It’s interesting that in recent weeks, I have had calls from friends who do communications and PR at various companies and organizations to seek my counsel on what seems to be increased emphasis on attempting to generate results from communications tactics after the fact, with little or no advance strategic planning. That’s a sure sign of program failure and waste of resources, in my view.

In all cases, the root problem has been an attorney dictating outcomes rather than advance planning … most likely because they have no idea about the process of advance strategic planning. Well, here’s a headline for those attorneys:

Meaningful and tangible results – whether in a communications program or building a bridge over a river – require advance strategic planning.

Objectives … clear strategies to achieve each objectives … and tactics to support each strategy. Such strategic planning is generally not taught in law schools.

The focus of communications work must be concentrated strategically on objectives, strategic thinking and actual work rather than getting lost in the weeds of trying to make excuses afterward. But, what my friends are saying is that the opposite is happening … primary emphasis on generating reports and justifications after the fact.

I am hearing the words, “task dictated,” with respect to communications programs. It’s jargon that no one is quite sure what it means.

One friend said that it was suggested that her department get a newspaper clipping service. I hadn’t heard anything like that in about ten or 15 years! She said one of the lawyers thought it would be a good idea. Guess the attorneys were not aware that approximately 30 percent of America’s newspapers have disappeared in the last 8 years or that an online digital revolution has profoundly changed how we interact and communicate, rendering clipping services obsolete.

Here is some contract language for you, taken from an actual “communications contract” drafted by a lawyer:

“Project Narratives
For all projects completed under this Agreement, Contractor must provide a narrative detailing the scope of the project, specific details of the project and the outcome of the project. Any documentation produced for such a project must be attached to the narrative. By way of illustrative example, if Contractor creates a news story or commissions an editorial or blog, Contractor must attach a copy of the article, a copy of reports showing the article’s distribution any other document(s) relevant to the project.”

Such language in my opinion does not demonstrate vision or an intelligent approach for using communications in a positive and meaningful way to enact profound change. Quite the contrary – it is a recipe for program failure, negative impact on brand image and waste of valuable resources.

Here was a newspaper that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 publishing a partisan political opinion piece in the #1 priority news slot, the right column, on the front page above the fold. What’s more, the “analysis” had come from the Associated Press as opposed to being written by the paper. I had never before seen such an error in American newspaper journalism. I guess a lot has happened since they won the prize in 2009.

Glens Falls, NY, Post Star - October 31, 2011

The real news of the day – a record-setting snow storm that had swept through much of New England – and, Glens Falls – and had left millions without power and cold was relegated to the bottom of the front page. The story was buried.

There is a reason newspapers like the Glens Falls Post Star have merely six (6) pages, including one full page ad, in their “A” sections – they, like many other newspapers and TV news, are in a continuing, steady state of economic decline. Much of it is self-inflicted. Many if not most experienced editors and reporters are gone, replaced by much younger people straight out of journalism school or interns who will work cheap. They lack the experience to know any better. They often don’t know who their audiences are.

Trust is another reason for the decline in mainstream news media. Many people do not trust the media and believe coverage is biased. Media bias is one big subjective can of worms, in my opinion.

Politicians and captains of business frequently knock the “liberal media” when stories they attempt to plant don’t come out as planned or when they don’t agree with something that’s printed or broadcast. Liberal media is a tired, outdated and very inaccurate thing for anyone to say. The label is often and unfairly slapped on legitimate, researched and balanced reporting.  We are seeing less and less of that kind of journalism, unfortunately.

There is no question but that media bias exists and has existed for years. But media inexperience today overshadows bias, in my view.

Mainstream news media – ranging from the Post Star to the Washington Post, from NPR to Fox News – is largely staffed by junior level people or interns who struggle with a heap of work. Lacking credentials and experience, they make mistakes. Most of the mid-level editors – the real stewards of accuracy – are gone. Mainstream media is in constant staff cutback mode.

The label “liberal media” is often baseless and a cop out, in my opinion. It’s an overused tactic to distract attention and an excuse for a politician or business person to not take responsibility. On the other hand, if they were to start using “Inexperienced and mistake prone media,” I would say that’s more accurate. Who knows? That might shock mainstream media into burnishing its once-great standards.

