Companies spend a lot of time talking about their brand(s). But to most journalists the word is meaningless. The word both groups are really thinking about is reputation, as that captures its true importance, since it’s the hardest asset to build up and the easiest to lose. Think of it that way and you’ll understand better about how seriously … Read more
Why do journalists not cover some stories — even massive ones — and can they be persuaded to? I’m writing about the UK’s Post Office scandal elsewhere, but for this column on How Journalists Think, I wanted to explore why most UK journalists ignored the country’s biggest ever case of legal injustice for nearly 20 … Read more
Sponsored content on big media name platforms is not what you think it is. Increasingly, companies are paying well-known journalism brands to produce and host sponsored content. The deal is this: you pay a big name media platform to write something nice about you and they put it on their website. If you squint you … Read more
This piece was written for the BBC World Service’s Business Daily. This year is going to be an interesting one, but in technology it’s going to be particularly so. Social media is going to see some reverses, as users start to wake up to the compromises they make in sharing information with companies, governments and … Read more
This is what it looks like when I (top line) interview someone who is chatty. Barely get a word in edgeways.