The hook
Uniques per month - www.wsj.com 700,000 paid subs to WSJ.com. Readership of the US print edition: 2.1 million.
Innovation
Today’s CIOs are not only expected to execute on their regular duties, but also must contribute ideas and projects that drive revenue. As a result, Laurianne and company at CIO Magazine are focusing on innovation. “It’s a big theme we’re hearing from the audience this year, and we are working hard to produce stories around that issue.”
The priority for Jim is ensuring that the reviews approach brings a full enterprise focus to the product.
The Beat
It's a monster: (web authoring and development tools, multimedia development, document and content management, portals and knowledge management, browsers, commerce and B2B applications, application servers, web servers, general labs questions) but Jim points out that most of the bullet items on the list aren't constantly being released. "It's part of the job. You have to get the product in and get it tested." He also adds that with such a senior team he relies on them to tell what what products are interesting and recommends PR pros go directly to them on products in their area of expertise.
Microsoft's reviled video on Windows 7 party planning begged a question no critic bothered to address: what is good video?
A good video uses real people. Do you want editors writing favorably about your video? Use real people.
Why Hollywood?
"Hollywood is a good example of how most established industries react to technology; they're kind of slow to adopt them," he says. The topic is front and center on his radar for a book project he's working on. Plus, "It's fun." He's privy to film festivals and movie premiers: "you see the movie and then the director or the star is there to talk to you about it afterward."
He gets around:
Michael's been with the Journal for 13 years, spending much of it (seven years) in the Texas regional office before moving to be editor of the California edition in 2000. When the regional editions were rolled up, he moved to the tech reports. In that capacity he plans and edits the tech reports for the year, fielding story ideas from reporters as well as coming up with some on his own. He also does some reporting, but as an editor first he doesn't write a lot. In last 12 months Michael's written only 16 times and says "that's a good number for me -- I couldn't stand to write less."
(a free service of Techdirt Corporate Intelligence)
July 2006
Techdirt has been around since before the word "blog" existed. Now it is home for 12 -- a mixture of writers, tech folks, sales and marketing
Private research
The core of Techdirt's business today is private research - customized, detailed corporate intelligence reports. Mike explains it this way: "insightful, opinionated posts on competitive areas including the tech market, and legal trends, up-to-date in a quick, insightful manner that lets them do their job and be more intelligent about what they do every day." They have three dozen clients, most Fortune 500. Among those willing to go on the record are Volkswagen and Verisign.
Show me the money
Obviously, a $5 magazine won't take all of the credit for making anyone smarter or richer. Dennis does believe, however, that Forbes shows the readers "people who got smarter or richer" and offers "enlightenment." The main intention is to inform the reader about wealth and how to get it.