Touché

Fewer people would listen if his name were Adam Smith, but here it is what he has to say, Tyler Brûlé, the well-named editor of the Monocle Magazine and columnist of the Financial Times:

HOW ABOUT SUBSTANCE?

And the occasion? Well, anything could be the occasion, because nothing, nothing has ever ruled the world as much as marketing in all its ugly emanations does these days.

Tyler Brûlé

In Brûlé's case --- not sure he would like us to call him Tyler --- in Brûlé's case it's  --- and now we are interrupted by a chain of events reported under Connubial Bliss  --- in Brûlé's case it's  --- and now we could dwell on the fact that it wasn't so much an event as the absence thereof, like, like Conan Doyle's dog not barking in the night --- in Brûlé's case it's  --- it's perhaps a lucky coincidence that we're not writing a column in the FT but a simple blogpost  ---  in Brûlé's case it's a conversation with a friend who has started writing for this "large-ish news organization," finished her first story, and is now spending her time on getting the message of its publication across via "a media channel" (Facebook, probably). And then he asks:


"Why would she want to do that? Wasn't the point of being the journalist in the employment of a large-ish news organization to let the editors, PR team and marketing department do the grandstanding? If your story's good enough, doesn't it sell itself? And shouldn't you be getting on with the next story, rather than coddling the one you just filed?"

This is so true, folks, this is the truest thing since the invention of apple pie. Who's left on this planet to say that people should worry more about the message and less about the channel, and that the ever-expanding PR teams --- whom do you know among your friends who was looking for a job and hasn't just been hired by a PR department? --- that the ever-expanding PR teams should do their job and let you do yours?

We add a few more of Brûlé's observations and then let you think:

"What happened to being a bit exclusive and mysterious?"

"Why, just because a [media] channel is available, do we have to come across as being constantly available and always selling ourselves?"

"I watched the world caving in around us." 

PS: What happened to the concept of division of labor? Oh, right, Karl Marx invented it, it must be wrong. Hold on, wasn't that Adam Smith?