Corey Murray

Passion Project: What The Verge and Joshua Toplosky Taught Me About Content Success

I do not know Joshua Topolsky. But I feel like I should—know him, that is. Thanks to the Internet, I end up feeling that way about a lot of people I’ll probably never meet. Take Josh (Do his friends call him that?), for example. I know that he is or was a drummer in a band […]

Why Collecting Content Isn’t Enough: Careful Packaging Is Everything

I was sitting at home this morning, drinking a chocolate and peanut butter smoothie (Is there a more superior combination of flavors than chocolate and peanut butter?) when an email from a colleague popped up in my inbox. I hesitated to read it at first. I was still in my boxers and about twenty minutes […]

Is Your Brand a People Person?

Remember the scene from the 1999 movie Office Space when the two consultants interview employees at the fictional software firm Initech ahead of companywide layoffs? “What would ya say you do here?” asks one of the consultants. “I have people skills. I am good at dealing with people! Can’t you understand that?!” replies an emotional […]

Should Tweets be Eligible for Pulitzers?

I’m a sucker for a good meal. Living in Washington, D.C., such an affliction can be a recipe for financial ruin. Nary a day goes by without another restaurant from yet another up-and-coming, as-seen-on-TV celebrity chef. My girlfriend, bless her heart, keeps a running tab of all the places she can’t wait for me to […]

Congratulations, You’re on Facebook. So What?

There was a time not long ago when the term “social media strategy” amounted to setting up a Facebook account and enthusiastically asking customers to “Like” your product. In the immortal words of former NFLer and ESPN football analyst Keyshawn Johnson, “C’mon, MAN!” I know a three-year-old Malti-Poo named Lucky with his own Facebook page […]

How to Predict the Future of Content: An Interview with Stephen Cass

Stephen Cass sees the future before most of us even know it’s happening. With so many new technologies promising to change the way people engage and interact with content, how do publishers determine which ones to follow and which ones to ignore? I caught up with Cass, special projects editor at MIT’s famed Technology Review, […]

Keep Your Audience on Its Tweet: 4 Keys to Building a Strong Social Following

If the presidential election—coming to a polling place near you in November—is the nation’s foremost popularity contest (more than 65 million Americans voted for President Barack Obama in 2008) the ongoing battle for followers on Twitter, from a purely competitive standpoint, isn’t far behind. It has been reported that Twitter has more than 175 million […]

Why the Best Social Media Begins Offline

When I was notified last year that the content marketing firm where I work was moving offices—giving up its spacious, albeit outdated, digs for a new state-of-the-art studio three blocks up the road—I couldn’t help but be a little skeptical, uneasy even, of the changes in the offing.

Harvey Levin: Sensationalist or Soothsayer?

old newspapers never die, they just fade away

“Leave the heavy stuff. Just go.” That’s what the voice inside my head said when I read in The Washington Post (WP) that TMZ founder and celebrity gossip peddler Harvey Levin recently addressed journalists at the National Press Club about the future of news media. It wasn’t the first time I’d considered hightailing it. I […]

Magazine ‘App’-titude

When CNN announced plans earlier last week to acquire Zite, an upstart creator of magazine apps for Apple’s iPad, it wasn’t exactly Earth-shattering news. The East Coast was still sweeping up after Irene. In the wake of a disaster that almost was, the acquisition caused nary a ripple in the blogosphere. Understandable. The announcement didn’t […]

Mr. Editor, Tear Down This Wall

You know what word I hate? Advertorial. I’m not alone. For those of us who cut our journalistic chops in the newsroom, the division of editorial and advertising is as sacred as the constitutional separation of church and state. My first reporting gig out of college was covering the use of technology in education. Eager […]

Content Design for the Digital Reader

I was sitting on the bus on the way to work a few mornings ago when a thought suddenly struck me: “Where’s all the trash?” Washington, D.C., where I live, is a city known for its appetite for reading. On any given morning, the downtown line is a gray hue of policy wonks, academics, financiers […]

Award to the Wise: Readers Are the Real Judge

At the custom publisher where I spend my waking hours, the halls are adorned with praise for well-written articles and smartly designed feature spreads—a triumphant redesign of a moribund business school magazine, a celebrity cover for a prominent medical title with a circulation that seemingly knows no way but up. The list goes on.

The Truth About Branding (And Nothing But The Truth)

AMC’s hit television drama Mad Men is famous for its depiction of the hard-drinking, hard-working Madison Avenue ad man—the Don Drapers and Roger Sterlings of the world who churned out corporate slogans over pre-noon cocktails and pulls on their Lucky Strikes. The daughter of an ad man who grew up in the late sixties and […]

Why Content Matters

Lori Rosen is executive director of the Custom Content Council (CCC), a membership organization representing nearly 90 publishers of custom print and online media. Rosen and several members of her organization are fresh from the CCC’s annual meeting in Charleston, S.C., where new research showed that 81 percent of chief marketing officers said they planned […]

Cut! 4 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Creating Video

When my boss approached me recently and asked for my help in producing a convention video for one of our clients, I was ecstatic. Finally, I thought, a chance to tap my inner Scorsese. My only previous directing experience came at age five. (I’ll spare you the details, except to say that it involved Transformers—think […]

4 Secrets to Building a Good Website

Eureka moments can happen anywhere. Mark Zuckerberg first tinkered with the code that would spark the social media revolution in his Harvard dorm room. Harry Potter came to J.K. Rowling in a dream. Howard Schultz envisioned a coffee empire while standing in line at a café in Milan. In the case of Schultz, the Brooklyn-bred […]