[ADDED INFORMATION] After writing this piece, Post Star Editor Ken Tingley called my attention to a blog posting he did yesterday on the paper’s website. I can only assume it was in response to others asking, “what the heck are you doing?!”

Here is his blog posting and a link:

Over the years, we in the newspaper game have had to make allowances that our print product only comes out once a day.

Often, significant news will break early in the day. By the time the newspaper hits the doorstep the next day, the news will sometimes be 24 hours old. In those instances, we often run a different type of story – an analysis.

An analysis is exactly what you would think. It is a “what it all means” story and puts the news in perspective regarding what might happen next.

Sometimes we will run an analysis even though we have not run the main news story. Or sometimes we run the analysis on the front page and refer to the main story on an inside page.

With 24/7 news cycles, poststar.com is the place where we can compete on breaking news and more and more you will see print products being used to explain the news and give it context.

This morning we ran an analysis on what issues Republican presidential candidates have been talking about and whether their solutions have any merit.

The Associated Press writer quotes experts who found that most of the solutions did not have merit on the key issues. What I sometimes hear when we run an analysis is that a partisan reader believes the analysis is partisan, like a commentary.

But that is not the case.

We also try to run “fact check” stories whenever we can for the same reason.

It is all part of how the print product continues to be a viable source of information.

Ken Tingley

Tingley’s blog posting raises more questions than it answers, I believe.

• Why was an “analysis” piece run in the #1 news slot position?
• Does he know, personally, the AP writer and the competence level of that person?
• Did his staff feel the massive snow storm story was less significant?
• Why the need to run an analysis piece rather than news on the front page?
• Why did he feel the need to blog about running the piece?
• Was he motivated into writing the blog piece by reader complaints and questions?

Customers, vendors, clients, shareholders and others only care about the value … the benefit … of your services and products to them, to their lives. Anything else is just irrelevant noise.

About us gained popularity in the late 1990s when start-up tech companies – with no services or products to sell – started using press releases as marketing flyers. They had nothing better to do. So, they used news releases to tout all the grand things about their companies … that did not actually exist. The “about us” boilerplate in press releases was born.

What started out as the use of contrived or phony news to promote what was often a falsehood at some hype-oriented “air-ware” tech company has mushroomed into a mainstream bad habit at companies and organizations, large and small, diminishing any potential importance of news in news releases.

Think about it … do you really care “about” XYZ Corporation or do you only have time to possibly be interested in how their products or services might help your own business or lifestyle … the value to you? In today’s information overload environment, we tend to tune-out and dismiss those people who talk about themselves.

Not long ago, I asked a senior communications person at the corporate headquarters of JCPenney – an iconic company in American business for more than 100 years – why they included an “About jcpenney” on each of their news releases. I asked, “Don’t you think everyone in America already knows of your company?” He laughed (with embarrassment) and said it started because JCPenney’s competitor Target did it. They just copied what Target did.

Not to pick on JCPenney, because it’s a fine company, but here is their 123-word “About us” boilerplate:

About jcpenney

jcpenney, one of America’s leading retailers, operates over 1,100 department stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as one of the largest apparel and home furnishing sites on the Internet, jcp.com. Serving more than half of America’s families each year, jcpenney offers a wide array of private, exclusive and national brands which reflect the Company’s vision to be America’s shopping destination for discovering great styles at compelling prices. Traded as “JCP” on the New York Stock Exchange, the $17.6 billion retailer is transforming its organization to support its Long Range Plan strategies to build a sustainable, profitable enterprise that serves its customers, engages its associates and rewards its shareholders. For more information, visit www.jcpenney.net.

It’s all just corporate gobbledygook. How about saying, “To learn more about our company, visit www.jcpenney.net.”

What’s worse is that is sounds like many other “about us” statements of other companies. Who cares?!

Competitive differentiation, distinctive awareness and leadership comes from communicating in clear and simple words why audiences will benefit from your products and services. That’s called “news.”

Steve Jobs once said:

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Jobs was one of us. He was a baby boomer, just like the past few presidents, Bill Gates, and many other leaders in the digital era and captains of industry … and just like many of us, in some respects.

Let us not forget that America’s largest demographic group – baby boomers – has reshaped the country for better or worse. But Jobs was different. He was unlike any of his peers in technology or corporate America.

