of the loop.  The whole thing converged into a standard business solution.

Queen Elizabeth aka The Firm Turns to YouTube

In "The Diana Chronicles," Tina Brown zeroed in on how vulnerable the institution of The Royals aka The Firm is to changing times, economic downturns and a population who finally becomes bored with the dysfunctions of the Windsors and their spouses and ex-spouse.

Always alert to threats to the family business, Queen Elizabeth has embraced new media.

New York Times Co. will continue revenue declines, predicts Jon Fine

As the "New York Times Co. continues to stonewall the current media environment," observes BUSINESS WEEK's Jon Fine, its revenues will continue to decline throughout 2008.  The only good news Fine sees ahead for that media operation is that the decline will eventually happen less quickly.

The New York Times Co. just sent out layoff notices.  But, what continues to amaze all us watchers is that the leadership isn't alarmed.  Rather the contrary.  It seems intent to stay the course.

Oprah, Imus, Even Blogger Me - The Media's Scary Power

Comic Chris Rock, after insulting Gayle King with his stand-up act, spotted Oprah's BFF storming out.  He quipped and it was no joke this time, "I'm sorry! [to King as she exited] If y'all don't see me again, Oprah did it!" Now back on the air, Imus will get those who hadn't supported him during the "ho" crisis. And even with my two syndicated blogs - here's the other - people ask me for favors and fear my displeasure.

We decry the Bush Administration's power.  But the media may even have more since with digital technology, there are billions of members of the media.