Archive for October, 2007
BoomerCafé Goes Home
BoomerCafé — the online magazine for baby boomers with active lifestyles — has gone back home to its own place on the Internet. We had it parked for a while at Typepad but there’s nothing as good as a designated URL. Former ABC newsman Greg Dobbs (he’s now on HDNet) and I launched BoomerCafé in [...]
America’s Ill-Informed
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Americans are “woefully ill-informed,” despite the Internet. The research compared the level of awareness about current events in 1989 with now.
Croatian Press
Many thanks to my friend, Ksenija Oletić, at the PR firm of SPEM in Zagreb, Croatia for sending this press clipping from my recent consulting visit with communications professionals in the country. Newspaper coverage of David’s appearance in Croatia.
MPG – Us & Them
Congress is debating legislation to increase motor vehicle gas mileage standards in the U.S. to 35 MPG. That’s no big deal in my book. This past August, while on vacation in Germany and Switzerland, we rented an Audi S3 from Hertz and got 44 MPG! It’s a fabulous car, by the way, and available in [...]
The Cheapening of the Word, “Hero”
Not too long ago, “Hero” was once defined as, “a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities.” Things have now changed. The word “hero” has been so overused and manipulated in recent years that it has reached the level of becoming trivialized. After September 11, 2001, [...]
Airbus vs. Boeing
A friend, who was head of communications in the U.S. for Airbus for many years, shared a stunning fact — in 1987, 20 years ago, there were only six or seven Airbus jetliners in the U.S. Today, Airbus commands about 65 to 70 percent of the U.S. market. While Boeing, which historically has made fabulous [...]
Secret Apples
I find Apple‘s corporate culture to be so amazing and seamless, what little I know of it. Everything the company does signals unprecedented innovation and quality. Most impressive is the company’s ability to keep a secret. For example, when is the new operating system going to be released? The company does not announce specific release [...]
The Bubble
A good friend, who is on an extended holiday in Tuscany, expresses his concern in an email today over the weakness of the dollar in Europe and whether the U.S. stock market’s recent escalation is merely another bubble that could burst. The dollar is at its weakest level certainly in my memory — $2.03 [...]
MSNBC Redefines TV News
Forget the tired old formats of The Today Show or Good Morning America. Check out Morning Joe on MSNBC, a fresh, hip and contemporary approach to morning talk/news TV. In the evening, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann presents an intelligent and frank perspective on the day’s events. Only problem is that Olbermann is on the air at [...]
HD Radio and Struggling Traditional Radio
There’s no question about the explosion in popularity of high definition television. But high definition (HD) radio?! That’s another story. HD radio nationwide is struggling, with fewer than 100,000 radios sold and most of those to radio stations to give away. What’s going on? As consumers switch to the wide spectrum of music and information [...]