While others in technology were and still are caught up in the machinations of tech stuff, Jobs knew that the only thing that really mattered was how we might perceive and value his innovations. He dreamed, questioned, challenged himself and others … and gave the country and the world good things intended to bring value to our lives.

Jobs said, “A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

Many of us learned of his passing on one of his technology devices.

Jobs grew up in the pop culture of the San Francisco area and was shaped by the free-thinking liberalism dominant there in the 60s and 70s. He dated Joan Baez, tried LSD and kept emotional ties to the period in which he grew up. Viewed as a corporate outsider, he built Apple in the reflection of his unconventionality.

Jobs became wealthy through his inventions, ownership of Apple, Disney and Pixar. Yet, in today’s world defined by corporate greed and corruption, Jobs was again different. He focused on the idea of “taste.” It was a word he used often. Jobs crafted his genius and lasting legacy through the distinctive simplicity, elegance and taste he insisted on in every Apple product. And, his focus has changed the world for the better.

Addressing a graduating class at Stanford in 2005, Jobs seemed to foresee his own destiny:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

Today’s executives value unique business initiatives that deliver competitive advantages and meaningful results.

Unfortunately, many of the techniques of traditional public relations, marketing, communications and advertising have not changed in decades and are considerably less effective in the digital era. I’ve known many executives to view those traditional techniques as expense items, not assets for their companies.

That is one explanation for the growing and considerable interest in the technique of what is being called “brand journalism” – both in the U.S. and Europe – as a means to connect with audiences, broaden awareness and build trust in corporate brands.
Stated simply, brand journalism helps to create a timely competitive edge through the appeal of real news and corporate storytelling, created by professional journalists. It is an effective model for managing how a company, issue, image or brand is perceived and talked about.

Brand journalism is a refined and contemporary new approach to communications for a company or organization in today’s noisy and crowded world of traditional marketing. It creates clear distinction for what you have to say.

Using the credible principles and standards of journalism and legitimate news, brand journalism is particularly effective online through interactive news sites similar in appearance and style to websites of any other respected news source. Enhanced by news-style photos and video, audiences can easily recognize unique value.

While the original concept of brand journalism was spawned by forward-looking marketing experts some years ago, it is today neither a marketing discipline nor associated with PR. It is not about the traditional style of pushing out announcements, promotions or press releases that seldom get any attention.

I describe brand journalism as a seamless triangle of interaction and engagement that merges journalism, strategic communications and online technology in order to connect people … audiences.

The pillars of journalism – facts, openness, balance and transparency – work together with the core elements of strategic communications – visionary planning, research, clear messages and defined purpose. This chemistry becomes powerful when utilizing the vast spectrum of online communications tools that we have, just a click away on our computers.

At a time when the mainstream news media is struggling to maintain profitability and viability around the world — challenged by the spectrum of new resources for news and information-sharing offered by the Internet — brand journalism gives companies the ability to tell their own stories credibly, transparently and accurately.

Trust in what a company says has never been more important. After all, customers and consumers make buying decisions based somewhat on how a company behaves and what it says. Brand journalism gives an organization the power to manage its news through credible storytelling and clear, no-frills news writing — regardless of what other online voices may be saying.
Is contemporary brand journalism proven and successful as a business technique? Yes, absolutely.

In working together with a variety of companies and organizations, my company has found that brand journalism helps key audiences to better understand the value of products and services. Interestingly, we are often engaged by companies after traditional and more expensive PR and marketing attempts have failed.

What once was envisioned for marketing now creates unique differentiation, competitive positioning, leadership, and tangible return on investment for companies and organizations. Brand journalism is a valuable asset for companies that genuinely embrace the immediacy of the digital era and want to manage their own news … and, their own brand image.

Brand journalism today, I believe, defines who will stand in the spotlight of awareness and distinction and who will choose to remain in the shadows.

My column was originally published by Cincom’s Expert Access in the U.S. and LEADERS Magazine in Europe.

[Repost of an article I wrote for the January/February 2010 issue of IABC Communication World]

Strategic planning, storytelling and clear messages have always worked to point us forward. They will do so in the digital era too.

