The Menu

Today on the Menu: Letters From Prison, and the Man Behind Them

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Imagine for a moment you're in a prison cell. You're facing 20 years behind steel bars for killing someone with your car (or, whatever). You have little connection to the outside world and every day is a struggle to maintain your sanity, life. From the masochistic prison system including guards and wardens and inmates to the knowledge that when you get out (if you get you) nothing will be how you left it, especially your life.

You've done wrong; maybe you admit it, maybe you don't. But you have thoughts about all of this, and other things, but can't confide in anyone here. Your regular psychiatric visits seem cold and thoughtless. If only you could write to someone outside who would just read your thoughts. Even if nothing comes of it, to have someone read them and maybe help you clarify them, turn them into something useful. Wouldn't that be something? PEN America makes that happen, supporting inmates with a coaching program aimed at improving the writing skills of America's incarcerated. Today we interview Jackson Taylor, who has helped this program reach the nations many millions of forgotten inmates since the late 80s.

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Today on the Menu: 'The Media' is Crying

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Crying tears of sorrow over its inability to sustain itself, and the careers of the professionals who used to make it sing and hum and over-indulge in holiday cookies and 'nog.

It cries and cries and cries, meanwhile someone at the top, somewhere is still rich and employed. Don't worry actual people, we'll stay poor with you. We're just kidding, everyone who works at AgencySpy is worth at least $4 million. Seriously, we're rich bastards over here.

More: Episodes of the Menu

Today on the Menu: Publishing Needs Marketing Help, Big Time

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Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Peter Ginna, publisher and editorial director at Bloomsbury Press. The discussion centered on the needs of publishers these days, who are running on diminished time, staff and funds.

The problem is that the industry is short of marketing strategy, and people to implement it. Ginna recommends newcomers pay special attention to developing social media and marketing skills, no matter what their specialty.

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Today on the Menu: Account Planning Breakdown with Redscout's Alain Sylvain

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Alain Sylvain is the managing director of Redscout. He's done strategy for Mother New York and stays at SS&K, Martin and in the jewelery business, which is just a fun fact. Today he gave us a break down of the planning side of advertising and the details about SPUR, a video-interview series hosted by PSFK and Redscout that hopes to dive into the planning world by interviewing luminaries, rebels and newbies.

A planner's job is to being smarts into the mix, says Sylvain. Insight mining; micro thinking and macro execution; putting a match to the wood pile — all are phrases that come to mind when discussing this role. How it fits into the overall business is another thing. "Planning is best practiced outside advertising," said Sylvain. "Steve Jobs is actually a really good planner," he remarked, noting Jobs' understanding of the consumer market and branding as traits belonging to a planner.

Which isn't to say that the traditional creative side doesn't do that. But Sylvain agrees that in some cases, creatives are there to execute a plan thought up by a planner. Or planners. Think of it like architecture (that's our analogy) — a planner may determine the scope and draw up designs, and the creatives make it happen.

Some shops don't operate this way, but since the early 90s, the job has gained importance. SPUR's goal is to dig into it and do an informal audit of what's been happening — and with the trend-peepers at PSFK (a planner's resource) behind it, you'll want to watch. At least once.

SPUR launches today at PSFK.com/SPUR. The 5-video series will include interviews from the likes of Paul Woolmington, a founder of Naked Communications; Domenico Vitale of People, Ideas & Culture; John Gerzema, CIO of Y&R; Devika Bulchandani, CSO at McCann Erickson and many others.

Click continued for the full list of interviewees.

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continued...

Today on the Menu: R/GA's Paul Malmont is Helping Soldiers

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Paul Malmont is a twice published author and Copy Director at R/GA in New York. In his spare time, he and his wife have developed a program that gets books in the hands of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, their wives stationed in far-away bases and soon will do the same for the children. Operation Warrior Library, or OWL, is the Malmonts' way of supporting our volunteer army without paying credence to one political ideal or another. "We just want to give them a few hours of escapism," said Malmont, who launched the program with the help of an Army Colonel.

Initially the Colonel asked for a signed copy of Malmont's latest book, The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, and soon after that the became clear: send reading materials across enemy lines to soldiers who would otherwise have to buy them. To accomplish that goal, the Malmonts enlisted (heh) the aid of other authors, and publishers too. To date, some 2,000 books have been donated, giving soldiers a much needed break from their daily chores.

Image by James M. Graham.

More: Episodes of the Menu

Today on the Menu: WSJ Shuts Down Boston Bureau, Walmart Starts a War

Dynamic duo Jason Boog and Matt Van Hoven, they of GalleyCat and AgencySpy fame respectively, touched on a few pertinent literary/journo issues that hit close to home.

After comparing Halloween costumes (or lack thereof), the boys discussed among other things the Wall Street Journal shuttering its Boston bureau, Walmart's book-pricing battle with Amazon and Target, WPP's earnings report and New York magazine's expansion of online TV coverage.

