Your PR Architect

My first full-time reporting job came from a small weekly paper on Long Island. Called Suffolk Life, the paper served as the launch pad for the careers of a number of superb journalists and scholars . And me. No one becomes wealthy working at a weekly paper. Because he couldn't pay me very much, the publisher, the late great Dave Wilmott , Jr., allowed me to gas up from the same ancient Esso-esque pump that filled his delivery trucks. A few years later, as a public relations practitioner, I continued my appreciation of weeklies, especially when promoting lifestyle products and how to use them. My rationale: place a story in a daily paper, and that edition will likely be discarded when the next day's paper arrives. Place the same story in a weekly, and that paper lives in readers' homes for a full week before its replacement shows up. I get seven chances to grab your attention, not just one. Local weeklies. (c) DKassnoff, 2016. Today, Suffolk Life is out of busin

When a U.S. federal judge in early May told Staples and Office Depot/Office Max that their proposed merger was dead , I was busy grading papers. But now, a couple of weeks later, I say: "Good on ya," Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. By Takkk (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons I'm the guy personified in an old Staples TV ad, singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," when back-to-school supplies go on sale in late July. I've strolled the stationery aisles of independent drugstores, looking for a hard-to-find ink refill or discontinued ballpoint. (All-time favorite: Pilot's long-gone GX300. ) And, I've been an advocate of Staples, because they often have what I need. But not this time. True, a Staples/Office Depot merger would have better competed with Amazon and Wal-Mart in the office/home-office category. But it would've doomed many smaller stationers, and perhaps crippled the buying cooperatives that educators use

News item: Sports Authority, once a thriving sporting goods superstore, announced yesterday  it's closing all 450 stores . Drowning in $1 billion in debt, the chain -- and its 14,000-plus employees -- are history. And so is its inventory of snake shot. More on this in a moment. By BrokenSphere (Own work) [GFDL  CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons More nimble sports merchandisers figured out how to do what Sports Authority couldn't. Dick's Sporting Goods created a somewhat upmarket experience (read: firearms and golf stores-inside-the-store) that Sports Authority couldn't match. And, if you're a die-hard fan of a particular team, there's no limit to the number of online sellers of numbered jerseys. No one wants to see less competition in the marketplace. Competition means pricing strategies that can benefit consumers (who may already be saving for their next pair of $200 LeBrons). But a quick visit