? Congrats to Adam! He earned free access to the paid version of Mister Editorial by referring three colleagues to sign up. Get your referral link. The more people you refer to sign up, the more months you get comped. Why not post your referral link on LinkedIn? Happening now: Mister Editorial’s paid subscribers are helping choose the content I’ll develop for them: Voting by paid members ends in 10 days. @Paid Subscribers: Skip the pitch and scroll down to see a sample letter for reimbursement. To my free subscribers… ? Hello Comms-rade, I hope this finds you thriving in your comm ..read more

A Henry Rousseau-inspired image on the theme of “deep dive.” This message is for paid members only. Two years ago I surveyed Mister Editorial's paid members about your experiences with the publication and to gather feedback. I wanted to find out what I could do to increase the value of your subscription (without jacking up the price). From the 2021 survey … Read more ..read more

Last year IMAX Entertainment CEO Rich Gelfond sent a memo announcing the resignation of Megan Colligan, the company’s president for a few short years (she joined in 2019). Gelfond’s goodbye note is sincere, professional, and full of praise. It’s also about as warm as fifteen-minute-old bath water. If I were Colligan I’d copy/paste the memo to my LinkedIn profile’s about section because it mostly lists win after win. Gelfond does more than issue generic platitudes (e.g., moved our company in a new strategic direction); he lays out specific accomplishments that show how Colligan positiv ..read more

? In case you missed my most recent articles on how to use artificial intelligence to level up in your role: How to Get Your Team on Board With AI (Intellicomms) (?) Four AI Personas That Support Internal Comms (Intellicomms) (?) See all Intellicomms articles DALL-E generated this thematic image inspired by the personalities of the four famous people featured in this essay. ? Breaking news! Generative AI tools are imperfect! ? But that doesn’t mean they can’t be improved. By now we know that when you prompt a chatbot (like Copilot, ChatGPT) the output is dull. The simpler your prompt ..read more

Nick Offerman plays Citadel CEO Ken Griffin in Dumb Money (2023) Here’s a change of pace: an executive memo about good news. Last year Citadel brought in so much money the hedge fund doubled its lead over the nearest competition. The record year lifted Citadel’s all-time gains to $74 billion, nearly $20 billion more than its rivals D.E. Shaw and Millennium. Imagine working for a company that so obviously dominates your rivals. Founder and CEO Ken Griffin was gleeful, sending a congratulatory note to employees with the chest-thumping subject line: “Citadel Widens Lead as Most Profitable H ..read more

? Congrats to Jo and Sharmayne, who each unlocked a free month of Mister Editorial by inviting colleagues to sign up for this newsletter. Check out the leaderboard and get your referral link. “The Conversation” (c. 1889) by Edgar Degas Employees crave interaction with leaders. Individual contributors want to hear more (and more often) from executives about the company’s strategy for growth, opinions on evolving market conditions, their leadership styles, and who they are outside the office. Remember our privileged position. Most employees don’t work in proximity to decision-makers. Field a ..read more

? Heads up! Tomorrow (Feb 28) I’m appearing at Simpplr’s Internal Communications Virtual Summit. I will provide a walk-through on how to use specific AI tools to tackle a major comms project. Register for free. Out now: I authored a cheat sheet for Simpplr that teaches you how to optimize prompts for five common comms tasks. The internal communications professional wears many hats. Your role changes throughout the week and even throughout the day. This is comms, after all. We wear many hats. Sometimes you are the creator. Sometimes you’re the strategist. Sometimes you’re the boss. Some ..read more

? Heads up! I’m appearing at Simpplr’s Internal Communications Virtual Summit (Feb 28-9). My slot is called “Intellicomms Unveiled: Harnessing AI in Mixternal Communications.” Register for free. A couple of months ago in Poppulo’s annual prediction article, I forecast momentum behind the small-ish but vocal union efforts in the U.S. gathering steam across industries this year. (If you think unionization is an issue reserved for Fortune 500 companies, think again.) I wrote: Union successes in 2023 at spotlight-grabbing companies like Amazon, Starbucks, UPS, and the Big Three auto companies ..read more

Sometimes our boss leaves. Actually, about every five years our boss leaves; the average tenure of a Chief Communications Officer at Fortune 500 companies is just under five years. Right on time Nathaniel Brown, CCO at Warner Bros. Discovery, announced he’s leaving the Hollywood studio after … five years in the role. [Mister Editorial readers pause to reflect on how long their CCO has been at the helm…?] Brown led comms for Discovery when it merged with WarnerMedia. Before that he was at 21st Century Fox and News Corp. Compare Brown’s letter to that of another C-suite executive who deci ..read more

? Heads up! I’m appearing at Simpplr’s Internal Communications Virtual Summit (Feb 28-9). My slot is called “Intellicomms Unveiled: Harnessing AI in Mixternal Communications.” Register for free. All aboard! This image was created using DALL-E with the prompt, “a scene depicting people on a dock waiting to board a ship in the style of Paul Cézanne” It’s always about money. Artificial intelligence is here to stay not because it’s cool or fun or makes life easier. (It’s all that.) AI is here to stay because it will make or save more money. As datasets, computer models, and computing power imp ..read more