Young people who move to Philadelphia sometimes ask me how to get better connected in Philadelphia. And the figures suggest there is a growing number of them.

I’ve found myself offering up the same handful of suggestions more than a few times.

1. Attend Young Involved Philadelphia events — The group is a great hub of smart, hungry, young Philadelphians. Your city probably has one like it.
2. Join the Philadelphia Sports Network or another recreational sports league — These groups are great at bringing people together around sports, and most cities have something like them.
3. Join your neighborhood civic or block group — Most neighborhoods that are attracting new Philadelphians have active community groups that improving the city and connecting the civic minded. If your neighborhood doesn’t have one, then start one.
4. Find an online community that fits your interest — Whether it be sports or technology or drinking or your part of the city, someone is probably writing and hosting events that will attract people like you. If not, start one.
   They’ll find you.
5. Rock social media — There are probably smart people on Twitter in your city. Find them. Engage with them. Ask them to grab coffee. And, hey, don’t ignore online dating if you’re looking for that.
6. Embrace an institution — Maybe your university has an alumni group in your new city. If not, find a museum, advocacy group or another institution that has a young friends group or something else.
7. Volunteer — Find a nonprofit, political group or mission group that has value to you. Volunteer and find people like you.

I have been blessed to attend the last two national Online News Association conferences, one in D.C. and last year’s in Boston.

This year, the celebrated, 13-year-old organization will host its annual event of more than 5,000 members in San Franciso to offer some geographical balance to the affair. There is some call for a Midwest event in 2013, which might make sense, but whether it’s next year or in 2014, the conference, expo and meeting of the minds of news innovation should happen in Philadelphia.

Updated: Apparently Philadelphia is booked for 2014. So, uh, 2015?

I’m part of a small group in Philadelphia lobbying for the effort, which includes a formal application process, and that application is being submitted. Still, I felt it worth sharing what appears to me to be the clear reasons why this would be an easy decision.

Here are 10 reasons:

1. ONA has never had a national convention in Philadelphia, even though the national student and black journalist society’s have convened here.
2. Philadelphia is actually a city people will want to visit, having one of the most walkable downtowns, a vibrant restaurant community, history, culture, music, neighborhoods and impact. Oh, and it’s cheaper than all those other big cities.
3. It has a major convention center, in addition to several major hotels, like the Center City Marriot, both of which can handle an even larger conference space.(And hey, the notoriously overpriced Convention Center has cut a major part of its labor costs recently.)
4. Supportive major media, including representatives of Philly.com (and a need for new newspaper ownership to be close to anything innovative), TV representatives from NBC 10, staff from public media WHYY and the country’s largest entertainment company Comcast.
5. Supportive institutions, like the William Penn Foundation, major journalism program Temple University, and their new spinoffs the Center for Public Interest Journalism and PPIINN.
6. Vibrant independent media, both in print, online, in communities and otherwise. see BCNIphilly.com
7. Active, growing technology and innovation community, which has impact and interest in media, see phillytechweek.com and the local Hacks/Hackers community.
8. ONA leadership has relationships here, in addition to Philly.com’s Wendy Warren, the founding CEO of the new PPIINN initiative Neil Budde is a former ONA board member.
9. It’s near a lot of people and members, considering that Philadelphia is within a train or bus ride of the densest hub of markets in the country, where a good chunk of ONA members are.
10. Active local ONA chapter, though it was revived relatively recently, see here for membership.

The importance, sway and influence of one of the world’s most dominant 20th century newspapers was the focus of the 1998 collection of essays about the once powerful Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, edited by its former education reporter Peter Binzen, who also wrote Whitetown USA.

Dubbed ‘Nearly Everybody Read It,’ a riff off the paper’s legendary slogan, the 163-page book has nearly 20 essays from former Bulletin reporters and editors, including its first female and black correspondents. For 135 years, the family owned paper was a powerhouse among a rich daily newspaper tradition in Philadelphia.

A central story line of the book was the Bulletin’s battle with the Inquirer, its chief rival, and how, in the end, the Inquirer, considered by many to be the chain response to the family-owned operation, won. Through all the bluster, I thought there were four primary reasons that rang most true to me:

1. The Bulletin fundamentally failed to innovate, remaining an afternoon daily as circulation fell with growing TV news audiences, increasing transportation costs due to traffic and changing news cycles.
2. The Bulletin failed to develop the revenue to stay competitive, including a premature sale of its nascent TV station, denying alcohol advertising and other funding methods that kept it lagging behind the Knight-Ridder funded Inquirer.
3. The Bulletin resisted aggressive editorial reconfiguration, following the investigative spirit of the 1970s that soared the reputation of the Inquirer behind editor Gene Roberts, and pushed out its own innovative editor George Packard.
4. The Bulletin came up short in following the suburban trend, having its 1947 purchase of the Camden Courier Post denied by the U.S. Department of Justice for anti-monopoly concerns was a large blow.

