Category: Scatterbox

2010 Denver PR Predictions – Steven Silvers

~ Jeremy Story ~ 2 Comments

By Steven Silvers
Principal, GBSM

A key theme in 2010 will be information command and control:

Millions of people will stop using free social media services as they realize that those revenue-hungry companies are giving or selling access to their profiles, posts, pics and friends lists.

Court cases will reaffirm that employee use of social media during working hours is not protected speech, adding to intense monitoring and far more stringent policies by employers.

“Agenda media” will continue to grow as more formerly ad-supported news outlets become funded by interest groups, politically leaning foundations, single corporations and even government.

Public interest and watchdog groups will try to put teeth on the FTC’s new rules requiring full transparency in all marketing, promotion and publicity.

Andrew Hudson Sparks Debate with ‘Newspaper Tax’ Proposal

~ Jeremy Story ~ Leave a comment

Andrew Hudson is out this week with a not-so-modest proposal to enact a Newspaper Tax to “to subsidize the operations of statewide and local newspapers.” To Andrew, propping up newspapers that are important to communities is no different than subsidies that have propped up Denver’s symphony, opera, public transportation system and NFL team. To get the dissenting opinion, check out the blog post from GBSM’s Steve Silvers, who argues that “the potential closing of the Rocky Mountain News represents the market-driven loss of a delivery product, not the wholesale elimination of news and journalism.”