Media, Sex and Spin - My Top 10 Blogs

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It was a year ago tomorrow that I posted my first blog. 49 others followed, resulting in around 60,000 words being written. I hope you've enjoyed my thoughts on the media, social media, communication and presentation skills.

 

Thanks to Google Analytics, I'm able to clearly see which blogs have been the most popular, based on the number of readers. While there are several factors that determine what gets read and what doesn't, it's pretty interesting to see the ones you read the most.

Without further ado, here's the countdown of the most popular blogs from the last year.

#10 - Four Things You Need to Know About Reporters (February 1, 2017)

Dealing with reporters is a mystery to many people. Some think reporters are just out to get them, while others believe they can always get a list of questions from reporters just for asking. Neither is true. This blog had a couple of other tips for people doing media interviews and tried to clear up confusion people have about reporters and the news media.

#9 - 4 More Things to Make You a Better Speaker (July 20, 2016)

One of the problems with writing a blog every week is that you need to write a blog every week. It’s not easy at times, especially when you’re on holidays. I wrote a two-part blog last July on public speaking tips and this was the second one that ran while I was on holidays. The first one finished in the #4 position, proving once again the sequel is rarely better than the original.

#8 - Powerful Photos Will Make Your PowerPoint Pop (]une 8, 2016)

This was the third blog I wrote and it hit on a key point I feel strongly about. I’ve seen so many bad images used in presentations, including clip art, that I wonder if we’re caught in a time machine and it’s 1994 again. There are some great free image websites, so there’s no reason to use anything other than stunning ones. I use Unsplash and rarely can’t find a photo that works.

 

#7 - 5 Reasons You Need Media Training (June 15, 2016)

One week later, this blog also made the Top 10. I’ve been doing media training for close to a decade and most people think the reason organizations do media training is so their people can speak properly to the news media when called upon. That’s true, but there are other reasons too that have nothing to do with answering questions from reporters effectively.

#6 - 4 Hard Lessons Learned From the United PR Meltdown (April 19, 2017)

A little over a week after the United Airlines pr disaster, I wrote this blog about some of the lessons learned from the incident. I also included a video of the interview I did on Bloomberg North TV with host Pat Kiernan. Pat and I worked together at 96 K-Lite Radio in the late 1980’s where I was News and Public Affairs Director. Pat, who’s been at NY1 in New York for several years, has reportedly done slightly better than me since we worked together.

#5 - Online Media Training - (June 22, 2016)

Last June I recorded, edited and started promoting a media training video series. It’s a series of five videos that run a little less than 90 minutes in total. It’s really a solid product. For just $97, I provide many of the same tips my corporate clients get in their much more expensive media training sessions. The great thing about the series is that you can watch the videos at a time that works best for you and you can pause whenever you need to take a break.

 

#4 - The 4 Things to Make You a Better Speaker (July 13, 2016)

This was the other half of the two-part series that ran when I was on holidays last summer with my wife Deborah in the Maritimes. When I do presentation skills training, I work on getting people to talk to their audiences instead of reading to them and using their slide presentation to guide them through their talk. While it’s not an easy skill to master, most people who speak in public from time to time aren’t that far away from being able to do it with a little practice. It works far better than reading a speech, without trying to sound as though you’re not actually reading it.

#3 - The Fine Line That Divides Truth and Alternative Facts (February 8, 2017)

I wasn’t surprised to see this blog do well because it was written just after Trump’s White House consultant Kellyanne Conway told a TV interview that the President was using “alternative facts” when he discussed an issue. The blog looked at the thin line between the truth, spin, and lies. It also gave some advice for any media spokesperson of how to handle questions from the media without the need to resort to “alternative facts”.

#2 - Why the Daryl Katz Story Made the Edmonton Media Uncomfortable (April 12, 2017)

Just as the regular season of the Edmonton Oilers was coming to a close, a story broke in Variety.com about a lawsuit that had dragged the owner of the Oilers Daryl Katz into the spotlight. Although he wasn’t part of the lawsuit, court documents allege he propositioned Brazilian TV star and model Greice Santo. The blog asked why the story was never covered by Edmonton’s daily newspapers, the Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Sun and most other news outlets only gave it a quick mention. By the way, there’s been no update on that story. Anyone know what’s happened in the last two months? Seems like an easy follow-up for the media (he asked sarcastically).

#1 - My Divorce From the Edmonton Journal (October 5, 2016)

This was clearly my #1 blog with over 2,200 reads in two days  and an interview on CBC Radio in Edmonton about it. Last October I decided not to renew my print subscription to the Edmonton Journal after reading it for over 50 years, and talked about the reasons why. The blog obviously struck a cord with many others in the same situation. Some of the reasons for my decision related to the cutbacks at the paper because of the Postmedia merger, while others are connected to changes in technology and there’s nothing any newspaper can do about that. Fast forward to today and I’m now used to using the online Journal subscription each morning on my iPad. Life goes on.