Chances are you watched the Oscars Sunday evening. 41.3 million of us did to be exact - a 14 percent increase from the 2009 show and the highest in five years. Was it because the best picture category expanded to 10 nominees to include something for everybody? Was it because one of the night’s key films was the biggest movie ever? [...]

In my short time in the professional world, it’s become clear that the nerds will soon rule the world.  Employers are looking for candidates who know an industry and have the technical toolkit to help adapt to new economic models. It’s a rough scene  for the nerd-impaired: venn diagrams pass for humor, and you couldn’t [...]

Editor’s note: This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com. To view the original, visit MinnPost.
I’m meeting some people in Las Vegas today, and I’m not sure if they’ll show up.
They’re magazine editors for Meredith Corp., the giant publishing company in Des Moines that puts out Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, Midwest Living [...]

Once upon a time, I really didn’t care which local news station I watched. None was particularly bad, but none was particularly compelling, at least not to the point at which I had developed a true connection or a sense of loyalty.
Then came Jason DeRusha.
A few years ago, I heard the WCCO reporter speak at [...]

Editor’s note: This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com. To see the original, go to http://bit.ly/687e6g.
I ran across an intriguing bit of media research recently. A consulting firm surveyed more than 500 newspaper publishers from papers of all sizes and asked them to predict revenue trends for 2010.
These executives collectively declared their long [...]

Sure, there are detractors who say Chad Ochocinco (formerly Chad Johnson) is brash, a diva and needs to shut up – I just happen to not be one of those people. I have him on my fantasy football squads and even if he wasn’t playing well – which is not the case - I wouldn’t trade him just for [...]

Earlier this week I was speaking to one of my cohorts here at the agency, during one of the five to six “humor breaks” that we manage to squeeze in on a typical busy day.  He said something to me to the effect of, “Hey, do you think some of the stuff we do here at the [...]

Editor’s note: This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com. To view the original, go to http://tinyurl.com/lf2q3o.
I like talking to news people. They’re smart, funny and irreverent. I spent 20 years in newsrooms, and I’m not sure there’s a workplace anywhere that’s such a mixture of earnest inquiry, frenzied energy, high-minded idealism and juvenile [...]

Last night John and I attended #Journchat Live at Tunheim Partners and I wanted to provide a brief recap. The idea of #journchat started on Twitter with PR pro Sarah Evans, or @PRsarahevans on Twitter, leading a discussion with the mission “to keep an ongoing, open dialogue between journalists, bloggers and public relations professionals (for [...]

New York Times reporter David Rohde had been taken captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan seven months ago and — thank the deity of your choosing — he recently escaped and found his way to safety. That’s wonderful news.
Speaking of news, I would have guessed this gentleman’s capture itself would have qualified as news. The [...]