Today’s digitally-driven information revolution is creating a new-world business matrix and model. Organizations large and small are finding they can simply bypass mainstream media to communicate their news, in their way, directly and effectively, to their publics. They can pick their media: Web sites, blogs, YouTube videos, and online sharing and social networking sites.

This communications tsunami is rolling our way and many of us are not sure what to do. We see the tide going out fast and far. But standing on the beach and waiting for it to roar back in is not an option.

So how do we get to high ground that’s well above the communications storm surge?

Let’s begin with the latest hot and sexy new trend in digital communications: social media. Today’s self-proclaimed disciples of social media preach about the need to get onboard the bandwagon, and wax rhapsodic about the features, functions and benefits of various technological bells and whistles.

But few possess the expertise to authentically exploit the medium by incorporating strategic planning or skillfully developed messages into this new communications juggernaut.

Even fewer extol the importance of telling an appealing story.

In communications, the tactical use of social media for social media’s sake can be terribly shallow and short-sighted.

This digital era is unquestionably the most exciting period of my career as a journalist and strategic communications advisor. But as an early adapter of online and blog technology, I believe it’s only going to work for us on a sustained basis when we stop long enough to embrace the core elements of effective strategic communications to drive any social media or online communications initiative.

Strategic planning, storytelling and clarity of messages have always worked like a beacon to point us forward. They will do so in the digital era, too.

Today’s online social media is just another in a long line of tactical communications delivery tools that stretches back to storytelling around the tribal fire, epic poems, parchment, books, postal mail, the fax machine and email. In fact, think back to when email first hit the big time. Pundits predicted world-shaking possibilities. Nobody predicted spam.

Brooke Gladstone of National Public Radio’s “On the Media” program says, “Journalists are taught to talk and write in human terms. Tell me a story.” We are all part of a storytelling culture in America. It’s been that way forever, and it’s no different in countries, cultures and communities around the world. We share infinite variety of stories about the human experience, and often the best stories are repeated over and over.

Even though an opportunity often missed by a PR industry seemingly obsessed with traditional press releases and predictable promotions, the use of storytelling cuts through competitive clutter far more effectively and with greater influence than anything else in an organization’s marketing or PR arsenal. It gets to the heart of what’s special about your organization and what you have to say.

My colleague Anne Bell at PBS NewsHour says it best: “A great story has legs that in today’s world can travel many miles per hour.” Consider how a great story can sprint the globe today in a nanosecond.

We are living in a communications world where new and not-so-new tools collide, merge and morph, all with the intent to better connect with audiences. To do that, we must use all these advanced technologies to do something ancient: tell stories that people want to hear and be motivated to share.

How do we make it work to break old habits, take advantage of new technologies, tell good stories and reach jaded audiences? How about relooking at the concept of an online newsroom?

Online Newsroom: No Longer Hiding in Plain Sight

In a demonstration of true counter-intuition, the typical online newsroom is usually the last place any self-respecting reporter or site visitor wants to go. Traffic numbers confirm it. It’s typically lifeless, dull, and more like the burial spot for press releases, speeches and legal-sounding statements than a relevant, active spot for timely, hot and meaningful news. Some newsrooms even require a journalist to fill out an online form and then wait for a response, which may take hours for approval … if ever. While it may be convenient for internal communications people, such a procedure can cause delay and frustration for a reporter on deadline.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

A lively online newsroom can be the perfect place for a smart company to strategically position its expertise and experience prominently online; to be clearly heard and stand out in all the right ways; and to manage the conversation around its image and reputation in timely and relevant ways.

The hard part is expressing a corporate voice above the noise of the marketplace, where often people much less qualified — but far more vocal — shout out their opinions into mainstream and online social media. The sheer speed, volume and rapid dissemination of information — right or wrong — can inundate communications and sway public opinion.

To have a meaningful conversation online, a company needs to do the following:

• Articulate clear points of view on the things that it cares about the most.
• Identify its own compelling voices of experts and champions — in and outside the organization — to tell compelling stories to advance its case and strengthen its market position.
• Create ever-evolving public platforms and forums where it can consistently and frequently showcase its views, along with other respected industry experts and thought leaders.
• Support and complement the organization’s overarching strategic initiatives.
• Create a forum for openly sharing comments, generating a conversation and listening.

