Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Edward Snowden: Was his motivation fame?

Who doesn't want fame?  But for most of us it's out of reach.  Not so for a tech wizard.  So, Edward Snowden was not being grandiose when he boasted of his tech abilities and how in demand he was.  As THE NEW YORK TIMES chronicles, this seemingly unambitious man was quite ambitious.

If we trust how THE NEW YORK TIMES fits the pieces together, then we can't help but speculate that Snowden released all that data to the media as a means of becoming a household name.  He succeeded.  Until the end of time he will be famous or infamous, depending on a point of view. 

But handing over data could be simply the first step in his quest for fame.  If he defects to China, he could be a key architect of China's intelligence system.  That could get him a leadership position in government.  One of the U.S. presidents could be across from Snowden, negotiating a cyber agreement.

Given the opportunity, what would we trade for fame?

IBM Cutting 6,000 to 8,000: Tech not pretty place to be

The first female Chief Executive Officer at IBM Virginia Rometty is overseeing a massive layoff.  When it's over 6,000 to 8,000 of the total workforce will be gone, reports BUSINESS INSIDER.  In response to missing Wall Street earnings estimates for the last quarter, Rometty told leaders and employees to step up their game.

What this shows is how both competitive and volatile the tech sector is. When I was primarily ghostwriting and speechwriting for more traditional industries I longed to get in on the action.  Then I did get in. I felt unhinged. 

Just meeting with the players wore me out.  For example, they put the knock on TECH CRUNCH, contending they had a more accurate and insightful take on what was going on.  Funny, I had felt up on things since I checked out TECH CRUNCH every morning.

After this bloodbath at IBM, those of us who are making a good living in mundane areas like the credit card and legal industries might thank the universe.  Last night was the first one I have slept okay in the seven weeks I have been ghostwriting a book for a Millennial entrepreneur.  It's almost done.  During the process I had more anxiety attacks than I have had during my own professional career.  Tech may be glam.  But it isn't pretty.

Edward Snowden Is Everyman IT Employee: Corporate America freaking out

For a cause, profit, spite, or simple curiosity, just about any IT employee in Corporate America could pull what Edward Snowden did.  That has the American business sector freaking out, reports POLITICO. As it well should be.  In this digital era of data, sensitive information is there.  It's highly probable that there are going to be lots more "shocking" tales of data-pilfering, for any variety of reasons.

PBS "Newshour" Shutting Down 2 Offices, Laying off

Among elite consumers of news, PBS "Newshour" has been top-drawer.  Yet, it is as vulnerable to funding (in this case from corporations) and new technologies as any other media outlet.  POLITICO reports that it is shutting down its Denver and San Francisco offices and mostly everyone employed in them will be given the ax.  In addition there will be production positions eliminated in the Virginia facilities.  More of that work will be done by freelancers.  Maybe one lesson here is to go freelance.  Our options are more in number and more flexible.

James Somers: Not just web developers in demand

There are other ways to make the big money other than being a techie.  BUSINESS INSIDER profiles James Somers, web developer, who gushes about how much he is in demand.  But so are other professionals.  Take us ghostwriters.  Last month I made more money than I ever had previously for any month as a ghostwriter. 

Markets change.  If we change with it, the money is there.  There was a black patch when the demand was for content for social media.  First of all that didn't pay very much.  Secondly, it quickly got crowded.  Then some of us who were alert noticed that both influencers and marketers wouldn't get the results they hoped for only by leveraging social media.  They also needed all those traditional tactics like opinion-editorials and being quoted in mainstream media, books both print and e-, keynote speeches at trade associations and TED, newsletters, and just being there playing golf but with a cool elevator speech.

So, we ghostwriters who had social media down cold knew how to pitch the others kinds of add-ons.  Only we aren't a sexy profession to profile, not like tech folks. WORTH, however, did do an article on how the big money can find and manage ghostwriters.

Vladimir Putin: Will he go online to date?

