Check out the following literature on strategy, journalism arts and management. We're sure you'll find these books, papers and articles revolutionary to your organization's perspective on media.
Beyond Spin: The Power of Strategic
Corporate Journalism
This 1999 book by Markos Kounakalis, Drew Banks, and Kim Daus should be considered the primer on Corporate News. If you can see the merit of a newsroom put to work to democratize your organization this book will walk you through the ins and outs of making it work. The authors do a great job of showing the difference between marketing communications and strategic corporate journalism. Beyond Spin outlines the trends that point towards Corporate Journalism as a powerful strategic tool, includes plenty of how-to suggestions, and even touches on the comparison between societal and corporate journalism.
This book is one we highly recommend.
Find it: beyondspin.com
The Conversation of Journalism:
Communication, Community, and News
This one was written to help journalists cope with the social changes facing their work. Organizational leaders are dealing with the same societal changes, and they do so at work. When reading this book as an organizational leader, keep in mind the application of this books ideas to the use of journalism to support your organization. The book was published in 1994 so some of the work on multiculturalism will seem a bit dated. Rob Anderson, Robert Dardenne and George M. Killenberg put together a fantastic discussion about how journalism can take responsibility for community wide, or for our purposes – organization-wide dialogue capable of transforming society.
Find it: amazon.com
The News About the News
In this 2002 book, Leonard Downy Jr. and Robert Kaiser give readers a look into how the news business works and how stories come together. The lessons they have gathered with societal journalism in mind hold historical guides for how to manage journalism as a tool for organizational change. Of course they didn’t write with corporate journalism in mind, so you’ll have to make the leap yourself. For go-forward advice the best chapters deal with news values and the changes the Internet is bringing to how people get their news and from whom they get it. This is a great light read.
Find it: randomhouse.com
The Effective Executive
Any read that bears Peter F. Drucker’s name comes highly recommended. His work is likely the most cogent conceptual framework and lexicon on modern organization and society. His thinking pervades organizational life and not being familiar with it puts one at a disadvantage. One very influential book of his, The Effective Executive is a must read for executives. It could take years to exercise the disciplines Drucker recommends in this book and something will be learned in the trying. Axiom’s vision of an Age of Meaningful Contribution is an idea that was inspired by chapter three of this book, ‘What can I contribute’. A focus on contribution is an ethic in action Drucker writes. Other Drucker titles relevant to the global trends important to Axiom are, A Functioning Society, Post-Capitalist Society, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
This book has been in print since 1967 and is available through amazon.com
