Editorial Type: Columns/Opinions

Video Killed the Editing Star

Michael Cornnell

My apologies for the egregious absence in updates. I’d make the predictable excuse of being colossally busy, but being predictable is terrible, so instead I’ll tell you the reason I haven’t written in so long is because I was stuck in a Groundhog-Day [link]-like time vortex for three weeks, forced to live Mothers’ Day over and over again until I got it right (note for those interested: giving your mom an Egg McMuffin and one of your delinquent student loan bills as gifts is not an acceptable way to start the day).

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Happy (Earth) Mother’s Day!

Michael Cornnell

I recently interviewed Mark Trotzuk, president of Boardroom ECO Apparel, for one of the articles I’m currently writing for our upcoming June responsibility supplement, which is a mini-issue about all kinds of great stuff like corporate social accountability and environmental stewardship.

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Cinco de Busy

Michael Cornnell

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! I’m sure you’re all aware, but “Cinco de Mayo” translates to “fifth of May” in Spanish, or “Congratulations! Your magazine is kicking butt, but is also starting like three new projects in May! Enjoy trying to write a blog!” if you speak Promo Marketing.

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Intelligent Beams of Light

Michael Cornnell

It’s serious deadline business time right now on the magazine, so I don’t have a lot of time to devote to a long, clever post neatly relating to our industry (or attempting one anyway). I thought I would instead just give you all a quick blurb of something that that didn’t get into my computer accessories story for May.

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Advertising Advertisements

Michael Cornnell

PPAI announced yesterday that it was buying advertising time on one of Time Square’s JumboTrons to run a 15-second commercial explaining the value of promotional products in general as advertising tools. If you didn’t get their initial release, Charlie has the story in the newsletter for this week.

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Like Da Vinci, Except the Opposite

Michael Cornnell

I finished up research for my article on computer accessories last week, and I can’t believe all the crazy stuff I found. There are USB watches, Internet phones that are also mice, and MP3 players so complex they make iPods seem like sleekly designed doorjambs.

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Incan Pictographs and Telephones

Michael Cornnell

I’m still working away on our Top 50 Distributors List, making dozens of follow-up phone calls and trying to keep track of the results with about 15 hand-written, needlessly convoluted lists. God help me when I’m doing this again next year, as I’m sure I’ll no longer recall why I have corresponding charts and notes in Spanish, German and early Incan pictographs. Being thorough has little to do with being logical, I suppose.

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Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich

Michael Cornnell

It’s been a while since I’ve told a story about my rookie adventures in this fine industry of ours. It’s probably going to be a while longer too, since this post is really more of a convoluted philosophical observation than an interesting coherent narrative. Don’t worry though, I’ll work in some jokes in about pyromania or checkerboards to keep things punchy (you scoff, but let me tell you, I can tell a checkerboard joke like no other).

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