Everyone could use some Walter Cronkite right now
Sree's new adventure in the school named for the former anchorman
Sree’s newsletter is produced w/ Zach Peterson (@zachprague). That’s a 1995 photo of Sree (with hair!) with the late great Walter Cronkite. In July, Sree starts his new gig working at the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (more below).
🗞 TUNE IN: Watch the archives of the NYT Readalong, at readalong.link/youtubeplaylist. The Readalong is sponsored by Muck Rack. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.
📺 My Digimentors team is working with companies and nonprofits around the world to create virtual and hybrid events. We’ve worked on events for 50 people and 100,000. See our updated brochure. Please talk to us if you need events help or social media consulting (no project too small or too big): sree@digimentors.group.
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THE FRAMED 1995 PHOTO YOU SEE ABOVE has had pride of place in multiple offices I’ve occupied over the years: Columbia University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York’s City Hall and Stony Brook University. It shows me, with hair, with the late, great Walter Cronkite, “the most trusted man in America.”
When I arrived as a 9-year-old in America, my diplomat father, T.P. Sreenivasan (@sreeniv), made me watch “Uncle Walter” on CBS Evening News, with his signature ending, “And that’s the way it is.”
Starting July 1, I will be moving my academic perch to the terrific journalism school named for him, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in Phoenix. I am so grateful to my new Dean, Dr. Battinto Batts (@battintobattsjr) for giving me this incredible opportunity. Here’s the press release and lovely video that marketing honcho Allison Otu’s (@allisonotu) team put together: http://bit.ly/sreecronkite
I’ll be managing director of Cronkite Pro, a new program providing lifelong learning for professionals around the globe. We’ll provide opportunities for journalists to improve their skills and learn new technologies, but we are going to be working with folks well beyond journalism.
Cronkite School @Cronkite_ASU
The Cronkite School welcomes journalist, digital media executive & educator @sree who will serve as managing director of CronkitePro, a new program that will provide lifelong learning & skills development for professionals across the globe. 👥 Read more: https://t.co/hrtyuvfGGc https://t.co/mVJdehVNi0We have learned during the pandemic that folks in dozens of professions need to improve their communications skills, fight misinformation and disinformation, and reach a broader audience. To help build a variety of ways to do just that is going to be an honor of a lifetime.
It is also an urgent task. Tech platforms, media companies and our leaders mostly failed us during Covid. Those failures show us that we are not ready for the next existential threat that’s already upon us, the climate crisis - and whatever else is unleashed by the very comms tools many of us love and use every day.
If you’d like to learn more, there’s a form at the bottom of this page to get on our mailing list. I would love to talk to potential partners, collaborators, trainers and more.
And before I end, a big shoutout to Dean Laura Lindenfeld of Stony Brook School of Communication and Journalism, my academic perch for the last three years. Her making me the Marshall R. Loeb Visiting Professor of Digital Innovation and Audience Engagement - along with the support from Michael Loeb and family - has been a #LifeHighlight.
Sree Sreenivasan @sree
EPIC 🧵 TIME! Sharing some personal news & documenting the journey over months ahead. I’m humbled to be inaugural MARSHALL R. LOEB Visiting Professor of Digital Innovation & Audience Engagement at @stonybrooku’s @SBUjournalism. Details: https://t.co/zZ6tvD7aUO #loebsbu https://t.co/PCpF0bmS97
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PS: Did you catch the Digimentors Work Travel Events Report 2022? Get your free copy here.
Congratulations, Sree - A Message from Armory Square Ventures
We heard the news. Congratulations, Sree, on your new post as managing director at CronkitePro at ASU!
You have always believed in the promise of digital media. You have advised of its perils but educated us on its impact and reach. Your takes infuse the twitterverse with humor and, at times, justifiable criticism.
In 2018, you moderated a discussion at our ASV Annual Meeting, speaking with Spencer Ante on the role and impact Georges Frédéric Doriot, a French immigrant had on the tech industry when he started American Research and Development Corp in 1946.
