It's Tuesday: The Problem of Speaking Plainly - Issue #69
The very first time I encountered someone using a large amount of “business speak” (Or “Corporate Speak” or "Business Jargon") in a meeting was shortly before the single copy side of the magazine business started to fall apart. The industry at that time was shifting from first generation family owned businesses with a sales oriented background to second and third generation larger scale businesses that wanted to look more "professional" to their retail customers. This was often accomplished by hiring people who'd previously worked for national retail chains in buying or marketing positions. Although in one odd instance, I encountered a new employee who managed the distribution department and had previously worked as an accountant for Dunn and Bradstreet.
But in the first time I bumped into the jargon, the speaker was explaining that he was looking to “synergize” operations between companies. He wanted to “front load” releases...and on and on and on. It was a very long, one sided conversation and my guess is that I cocked my head and stared wall-eyed across the desk at my host and wondered why I hadn’t bothered to learn this language before.
For me, this was the beginning of a long and sometimes tortured relationship with the users of business speak. Sometimes I find it really funny. Other times, well, let's just say I have to turn off the video on my side of the Zoom meeting.
Why don’t you just say what you mean? Speak plainly. You're not "downsizing" or "rightsizing" staff. You're firing people.
“Let’s resurface that memo and see if we can get the parade going,” someone recently said to me in "corporate."
Translation: “I know you sent that memo out six months ago and nothing has happened, so can you please try to dig it out, send it to everyone again, and see if we can make something happen this time?”
“We’re going to have to decide which cars to park and which cars to drive,” I once heard someone say in "corporate."
Translation: It's budget time and we're probably going to cut everything you value about this operation and slowly ease you out the door. Too bad.
Lately the news has been full of discussions about the state of the economy and the growing potential for layoffs in the tech segment. So I thought the first article this week could be of interest.
Are you a "Go Forward?" I certainly hope so.
1___Are you a "Go Forward"? The NY Times explains
What Is a ‘Go-Forward’ Employee? - The New York Times — www.nytimes.com The term, which has slipped into the vernacular, refers to workers who will keep their jobs as opposed to those who will be laid off.
In the past, I mostly heard the business speak term with regards to what your potential for promotions and raises were. But here in the third decade of the 21st century, it now seems to just mean, am I going to keep my job.
Progress.
2___The rebirth of magazines
The rebirth of magazines - by Brian Morrissey — therebooting.substack.com Look beyond the print question
Brian Morrissey gives a thoughtful and in-depth review of how many magazine publishers have adjusted to the digital and AI driven age and what the future could hold for print magazines.
Pay attention to the next to last paragraph. In it, Morrissey discusses how magazines will no longer be “built around ads” and points to publications like Racquet and Gossamer that have expanded the depth of what they offer their readers to how newsletters and live events like Pop-Up Magazine and Airmail meld live events and newsletter experiences as the key elements of what they offer their readers.
3___Twitter is losing it. Is that sad?
Exclusive: Twitter is losing its most active users, internal documents show | Reuters — www.reuters.com The heaviest tweeters, vital to its business, have been in "absolute decline" since the pandemic began, an internal researcher wrote. It underscores a challenge for Elon Musk.
Yeah, to me it is kind of sad. What I always liked about Twitter was that you really could make some interesting connections if you used it in a research(y) kind of way. Early on when I started to use the platform I would do keyword searches to find, follow and connect with people in the publishing, writing, author, magazine and book communities. It's worked really well.
The criticisms about trolls, attacks, the murkiness and nastiness of politics and, apparently, porn, are valid. But like so much of the internet, nine times out of ten, it’s not going to find you unless you go and search for it. Don’t want the nastiness of political Twitter? Don’t follow politicians or opinion writers. I mean, really. Why would you follow opinion writers? Who needs that in their life?
4___Interview with AAM head of digital auditing
Unlike Beauty, Web-Traffic Quality Is Not Subjective | AdExchanger — www.adexchanger.com Some publishers deserve ad dollars and some don’t – and this has been true since long before the internet was a twinkle in anyone’s eye.
I've long felt that AAM is one of the few organizations related to the magazine industry that has successfully transformed their platform to fit where the publishing industry is going.
5___File under: "Oh Sh*t! Really? George Magazine is back. Just not exactly how you may have thought it would come back
JFK Jr.’s Iconic Magazine Is Back From the Dead. You Can Thank QAnon. – Mother Jones — www.motherjones.com “We obviously hope it will bring people to God.”
I used to collect premiere issues of new magazines and one of my prized possessions is a premiere copy of the original George Magazine. It was founded by JFK, Jr. in association with Hachette US.
While I liked much of the content, and as a native of Massachusetts was something of a Kennedy fanboy, the magazine often made me uncomfortable in the way that it treated politics and politicians as something akin to sports or entertainment. In my opinion, a big part of the problem this country is currently experience with relation to political instability is the simple fact that we've spent the last forty years treating politics like sports.
For some weird reason, some followers of the Q-Anon conspiracy theory think JFK, Jr did not die in a plane crash and he's still with us. And one of them is bringing back George Magazine.
That's one premier issue I'm not going to collect.
Your Moment of Magazine Zen...
That’s all I’ve got this week. I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you did, please give it a boost by clicking “Like” and then subscribe. You’ll get a brand new release in your email in-box every Tuesday. Sometimes I even have some “bonus” content for you.
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