Launching China Communications Intelligence

Today Caracal is formally launching the China Communications Intelligence service.

Are you tired of receiving political intelligence from people who have never worked on a political campaign and couldn't tell you the electoral importance of Macomb County over Marin County?

Are you tired of being lectured by tweed-jacket academics with fancy degrees that are more impressed with speaking engagements in Aspen than helping you connect the dots?

Are you tired of not knowing if the information you are receiving is reality-based or commentary-based?

Do you have these pain points?

I know these pain points.

Working with people that dismiss the importance of politics.

Working with people that dismiss street smarts.

Working with people that dismiss reality to fit their narrative.

Here are four reasons why Team Caracal is so excited to get the China Communications Intelligence service into the wild:

Caracal knows communications and political intelligence for global business.

Caracal knows communications at the intersection of globalization, disruption, and politics.

Caracal knows how to engage the world's most politically savvy participants.

Caracal loves working with corporate communication executives.

We packaged up all this know-how and passion into the China Communications Intelligence service.

A service designed to meet the motley to-do task list that dominates the working life of a corporate communication executive, especially one whose responsibility is global.

The China Communications Intelligence service is designed by a communication executive for other communication executives - it is the only US-China service that puts communications first.

Not government relations.

Not regulatory policy.

Not business advisory.

Not diplomacy.

Communications.

We mean no slight to the many learned policy pros and sophisticated diplomats that dominate the US-China commercial relations advisory world, but succeeding in this hyper-political environment requires street smart communications.

Communications that are well informed, consistent, persuasive, engaging multiple stakeholders, and executing a street smart high-low approach.

Communications that needs to go from the think tanks of DC to the backyard picnic tables of Detroit.

Communications that needs to go from the panels of Davos to the coffee shops of Denver.

The China Communications Intelligence service will help you navigate one of the most critical commercial relationships in the world - from daily news overviews to deep-dive presentations.

Let me show what China Communications Intelligence is.

I want to send you our daily news overview email for ten business days.

A daily news overview that is China political trend-spotting and actionable insights to help you succeed in the hyper-political US-China commercial relationship.

Sound good?

Email me your email address - click here now.

-Marc

Now circulation more important than advertising for newspapers

For the first time, newspapers made more money from circulation than from advertising.

Pew reports that according to an analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings of publicly traded newspaper companies, newspapers' top source of revenue is circulation.

One needs to go all the way back to the groovy 1960s to find a time when American newspapers had more annual revenue from advertising than from circulation.

But with ad revenue in a fall off a mountain type decline, circulation revenue has held steady and finally has become more critical in 2020.

The estimated total US daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2020 was 24.3 million for weekdays and 25.8 million for Sundays, each down 6% from the previous year.

Interestingly, the estimated circulation peak of US daily newspapers happened at 63.1 million in 1973.

Email is what I know and love

So obviously, Gen Z wants to free me from what I know and love.

According to a 2020 study from the consulting firm Creative Strategies, there's a generational gap in work tools.

The survey found that for those 30 and above, email was among the top tools they used for collaboration.

For those under 30, Google Docs was the app workers associated most with collaboration, followed by Zoom and iMessage.

Plus, Gen Z sees email as a life stressor.

At any given time, going into one's email inbox is a crackerjack box, but without the cheap prize and caramel popcorn goodness.

An email inbox at any given time can be home to important work stuff, an invite to attend your uncle's retirement party, and a reminder to renew Netflix.

You can see why Gen Z wants to free me from email.

In a recent survey by Deloitte, 46 percent of Gen Z respondents reported feeling stressed all or most of the time in 2020, and 35 percent said they had taken time off work because of stress and anxiety.

CEOs will need to do a better job helping Gen Z manage email and various communications tools.

With the rise of one-stop, do everything super apps, this will be a challenge.

But seeing any communication tool as just that - a tool, coupled with recognizing that some tools are better for a specific job that needs to get done, will be essential for business productivity.

I recommend a twice-a-year communications tool audit to discuss with your core team to ensure everyone is using the best tool for the job and not fostering stress and less productivity.