Where Do You Get Your News?

One of my favorite questions to ask almost anyone I meet is: “Where do you get your news?” As someone who is fascinated by all forms of media and communications, I love hearing about other people’s media habits, what strikes them as newsworthy and perhaps most interesting, where they are finding good info and insight these days.

Thus, The Atlantic’s fantastic “Media Diet” series is a godsend to those of us who are fascinated by media and can’t get enough of it.

But while “Media Diet” gives you the dish on what famous writers, playwrights, pundits and others read each day, I’m much more interested in what industry colleagues are reading. Part of my job at PRSA is to be keenly aware of industry and business news.

As you can imagine, I read a lot. And most of my reading is shaped around my work and general business interests. For some, it’s probably kind of boring (unless you really like reading about PR and marketing). But it works for me.

Below is my “media diet.” Take a quick look and let me know how it shapes up against yours. I would really love to know of any good trades, blogs or Twitter feeds you follow that you think are must-readers for the PR, marketing and ad biz.

Trade Media

PRWeek (both U.S. and UK editions), AdAge, Adweek, PRNewser, MediaPost and MarketingWeek are indispensable. The headlines of each comprise at least the first hour or so of every workday. Of course, I also keep up with the other PR trades (PRNews, Ragan’s PRDaily, Bulldog Reporter, among others), as well as the excellent PRMoment (a UK trade that is gaining some ground). Oh yeah, I can’t forget the Brian Morrissey edited Digiday, which is running some great pieces on the intersection of tech and digital marketing.

I also find the PR and marketing coverage in the UK’s The Independent and The Guardian to be excellent and far better than most of the U.S. coverage of those sectors. It’s a damn shame major American newspapers have been dropping their ad/marketing columns in recent years, especially as U.S. ad and PR spending continues to rise.

Business Media

I start most days reading the business/marketplace sections of The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. (I catch up on The New York Times online throughout the day and evening.) Beyond that, I’ll take in BusinessWeek, the Economist and Crain’s New York Business for perspective on American, global and New York City business, respectively.

I also find Harvard Business Review and HBR.org fantastic for a fast-paced, strategic business perspective. Technology Review is fast becoming a favorite (it has a new business section tying tech with business trends that is well worth a read), and MIT’s Sloan Management Review offers some smart management insight.

General Media

I honestly don’t read a lot of “general media.” I wish I did because it would likely give me a better perspective of how business and industry news ties into broader consumer trends. But I just often don’t have the time. Something to work toward, I guess.

Twitter Feeds & Blogs

Where do I start? So much good content, so little time. I’m going to leave out a lot of great blogs and Twitter feeds, but if I had to take any three with me on a deserted island, here are my picks: @KenWheaton is great for witty ad-industry and general life commentary and comedy; “WOMMA Word” offers some spot-on reductive insight of word-of-mouth marketing and social media; and Todd Defren’s “PR Squared” always opens my eyes to a new angle in PR and social media that I hadn’t considered.

So that’s my “media diet.” What’s yours?