March 17 — It is changing. This morning one of our regional weekly business journals reported that the Journal Register Company (NYSE: JRC), publisher of our only daily paper as well as 26 other dailies and 327 other non dailies is facing tough times. Earlier this month they hired Lazard Freres to help devise a financial strategy and received a delisting notice from the New York Stock Exchange. Then I see a feature in The Drudge Report about an earnings loss by The New York Times for the quarter –”one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen,” the paper said. Browsing through blogs in the evening, I realized that I was as much in blogs as in mainstream media (MSM). One of them, On Line Spin’s David Morgan predicts a tough four years ahead for the newspaper business.

He wanders into a future where the hometown paper is gone, where weeklies emerge to fill the gap for local business advertising and to some degree the thirst for news. he anticipates a death spiral of offline media which must support huge overhead. And he sees their demise as an opportunity for backfilling.

Someone will have to create a vehicle for the free-standing inserts and what will local businesses do but look for media replacements to carry the in-your-face promotions.

My point is not to repeat what is being covered so well. My point is that those who need to market should be moving into the new media. The groundswell is underway as attested to by the dismal financial news.

Several hours ago I was winding up a spirited meeting with two of the more spirited business people you will encounter any day: Bill Shafley, president & CEO and Doug McQuarrie, vice president of technology at Tactical Solution Partners (TTSR), Hanover, Md.

Following a formal meeting on a variety of topics, we were winding down with a common observation that no matter what industry one is connected with, no matter what technologies are involved, the fundamental human element of passion is central to success. People will do business with purchase from others who demonstrate passion.

Passion is communications at a fundamental level! It is certainly positive energy. It’s certainly the “juice,” as author Marcia Wieder writes in her book “Doing less and having more: five easy steps for discovering what you really want — and getting it.” (William Morrow and Company , 1998)

But she takes the notion of passion a step beyond having enthusiasm to the notion of “being compelled to action.

“Being passionate means being excited enough about an idea or project that you will actually do something about it.” She says enthusiasm is a close companion, with an etymology meaning “being inspired by God.”

Key point? The attitude and positiveness from one who takes action on his or her convictions is itself a communication –nonverbal, but powerful because it is not what they say but what they in fact are doing. We all respond to authenticity.

The Wall Street Journal ran a compelling piece How to Tap IT’s  Hidden  Potential, co-authored by Cox School of Business Prof. Amit Basu and Dallas-based LatticeWorks Consulting  Founder Chip Jarnagin. (The Wall Street Journal The Journal Report, March 10, 2008, pp R4,12)

The article covers an all-too-frequent problem with internal communications - - one group not connecting with another –  when either, both or the entire enterprise could benefit. Management workshops often refer to the condition  as having silos. The authors, referring to a glass partition, make these points:

(1) Too many top executives are unaware of the potential of IT to “transform a business and boost profits.”  Alas, they see IT as an expense they’d like to leave alone.

(2) There is a wall separating IT from other functions, because of language and mind-set differences between people in IT and the people in management; “geek” vs. MBA social influences; “flaws in IT governance;” and the straight on challenges of managing a fast-changing technology.

(3) Breakthrough tactics can change all that.

What are the approaches these authors suggest?  Answer: good organization that, in turn, enables good communication. They call for:

• Top-level C-suite commitment to the IT function;
• Hiring IT leaders who get the “big picture”
• Making sure “nothing gets lost in the translation.”

“A company must have people at all levels who can translate IT language for those outside that department and translate the language of management for those in IT.”

In sum, here’s another instance where better communications - - enabled by top executive attention and functional leaders who understand business — affects the profitability and productivity of the entire enterprise.

What goes for IT can be applied to other functions and departments as well.

 Today I was browsing in our small, comfortable library perched on rise that overlooks the Hudson River — perfect for book people, especially on a day with  light rain from gray skies, the last huff of a winter only recently officially surpassed by daylight saving time and the equinox. I noticed faded maroon covers of The Harvard Classics, and found myself drawn to Vol.39, Prefaces and Prologues“No part of a book is so intimate as the Preface. Here …the author descends from his platform, and speaks with his reader as man to man, disclosing his hopes and fears, seeking sympathy for his difficulties, offering defence or defiance, according to his temper, against the criticisms which he anticipates.”I like the fact that the personal character of of the prefaces and prologues made it into “the most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time … both the 50-volume “5-foot shelf of books” and the the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction,” writes on-line publisher Bartleby.com The Harvard series was compiled by retired Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot, LLD and English professor William A. Neilson and published by Collier between 1909 and 1917. “Together they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century,”continues Bartleby.Hmmm. Prefaces. They are like blogs, not as egalitarian maybe, but quite personal. They are not Facebook personal, but they are publication-bound personal.That personal touch is enormously valuable and persuasive in every form of communications, including marketing.

Differentiation has become a holy grail in PR and branding. It’s evangelized most fervently in Differentiate or Die: Survival in our Era of Killer Competition, by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin, published in 2000 and now reissued in its second edition.

I like Jack Trout’s work and like many in the communications business, I love touting how my client’s offering stands apart from everyone else! To what degree is it different? Does that even matter? Does the difference have that much to do with the value proposition? Not all the time.

For a fresh view of differentiation, take a look at Matt Kurchaski’s blog Define or Differentiate? A Marketer’s Dilemma. “Too many companies ask the question “how can we be different” when they should be asking ‘what does the customer want and how can we deliver better than the other guys?’. ” Matt offers a crisp summary of a thoughtful article by Eric M. Morgenstern, APR, Fellow PRSA just published by The Counselors Academy, which is part of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The full text is available for purchase through the PRSA.

There’s a lot to think about here. It’s, well, different.