Gene Weingarten has a powerful personal brand
I had the busiest day ever on my blog Friday, thanks to the power of Gene Weingarten's brand.
- Update: That record was broken Monday and then again Tuesday as the branding conversation continued.
Gene started the discussion with his Washington Post Sunday Magazine "Below the Beltway" column, answering a journalism student, identified only as Leslie, who asked how he had developed his "personal brand." Gene's response:
"The best way to build a brand is to take a three-foot length of malleable iron and get one end red-hot. Then, apply it vigorously to the buttocks of the instructor who gave you this question. You want a nice, meaty sizzle."
Gene Weingarten: How ‘branding’ is ruining journalismI am honored that you have chosen me as the subject of your journalism school graduate thesis. At the behest of your instructor, you e-mailed me to ask how I've "built my personal brand over the years." I'm answering with this column.- I responded in my blog, saying that Gene has, in fact, developed a strong brand, even if he is scornful of the term.
Gene Weingarten knows branding (even though he scorns it) « The Buttry DiaryJune 24, 2011 by Steve Buttry Gene Weingarten has developed an outstanding personal brand as a journalist. But that brand will not let him write, except scornfully, about branding and journalism. So I will answer the question a journalism student (identified only as "Leslie") asked him: How he built his "personal brand" over the years.After Owen Youngman, a journalism professor at the Medill School at Northwestern University, identified himself as the professor who had made the assignment, I asked him to ask Leslie if I could publish her research paper. Leslie Trew Magraw did send me her research paper, with permission to publish:
Leslie Trew Magraw’s research paper on Gene Weingarten’s personal brand « The Buttry DiaryJune 24, 2011 by Steve Buttry I wrote a blog post this morning about personal branding in journalism, responding to a column Gene Weingarten had written for the Washington Post, claiming that branding was ruining journalism. Weingarten was responding to an inquiry from a journalism student he identified only as "Leslie."- Youngman blogged about the issue himself.
The meaty sizzle of a 21st Century brandLast Saturday, June 18, was the day that 2011 Medill graduates received their BSJ and MSJ degrees at a convocation on campus. This followed by a day Northwestern's commencement ceremonies, which featured the advice of speaker Stephen Colbert (full text | 5-minute video): "You have been told to follow your dreams. But what if it's a stupid dream?"Paul Carr joined the discussion on TechCrunch, telling Gene: "If you"re going to embarrass a journalism student to set up a rant about personal branding and user generated content, it"s probably not a good idea to do it in a photo-bylined column (personal branding!) in which you use a letter you received from a reader (user generated content!) to artfully position yourself as an old-school newsman…"
Dear Gene: A Self-Branding Reply To Gene Weingarten’s Self-Branding Column About Self-BrandingDear Gene, I was just reading your most recent Washington Post column: an open letter to a j-school student who wrote to you, at her professor's behest, asking how you built your "personal brand" in journalism. You sure showed her!Guy Lucas weighed in with another letter to Leslie, telling her: I can sympathize with those who don"t like the use of "brand" in journalism conversations because it originated in marketing and advertising. It still makes me a little uncomfortable, but I recognize it is in common use.
‘Brand’ is not a dirty word « Newsroom With A ViewDear Leslie: I was set to say I was sorry that you chose Gene Weingarten to ask about building a personal brand because, instead of a helpful answer, he supplied a curmudgeonly rant attacking what he imagines the word "brand" represents, which appears to be everything evil in the world of journalism.As you would expect, the issue got lots of play on Twitter. Gene got lots of support. But check out what they said. The personal loyalty and affection some of the tweeps expressed shows how strong the Weingarten brand is.