More: "The Menu"

Today on the Menu: Future of Literature Depends on You

Today we interviewed Jürgen Fauth, a German ex-pat who hopes to save the literary short story through his site, Fictionaut. What's it boil down to? The Atlantic, when it had a vibrant short story section, sans everything but the short stories. You may not think this is important, but pay attention because parsing out content like this is something you should be aware of.

As advertising becomes ever-niche-ier, it'll be your jobs (media planners) to know where to be. And you, creatives, will need to understand the pains of people whose works are relegated to such faraway spaces on the Web. Your next client's audience may be tucked away in the coed-naked-underwater-basketweaving (which sounds awesome) club of New Brisbane, so pay attention to this trend. When you enter the space, you'll need to be even more savvy than back when you could get by with a few "Where the Wild Things Are" references.

More: Episodes of the Menu

Today on the Menu: How Much is Sarah Palin Making for the Memoir?


Today on the Morning Media Menu, we pondered the news that Sarah Palin has already received at least $1.25 million advance for her memoir.

In addition to that tidy sum, we also discussed the day's other big headlines: NY Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s Titanic metaphors, Politico's local news battle with The Washington Post, and disgraced reporter Jayson Blair's upcoming visit to a journalism school.

Today on the Menu: What Happens When a Hostage (Advertising) Breaks Free of its Captor (Business That Use Advertising for $$$)

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Dave Daley publishes FiveChapters.com, a literary short story site that manages to undercut staid publications like the Atlantic, GQ and other mainstream mags that used to house many more short pieces than they do currently. Daley's site is free and he does it in his spare time — and in a single year you can read 52 short stories without worrying about which ab workout to pick or who is kicking Christopher Hitchens' ass over in Morocco.

At about the 12 minute mark of today's show, we began to discuss whether or not we should feel bad for an industry (including every business that uses advertising to earn moneys) that got fat on print, broadcast and those media for failing to innovate. Of course everyone knows someone who lost a job due to this ineptitude, no question about feelings there. But for the brands at large who simply didn't evolve, should we shed a tear or usher in the new and successful while quietly seeking out "senior housing" for the former? If Darwin was right, we probably shouldn't care at all.

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Today on the Menu: Harry Potter Screws Up Royally in England

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Advertising people should skip forward to 10:38 and listen to the portion of the show about a woman in England who set up a theme dinner, in her home, that showcased all things Harry Potter. Attendees pay for their meal, which apparently takes Ms. Marmite Love (pseudonym) four days to prepare, and that caused the Warner Bros. legal team to get their undies in a bunch and force the woman to cancel the dinner.

Ms. Lover, unfettered by the pressure, simply changed the name of her little gathering (which she claims earns her very little money, and includes things like talking pictures) to "Generic Wizard Night".

We'll skip the "this is why brands are stupid" nonsense and go right to "ugh."

More on that story here.

Previously

Today on the Menu: Condé's Bad Week, Times' Good Quarter, CNN's New Site

Today on the Menu: "This is Why You're Fat" co-Creator/BuzzFeed Viral Marketing Editor Jessica Amason Talks New Online Advertising Formats

Today on the Menu: CNN's Don Lemon Talks User Generated Content

Today on the Menu: Yes Men Stunts the US Chamber of Commerce, Times to Lay Off 100

Today on the Menu: There's Nothing to Hear Here

Today on the Menu: Atlantic Publisher Jay Lauf on How His Brand Sells

Today on the Menu: Man Quits Job, Travels World With Family, Speaks on Podcast

Listen: BusinessWeek Sold, Condé's Ad Pages Sunk, MySpace Devalued

Today on the Menu: Chip O'Brien Talks Netflix for Books

Today on the Menu: Email Killed the You

Today on the Menu: Everyone's Laid Off, So What Now?

Today on the Menu: The Torrid Tales of NYC Publicity, as Told by Former PR Guy

Today on the Menu: CBS Correspondent Dave Price is Stranded in America

Today on the Menu: Worldfocus Anchor Daljit Dhaliwal Brings the World to America

Today on the Menu: HSBC's New York's Money Issue Sponsorship is "a Morbid Symptom" of Traditional's Looming Death

Today on the Menu: Letterman Extorted, Cheney Docs Revealed, Gosselin Demoted

Today on the Menu: Author Brandon Sanderson Will Complete the "Wheel of Time" Series

Today on the Menu: Kindle in the UK, eBooks Delayed, Rather Defeated, Jon Gosselin Booted

Today on the Menu: What do Sarah Palin and The Daily Beast Have in Common?

Today on the Menu: LA Times' Matea Gold Dissects '60 Minutes'

Today on the Menu: Shani Petroff Bedevils Young Readers

Today on the Menu: Celebs Getting Nasty and Hallmark Playing Nice

Today on the Menu: Journalism Lives, Dies and Gets Detained Simultaneously,

Today on the Menu: Your Boss Sucks, Here's What You Do

Today on the Menu: The Journalism Job Plight, Bloomberg's BusinessWeek Bid

Today on the Menu: Are You Listening, or Waiting to Speak?

