I just wait to read Steve Crescenzo's article in CW magazine , because he says the most important things about writing and newsletters, in the most amusing way.
The latest issue (July-Aug 05) is about "Giving the CEO message a makeover." He doesn't ask yo to kill the boring "letter from the CEO" (you know the column that nobody reads but few are courageous to admit it) but to give the CEO's writing some -how to put this-- cosmetology.
The 3 most offending elements, he says, are the lousy executive photo, the headline (which is predictably weak because the letter zero news) and the language itself. He is so right. CEO's in formal settings talk in a strange language --an ancient English dialect spoken in the boardroom, perhaps. Here's a quote from Crescenzo on why the badly written CEO column is a waste of newsletter real estate.
"Believe me, when a CEO goes home at the end of the day, he doesn't say to his wife, "Honey, as we about to transition from dinner table to the bedroom, we need to proactively reassess your core competencies, and maybe shift some paradigms.."
This CEO-speak is caused by what he calls 'homicide detective syndrome.' What's that? On TV, a cop says things like "we apprehended the alleged perpetrator." When the detective gets home he would say "We caught the dirtbag."
I happen to design and publish newsletters, so I see this on a regular basis. (Brochure-speak is a subset of CEO-speak but that's another topic.) We once did a study of whether we should replace the printed newsletter with an online edition. Readers said no! The dirty little secret in this can-you-PDF-my-Blackberry age is that people who defend digital products to death, still enjoy a good read when it's in print --especially when the stories involve lots of 'dirtbags,' not 'perpetrators.'
Comments