We leave you with a quotation from Doriot.
You will get nowhere if you do not inspire people. On a road somewhere, three men were breaking stones. They were asked what they were doing: One said, “I earn a living.” One said, “I break stones.” One said, “I help build cathedrals.” Let us build cathedrals together.
Thank you for all you do and for being a trailblazer and pioneer.
Read Something
The negative Pavlovian response to notification noises is very real. I'm not much of a Slack user, but even I know the "knock brush" sound, and this piece really resonated with a lot of people in my personal and professional circles. "Always on" is part of it, but maybe brands just shouldn't be allowed to use their notification sounds in ads!
Tech Tip w/ @newyorkbob: BlackBerry Smartphones: End of the Line?
By Robert S. Anthony
Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him @newyorkbob.
There was a time when getting caught in a Wall Street-area tavern with anything less than a BlackBerry smartphone would have generated chuckles from your barstool companions. With its secure software, physical keyboard and reputation for reliability, the iconic BlackBerry phone was the only choice of the rich and snooty.
Unfortunately, the allure of the BlackBerry mobile brand has faded over the years as Apple’s iPhones and those running Google’s Android platform gobbled up the smartphone market. While BlackBerry itself is still very much standing, its smartphone brand may be reaching the end of the line as OnwardMobility, a company which had partnered with BlackBerry to build a secure 5G smartphone with the BlackBerry nameplate less than two years ago, announced it was shutting down.
In August 2020 OnwardMobility said it would work with FIH Mobile Limited, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group—the same company that builds smartphones and tablets for Apple—to produce the BlackBerry phone by the first half of 2021. The year ended with no product in sight.
Nevertheless, OnwardMobility insisted that the unit was still in the works, going as far as tweeting on Jan. 7 that “…we are not dead.” Unfortunately, OnwardMobility recently announced that it was shutting down and that the “ultra-secure smartphone” project was dead.
Since 2016 BlackBerry has been an all-software company, allowing other firms to license and build BlackBerry-branded phones. TCL Communication recently built licensed Android units, some with real keyboards like the BlackBerry KEYone, but that agreement ended in 2020. Now the end of the BlackBerry smartphone line seems near as the brand is currently only available in select markets globally.
The BlackBerry mobile product brand has survived several marketing stumbles. In 2011 BlackBerry introduced the PlayBook, a well-built, 7-inch tablet it thought could challenge Apple’s iPads but turned out to be a sales failure. The PlayBook shipped—inexplicably—without email or calendar software and BlackBerry couldn’t persuade many app publishers to write for its proprietary operating system. BlackBerry recently ended support for older BlackBerry-built mobile products.
The future for BlackBerry smartphones seems dim. But if the brand fades into smartphone history, it will find a place of honor waiting for it in a tech museum—right next to the Texas Instruments four-function calculator and the PalmPilot personal digital assistant.
My most popular tweet of the week (thanks to #RickWilsonEffect)
Watch Something
For baseball fans, Matt Harvey's testimony in the recent trial about the overdose death of star pitcher Tyler Skaggs case was heartbreaking. It was a person, once (if briefly) near the very top of his craft, talking about doing cocaine in the dugout, giving drugs to other players, and it was truly sad. This interview with then-manager of the Mets, Terry Collins, demonstrates everything that is wrong with alpha male sports culture generally, and how we talk about addiction and drug abuse specifically. Just awful.
Odds & Ends
🩺 Be sure to check out our “She’s On Call” podcast, with surgeons Sujana Chandrasekhar, MD (@DrSujanaENT), and Marina Kurian, MD (@MarinaKurian) — watch the live show on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
🗞 TUNE IN: Watch the archives of the NYT Readalong, at readalong.link/youtubeplaylist. The Readalong is sponsored by Muck Rack. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.
👀 Did we miss anything? Make a mistake? Do you have an idea for anything we’re up to? Let’s collaborate! sree@sree.net and please connect w/ me: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube / Cameo.