It’s a bold step for any organization to cast aside old tactics, like press releases, to get attention. That’s why it’s essential for a company to take charge of telling its own stories with appeal and credibility to its audiences. For starters, a company or organization must avoid the compulsion to sell or promote, because it no longer works in the online environment.

For example, the Los Angeles Kings hockey club didn’t believe it was getting enough coverage in the dwindling local mainstream newspapers. As a result, the team’s owner decided to launch an online news blog, LAKingsInsider.com, and hired a seasoned sports reporter, Rich Hammond, to write stories. The spotlight of attention quickly shifted to the Kings when both The New York Times and National Public Radio did stories about this new approach to making news in the digital era.

A company must also realize that its “Googleability,” and the news that appears about it on page one of any search engine, will help drive its perceived believability.

That’s one of the reasons why the team at News Group Net LLC (of which I am owner), developed a groundbreaking online newsroom for the Imperial Sugar Company (ISC). The goal: focus on delivering legitimate and timely news about the company and the global sugar industry.

Case in point: When an explosion and resulting fires temporarily closed Imperial Sugar Company’s large sugar refinery at Port Wentworth, Georgia, in February 2008, many news stories and images of the incident appeared in mainstream and online media, including at Google and other search engines. Those reports about fire, death and tragedy continued to show up on the first pages of search engines for months, even though much of the information was sorely outdated.

The online newsroom went online in June 2009, and delivered the latest news about Imperial Sugar Company rebuilding its refinery, resumption of sugar production, business expansion and other relevant stories about business and community involvement. By positioning Imperial Sugar Company as an authoritative voice in the sugar industry, the Google headlines gradually moved from disaster-related stories to more positive news about employees, products, customers, business partners and industry analysts.

It took a few months, but the result is the most popular online site in the sugar industry and has dramatically improved the company’s image and reputation with employees, investors and the marketplace.

It worked … and continues to works today … because the stories are what people want to read and to share.

Incidentally, both LAKingsInsider.com and ISCNewsroom.com are online newsrooms built on blog-turned-news-delivery technology … just like the news sites of NYTimes.com, WSJ.com and PEOPLE.com.

It’s About the Bedrock of Strategic Communications

So, let me pull this together … Storytelling conveys personality that everyone can identify with, and it can lead to transformational leadership that energizes all levels and corners of an organization. Used in the online environment, storytelling can reflect passion, uniqueness and immediateness.

The discipline of storytelling used with a dynamic, interactive online newsroom can energize (or reenergize) any business or organization. It becomes woven into the fabric, stimulates excitement and understanding of vision, builds consensus of purpose, and triggers sharing far and wide.

In today’s online world, the influence and payoff of good corporate storytelling can be staggeringly powerful.

One great, timely story on an active and credible corporate newsroom smoothly cuts across all boundaries to achieve a common purpose in an organization’s daily conversations:

• Shareholder/financial communications
• Internal communications
• Web sites, blogs, social media
• Media relations and external relations
• Government and regulator relations
• New business development

People like to share good news, so give them a story that they will get excited about and tell someone else. Increased media coverage, enhanced word of mouth and greater awareness all build exponentially from a great story that is carried by many legs.

Stories are the bedrock of interaction, building blocks of knowledge, the foundation of memory and learning. Stories connect us with our humanness and link past, present and future by teaching us to anticipate the possible consequences of our actions. Stories help define what is authentically special about something or someone.

Propelled by today’s engaging digital communications tools, a good story will be carried — credibly and influentially — by many voices and travel many, many miles.

Here is an excerpt of the story on Ragan.com by reporter Russell Working – “How an online newsroom helps Imperial Sugar enhance its message … Website uses a more journalistic style in covering itself, its employees and the industry.”

Imperial is a $1.2 billion company that provides 16 percent of the U.S. sugar supply, and no doubt it has the means to find any bullhorn it chooses to urge you to stir more sugar into your latte. But it has embraced a model that is being hailed by advocates as “brand journalism.”

John C. Sheptor, Imperial Sugar Company's CEO

Imperial is reaching out to contemporary consumers who get most of their news about the industry by typing words into a search window.

“If you’re going to proactively influence what stakeholders think and believe about you,” says CEO John Sheptor, “then you need to communicate with them in the places where they’re receiving information.”

