Washington Post

June 24, 2015 by Marc Hausman

Queasy Unease About Best Places to Work

One winner trumpets after hours roof top yoga. Another corrals staffers each month for an evening of board games. Still another whisks employees away on a cruise.

The just released list of 150 top workplaces by the Washington Post is an eclectic group of companies, associations and non-profits that have taken steps to make employee satisfaction a priority. I was thrilled to see a number of long-standing Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) clients included in the ranks.

Yet, as I read through the myriad of health, wellness, convenience and culture creation perks offered by those recognized an uncomfortable realization set in. The criteria used by the media like the Washington Post, Fortune and others to bestow this sort of recognition is both dated and misguided.

Nearly every benefit touted is designed to keep an employee in the office under the pretense of productivity, culture and collaboration.

While on-site dry cleaning, foosball fun and charity-inspired 10K runs can be attractive to some, for me – a parent of three sons under the age of 12 – it merely adds up to missed family time. I decided long ago at Strategic that was unacceptable.

I’m not the only one. Last year the CEO of a technology start-up called MongoDB that has raised more than $200M in venture capital resigned to spend more time with his family. The blog post he penned about his decision caused waves in a community defined by a hard charging mentality.

“The United States is arguably struggling to adjust to the realities of modern family life more than any other affluent country,” New York Times columnist Claire Cain Miller wrote at the time. “Many workers today – blue-collar and white-collar alike – believe they must choose between career and family.”

All of us at Strategic are passionate about Web2Sales, committed to innovation and absolutely focused on the success of our clients. Yet, the very DNA of our business celebrates family, and encourages personal growth and fulfillment.

I love what I do…just not as much as I love this crazy crew.

March 5, 2014 by Marc Hausman

Washington Post’s Weymouth Talks the Business of News

Washington Post’s Weymouth expects a patient Bezos. (Photo source: MediaBistro)

When Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos consummated the deal to acquire the Washington Post last August there should have been a cascade of cheers from the newsroom.

No longer bound by the shackles of shareholder expectations thrust upon a public company, the newspaper’s executive management will have more flexibility to invest in the journalists who produce the content. Bezos bought the Post to continue its mission, rather than score a dramatic financial return.

Of course, I find it ironic the source of Bezos’ wealth (online commerce) played a lead role in the slow and painful demise of the traditional publishing business model, which was based on the frothy profits of classified advertising.

So, what can we expect from the Washington Post under Bezos’ ownership?

That was one of the questions posed to publisher Katharine Weymouth in this exclusive Q&A published by the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG). Here is a comment from Weymouth I found particularly telling:

Jeff Bezos has a track record of great patience, has proven himself to have a long-term vision and an obsessive focus on the consumer. With his vision and ideas, we will build The Washington Post for generations to come.

February 24, 2013 by Marc Hausman

Media Disruption Creates Opps for Forward Thinkers

I have written extensively about the ongoing shift in influence from traditional sources of credibility such as the business and trade media, to the conversations and dialogue that define social networks.

As user time, engagement and interaction move to online communities, advertisers have redirected their marketing spend to social and mobile environments.

The economics of this shift have and will continue to disrupt the business models and stability of publishers, broadcasters and conference organizers and others. I’ve included below two news items recently published by Capitol Communicator.

Although painful, the decision to restructure employee headcount and re-set content creation priorities is absolutely necessary for media organizations to remain viable.

Of course, this then creates an opportunity for forward-thinking vendors to step into the gap as a source of high-quality, exceptional thought leadership content.

Time Inc., Cuts Nearly 500 Jobs. »

Time Inc., the publisher of magazines including Time and Sports Illustrated, has begun eliminating about 6% of its head count — nearly 500 jobs — in the biggest round of cuts at the company since 2008, reports AdAge. The AdAge report added that as a result of “ongoing changes in our industry, we must continue to transform our company into one that is leaner, more nimble and more innately multi-platform,” CEO Laura Lang said in a memo to employees. “To make this change, we need to operate as smartly and efficiently as possible to create room for critical investments and new initiatives. These reductions are part of this important transformation process.”

Washington Post Axes At Least 40 Employees. »

The Washington Post has laid off at least 40 employees on the business side, including its mobile department, reports POLITICO. According to POLITICO, the layoffs, first reported by FishbowlDC, which put the number at 54, come as the Post tries to restructure amid ongoing declines in advertising and circulation.

June 5, 2012 by Marc Hausman

Media Void Presents Opportunity for Forward Thinkers

Times Picayune Newspaper — A grim future for newspapers.

After 17 years as a journalist at one of the most respected, award winning daily newspapers in the country it was time for him to take the buy-out. This was the fourth offer in 36 months and management made it clear the next set of editorial staff cuts won’t be optional.

So…he accepted a year’s worth of pay and was gone in two weeks, replaced by a writer 18 months fresh out of journalism school.

I sat down with this long-time contact for an hour last month as he wanted my insight into career opportunities in corporate communications, public relations and social media. His preference, of course, would be to remain a journalist. That’s no longer an option for most.

About the same time his former employer began to cull its editorial ranks, I penned a blog post about the sustained shift in influence from traditional sources of information and credibility to the conversations that define social networks and online communities. I followed that up with an “Open Letter to the Unemployed Journalist,” a post that generated a rather passionate reader response.

This decline of advertising-supported media as a viable business model continues to accelerate. It consumed trade publishers and has now set its fangs into more mainstream, news editorial operations.

Consider the announcement last month that The Times-Picayune in New Orleans was scaling back its print edition from daily to three times a week. Within hours, The Birmingham News, The Press-Register of Mobile and The Huntsville Times followed suit.

Market shifts create opportunity for forward-thinking companies. There’s an information void and by embracing a role akin to a quality trade publisher a company can absolutely garner audience, build credibility and, when appropriate, cultivate sales leads.

This demands a commitment to producing insightful, thought leadership and best practices content, rather than the marketing-speak and PR junk that most organizations sludge out through their corporate blogs.

Examples of exceptional corporate publishing programs:

Pitney Bowes Software – Engage Today

Kapersky Labs – ThreatPost

Polycom – Federal Unified Communications

Full disclosure: my firm – Strategic Communications Group – developed Engage Today and Federal Unified Communications.

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Washington Post’s Weymouth Talks the Business of News

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