With their announcement of his coming divorce from Lyudmila, Vladimir Putin becomes one of the world's most eligible bachelors.  Now we're all waiting to hear if he will join a few dating sites to find his next wife.  A guy in public office needs a hostess and the whole thing works better if she is married to him.  If he picks a few online dating services the publicity will give them a big boost.

Zynga: Tech isn't fun and games either

Zynga's Q2 numbers are supposed to show a loss between $39 million and $28.5 million, reports TECH CRUNCH.  The world already knows that about 18% or 520 workers have been laid off.  The game maker is between web and mobile.  Will it make it there, as has Facebook?

Perhaps the wistful thinking "If only I had been in tech" is beginning to end among non-techies who have laid off or lost clients/customers. They had the illusion of some kind of security through digital.  The bloodbath at Zynga shows that no sector is insulated from creative destruction.

It took ghostwriting for tech entrepreneurs to recognize that I sure don't want to switch places with those digital innovators.  Volatility is an understatement. They can make millions. They can also lose millions. Someone copying their technology or a new technology can wipe them out.  So could regulations and a lawsuit.

Is being in tech sexy and other lines of work not?  Chastened by what I have experienced as the metabolism of the tech crowd, I've accepted that I am just not cool.

Those THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Opinion-Editorials - Killed off by YouTube Advocacy Videos?

Will we ghostwriters be penning fewer opinion-editorials (op-eds) for brandname media like THE WALL STREET JOURNAL?  Instead we could be putting together scripts for online videos in which the speaker argues a point and a social-media expert helps those go viral on YouTube.  Sure seems like that's the direction advocacy is moving in.

Today in THE NEW YORK TIMES, Frank Bruni published the piece titled "Who Needs Reporters?" He explains how instead of giving press conferences or an exclusive to a member of the media, Michele Bachmann and Anthony Weiner said what they had to say via online video.  Of course, one channel of distribution was YouTube.  Hillary Clinton used the same public relations tactic when she endorsed same-sex marriage - late in the game.

With this direct outreach through online video, influentials would no longer be at the mercy of editors.  If they are clever about both how they frame their message and how they distribute it digitally, they become their very own THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Inc.  That means that we ghostwriters have to beef up our scripting credentials.  Then we have to let the influentials know we know how to have their message resonate on the web and mobile.

It's a new day in executive communications.

 

Getting Out of Social Media: My big break (in ghostwriting) at age 68

It took getting out of playing in the social media sandbox to get back in the action - both the big bucks and networking with big names. 

An executive coach, a psychic, and a guiding zen teacher all had told me: Where you are is glutted.  They were talking about creating cool content for the web.  I listened.  I re-built my credentials and contacts in ghostwriting and speechwriting.  After a few months it was like old times, before I had lusted after being part of the Gawker and Huffington Post crowd. 

So, when I answered an ad for a freelance ghostwriter for a Boston entrepreneur I approached from a position of strength.  I was back.  I even demanded, when they requested I drive to Boston and interview, they pay the $32 parking fee.  They said yes.  Not trying too hard, I landed the assignment.  Regularly I go to Boston.  

At age 68, and none of the Millennial entrepreneurs in this circle I deal with seem to notice, I am part of the crowd reshaping the technology and marketing of just about everything.  Today the client called me, as I was re-writing the book from scratch to make it sound more like a wildly successful 29-year-old-something, and told me he also wanted me for other assignments. My neighbor observed, "This is your big break."  Yeah, I thought, it is. 

Lesson: Listen to wise people.  Forget being old.  Never pay for your own parking.  

Video, Not Photography, Is What Readers Want - Sun-Times Media layoffs

Those in the visual arts might have figured they were sitting pretty, at least relatively.  After all, both the web and mobile have become the platform for photos and video.  Well, for Sun-Times Media, only the video is creating value.  AP reports that this media property is laying off all photographers, saying readers prefer video content.

Will this become a trend, putting photographers out on the street, along with journalists? Working in media is sexy. But it's becoming increasingly uncertain.