Different from traditional website

The newsroom differs from Imperial’s traditional website, which offers what you might expect: coupons, recipes for pralines and lemon meringue pie, the history of the company—which dates back to before Texas was a state.

But the newsroom seeks to be an information source for the industry. It focuses on production in the U.S. and Mexico, where Imperial does its business, but also posts stories relating to areas beyond its market reach. Imperial sells only cane sugar, but it has covered sugar beets and discusses news from as far away as China.

The Imperial newsroom has drawn praise from Andy Briscoe, president and CEO of the Washington-based Sugar Association, a trade group. He calls the site unique, adding that it’s good for both producers and consumers.

Journalist Russell Working of Ragan.com.

The company’s decision to create a newsroom was indirectly related to a series of explosions that killed 14 workers in the Imperial Sugar manufacturing facility in Port Wentworth, Ga., in 2008. When a tragic event occurs, misinformation abounds and a company takes a hit in its reputation, Sheptor says. Imperial was looking at ways to improve communication.

Sheptor called on David Henderson, CEO of News Strategies, to create his website. Henderson, who has been promoting brand journalism in the United States and in Europe, advocates communication that is transparent and makes use of storytelling techniques rather than press releases.

“You have nothing to fear with putting the good and the bad out,” Henderson says, “because you never have the opportunity to control through brand journalism or PR or strategic communications or anything else. You do have a better opportunity to manage perceptions and brand image by credibly presenting both sides.”

Read the full story by Russell Working at Ragan.com – click here.

Audiences – clients, customers, business partners, vendors and others – can immediately see why your company or organization is a smart choice.

Apple's co-founder and leader Steve Jobs.

Today’s challenge – as any experienced marketer or brand manager knows – is how to achieve brand distinction that results in increased value and tangible results. Distinction is a straight line to brand leadership in the minds of key stakeholders, particularly customers.

The best example, as I have written here before, is Apple. People know the value of Apple products to themselves because of the consistent ability of company co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs to explain how any Apple product or service will enrich your life, make you more creative and successful.

He uses the storytelling impact of brand journalism. His style has worked brilliantly to build Apple into a global giant and position himself as one of the most envied business leaders on the planet. Jobs doesn’t talk about the stuff inside an iPad, iPhone or computer but rather focuses on how the products solve your needs. The model works.

Brand journalism is not PR. It’s not about pushing out announcements, promotions or press releases which is the outdated style of PR, even today. And, it’s certainly not talking about yourself.

Brand journalism is the model for communicating value … and why people will benefit from your services and products. The method is through the credibility and influence of  legitimate news stories.

What’s worse, mainstream media finds itself driven by inane features about Kim Kardashian and Sarah Palin, ignoring to a shocking level what’s really happening in our nation and the world, ranging from a fragile economy still on the ropes and crumbling infrastructure of the nation to deplorable human rights atrocities in Africa. There are atrocities in the U.S., as well, that the media usually turns a blind eye toward.

Good reporting: Kira Kay and Jason Maloney of the Bureau for International Reporting

Meaningful and significant news issues are often complex, most often requiring more time than 16 second soundbites and more skills, accomplishments and knowledge than you get from a would-be actor who ends up reading TV news, despite having good hair.

The average TV reporters might be more skilled in theatrics but they are no authentic journalist. Many lack contacts, curiosity and reporting skills. Most never ask the significant question … why?

I must point out a few exceptions – PBS NewsHour, Frontline, HDNet’s “World Report” and “Dan Rather Reports,” and freelance investigative reporting work by Kira Kay, Jason Maloney and their Bureau for International Reporting are outstanding and meaningful.

The rest of America’s mainstream news media is living in a retirement home. It’s been dozing and is awakening to find itself trivialized and in a much different and fast-evolving new media world.

Did you know that the format for most TV news has not changed in about 50 years? It’s true. NPR’s news format hasn’t changed much since the 1970s. Mainstream news has made itself old-age despite technology.

So, let me try to help out mainstream news with a list of stories I think should be covered:

BP's oil spill claims fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg defends the slowness of his process.