Today on the Menu: WSJ's $102 App, Dan Brown Sells 1 Mil. Copies, PRNewser Explained

Today on the Menu: Murder is the Case That He Gave Us

Today on the Menu: Campfire's Mike Monello Talks Hoax Marketing

Today on the Menu: TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel Says Mag. is Still Brand Centerpiece

Today on the Menu: The Daily Beast's Rebecca Wright on 9/11, Twitter to Advertise

Today on the Menu: S.C. Rep. Joe Wilson is Twitter Infamous, iJustine on MTV

Today on the Menu: Sirius/XM's Mike Pifferrer on Building a Brand Through Social Media

Today on the Menu: J-School Revisited, Fallen Soldier Photographed, Fake Ads Banned

Today on the Menu: Think You Can Thrive on $39k? Danny Kofke and His Wife Do, with 2 Kids, Mortgage et al

Tomorrow on the Menu: Danny Kofke, Author "How to Survive on a Teacher's Salary"

Today on the Menu: David Taylor on Being a Writer During the Real Depression

Today on the Menu: Ad Spending's Down, WWF is Mad, Euna Lee and Laura Ling Told Their Story

Today on the Menu: Marvel Sold, "L Word" Reality Bound, Paid-Content Hits Pitts. Post-Gazette

Today on the Menu: Rendon Group Fired, Bush Daughter Hired, Magazines Inspired

Today on the Menu: Q2 Newspaper Ad Sales Fell 30%, Small Magazines Win, The New Yorker's 26 y/o Managing Editor has Cred

Today on the Menu: Dominick Dunne Died, VH1's Done with Sex-Reality Fun, Google Owns Everything

Today on the Menu: Politico's Michael Calderone on Sen. Kennedy's Death - No One Can Replace Him

Today on the Menu: Coverless Books, Embedded Journalist Vetting, Wikipedia Builds Trust

Today on the Menu: Niche Publications are Where the CMPs are at

Today on the Menu: Diary of a J-School Student (Hunter Walker)

Today on the Menu: Graphic Novelist Robert Venditti

Today on the Menu: Heathrow Wants the Airport to be Your Fav. Travel Memory, Glenn Beck's Best Week Evs

Today on the Menu: Radio Killed, Crosswords Dissected, Hyperlocalized Everything

Today on the Menu: FacePo, A President's Lament, Mediaite's First 43 Days

Today on the Menu: The Wall Street Journal Ran This Totally Bullsh*t Article That We Hope You See Through

Today on the Menu: Condé Nast Shat Itself, Web Ads Are Cheap, Thomas Pynchon Does VO

Today on the Menu: LemonadeMovie/PleaseFeedTheAnimals Creator Erik Proulx

Today on the Menu: Writer Richard Farrell and a Revenue Rebound for Newspapers

Today on the Menu: DDoS Attacks, Ben Stein's Fired, G.I. Joe,

Today on the Menu: CNN Blocks Ad, Clinton's in N. Korea, Fox and NBC are Fighting and The Marines are Anti-Soc. Media

The Menu: Did You Know Tim Russert Was at Woodstock?

Today on the Menu: Hamilton Nolan, Gawker Reporter/Man of Some Time

Today on the Menu: Cartoonist Bob Eckstein and Why Yahoo/Microsoft will Fail

Today on the Menu: AgencySpy's Own Kiran Aditham

Today on the Menu: Former Y&R Creative James Othmer

Today on the Menu: Lou Dobbs Brings Conservatism to CNN

Today on the Menu: George Parker (Need We Say More?)

Tomorrow on the Menu: George Parker (What Should I Ask Him?)

Today on the Menu: Michael Thomas Talks Brands That Sell

Today on the Menu: Cronkiters Remembering The Man, Myth, Legend; Your Big Brother Kindle

Today on the Menu: TechCrunch = An Advertising Dream, Kindle Books Are Wicked Overpriced

Today on the Menu: MTV's New Ad Model, MJ's Hair Fire and the Porny CNBC

Today on the Menu: Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters (Now With 30% More Beasts From the Deep)

Today on the Menu: New Yorker Editor Ben Greenman, Common Sense Kid, BusinessWeek for a Buck

Today on the Menu: Writer/Photog/Event Reporter Kelly Samardak

Today on the Menu: National Geographic's Janelle Nanos

Today on the Menu: Mediaite's Steve Krakauer and Glynnis MacNicol

Today on the Menu: AdWeek's Brian Morrissey Talks Future, Phelpsy's Return & WaPo FAIL

Today on the Menu: Politico's Michael Calderone Talks WaPo Chicanery, Palin Inanity, This One New Blog (Mediaite)

Today on the Menu: Gov. Mark Sanford's Book Deal, Misues of Michael Jackson Imagery, Catcher in the Rye Sequel Killed and Author Hyatt Bass Spits Fire

Today on the Menu: ABC's Rick Klein talks Mark Sanford, Al Franken and Sarah Palin

Today on the Menu: Alyssa Katz and Real Estate Crap; a Twitter Fail; Michael Jackson Pics

Today on the Menu: FBNY's Amanda Ernst, Billy Mays Revisited and the $2B TV is Losing

Today on the Menu: Thrillist NY Editor, Steve Bryant

Read more on AgencySpy >

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