1. Kenneth Feinberg – the guy is making $10-million a year to process claims of people whose lives were turned upside-down by the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He’s got a cool three-year contract. $30-million, guaranteed. No wonder the claims process is shamefully slow and cumbersome. No wonder people along the Gulf coast are suffering. Feinberg’s got no incentive to get things solved. Why?
2. The Lincoln Group – How did a British salesman and a former U.S. Marine non-commissioned officer in procurement end up landing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military public relations contracts in Iraq? They had no public relations or communications experience. I wonder … is that called, war profiteering? At one point, I know they asked a major PR agency in Washington to instruct them in the basics of PR but were turned down. I also know that real and professional PR agencies bid on the contracts only to see The Lincoln Group get the business, time after time, often sending interns to the Middle East. With so many legitimately qualified PR agencies, why were they were awarded the lucrative contracts?
3. Level Orange – The U.S. has been at terror threat Level Orange since August 10, 2006. Orange is the next to the highest threat level. It has seemingly become permanent or at least Homeland Security has printed bunches of signs suggesting it is permanent. Why?
4. Complacent society – I grew up in the generation that took to the streets in mostly peaceful demonstrations against America’s Vietnam involvement. Why are people so complacent today? Loads of people are frustrated and angry … and they may have good reasons. Why, then, do they just go shopping?
5. TSA or Transportation Security Administration – Have you ever wondered, as have I, where they get those people who work at airport security? What are the standards? How come top members of Congress, like John Boehner, simply are escorted around airport security, leaving all of us to stand in line, shoes off? I’ve seen TSA workers at Washington National Airport sneak past checkpoints, too. I can show you the sliding glass door they use. So much for effective security …

For me, it’s come down to this … Most of the characters in what is today called, “the news media,” lack curiosity. They don’t ask, “How come…?”

I trust the news that comedian Jon Stewart reports far more than I believe anything reported by CNN, Fox and the mainstream networks … and Stewart doesn’t even have to leave his New York studio to do a better job. And, “The Washington Post?” It’s fallen to “once was” status through poor leadership.

In this New Year, let me share a Top 10 list of the best tools and resources that my firm - News Strategies™ – uses for timely communication of news for our clients in the digital era:

1. Best writing style – news style, guided by the AP Stylebook. News style writing – literally the opposite of writing style for PR, promotion and marketing – jumps out and engages audience attention through the mutual human connection of storytelling and sharing of real news. Of course, it takes the skill of having worked in the news business to master the techniques of news writing.
2. Best online platform – WordPress is the world’s most powerful, versatile, popular, search engine friendly and social media-effective online platform to develop and manage online sites. We at News Strategies™ build all news sites for our clients on WordPress.
3. Best site developers for WordPress – Solostream.com. We’ve worked with these guys for years. They are the friendliest, most talented and reliable team of online site developers I’ve found, never missing a deadline.
4. Best online hosting – Hostgator pro services.
5. Best laptop for managing online communications – MacBook Air 13-inch.  Any Mac is outstanding for managing online news sites but the new MacBook Air, weighing about a mere 1 1/2 pounds, is the best all-around computer for doing everything from updating online news sites to editing video and tweaking images. I recommend always buying Apple computers from Apple.
6. Best video cameras for online work – Whether for online HD video and providing client news video to broadcast and cable news networks, we use Panasonic’s AG-HMC40 that delivers stunning video. Video is often only as good as the audio so we use Sennheiser broadcast-quality wireless microphones.
7. Best digital cameras for online work – Canon G12 or S95. These highly rated cameras capture stunning news-style images for online news sites, especially when shot in professional RAW format.
8. Best and most reliable supplier of high quality video, photo and computer equipment – B&H Photo/Video. They can’t be beat.
9. Best live online news aggregator service – EIN’s News Feed Maker service is excellent for licensed real-time news about an industry or specific topic.
10. Best online news consulting team for corporations and organizations – of course, the magic happens when skilled people make it happen. I believe my team at News Strategies™ is certainly the most accomplished, experienced and has the track record for developing and managing authentic, real-time news sites that quickly build visibility, drive social media and enhance brand image for corporations and organizations.

What I have written may sound a bit technical to many people … but this is where the practice of strategic communications is today. It’s no longer about press releases and a traditional bag of tricks. These are the new tools of communication in the highly competitive online/mobile/wireless/handheld world. This is the way it is … now.

I hope that’s helpful … and wish you the very best in this New Year.