As I often do when reading something relevant to the news and innovation conversations I so adore, I wanted to share some choice thoughts from the book.

• “…streetwise reporters like Bill Storm, who taught me it was important to always have two kinds of gin: the good stuff for martinis, and lesser brands for fools who might want to mix it with tonic.” (p. ix)
•  ”I was based in the City Hall press room of 212, a place where there was always a pinochle game in progress.” (p. xii)
• In naming the colorful cast of reporters around him, Rem Rieder mentions Harry Karafin, the Inquirer reporter who was later convicted in 1968 of blackmailing sources and died in prison. (p. xii)
• The Bulletin was so focused on its family-friendly image that it was known to have its three-pages of comics airbrushed of any potentially suggestive material, squashed coverage of the much hyped Kinsey sexuality reports and refused liquor ads longer after its competitors gave in to accept the ample resources. (p. 2)
• A claim of 13 daily newspapers in 1905, something I’m trying to confirm. (p. 2)
• The Bulletin’s circulation went from 600,000 in 1942 to 700,000 in 1946 to an all-time peak of 773,943 in 1947, all under the McLean family. (p. 7)
• Part of a 1947 deal to purchase the Philadelphia Record for $13 million, the Bulletin also bought radio station WCAU, which had recently started broadcasting TV to the merely 14,000 televisions in the country. By 1957, WCAU-TV was making more profit than the Bulletin, yet was sold to CBS for $20 million, considered now to be ‘dirt cheap.’ (p. 7)
• In an effort to push into the burgeoning suburbs, the Bulletin also acquired in the deal the then-small Camden Courier-Post, but the U.S. Justice Department forced its divestiture under anti-monopoly policy. (p. 7)
• Robert ‘The Major’ McLean was a legend, leading the Bulletin to being the best selling afternoon newspaper in North America into the 1950s and beyond. (p.
• “In 1951, the newspaper was thriving and the City of Philadelphia seemed to have a lot going for it too…three decades later, virtually all of those institutions had moved out of town or gone out of business. Philadelphia became a different, less inviting place.” Binzen’s entire description of the city is compelling. (p. 9)
• “…the Bulletin’s policy was to cover every aspect of life in the Philadelphia region. It covered every nickel holdup, every grassfire, every meeting of the city’s zoning board and its park commission. It covered the courts very closely as well as the Register of Wills.” (p. 10)
• In 1964, McLean family bought the News-Press in Santa Barbara, Calif. for a westward expansion (p. 11)
• A 1964 expose series on police corruption, directed by city editor Earl Selby, won the Bulletin and Philadelphia its first Pulitzer. (p. 11)
• Inquirer was changing; new editor Gene Roberts earned the paper its first Pulitzer in 1975, starting a streak of 17 before 1990, though they occasionally overreached being sued for libel often, including a $30 million award, the largest libel award in the history of American journalism eventually settled out of court in 1996. (p. 13) As an aside, two years later, the Inquirer was sued by its own reporter Ralph Cipriano in a wild story.
• Great story about sending a copy boy to New York to send a letter back to Philadelphia (also, apparently the Bulletin Almanac existed) (p. 15)
• “Bruno Richard Hauptmann has kept, at long last, his rendezvous with death.” This begins a beautiful Bulletin story from reporter Harry Proctor on the Linbergh baby’s killer’s execution. (p. 21)
• FDR nominated for second term in Philadelphia and gave speech at the University of Pennsylvania, where newspaper extras were sold. (p. 22)
• Bulletin reporters submitted letters to encourage real reader submission, including mentioning fertilizing gardens with dead cats (p. 24)
• Coverage of a Charles Bailey heart surgery under a compromise that if it didn’t go well, it wouldn’t be reported on. Is that an ethical concern? (p. 28)
• In 1953, the Bulletin refused to publish a reporter’s account of the Kinsey sexual story. (p. 30)
• Thorazine story: ethics questions and innovation on Philly (p. 31)
• Chick Coop, surgeon general who recommended cigarette warnings was University of Pennsylvania doctor (p. 34)
• Summer of 1954, progressive Mayor Joe Clark fluoridated the city’s water (p. 34)
• Features editor Paul Cranston was among  (p. 38)
• Lucille Ball offered to buy the Bulletin film critic a TV, as she refused to take on the technology, though the reporter refused. (p. 40)
• In late 1940s, the paper had 750,000 in circulation across 7 editions between 64-96 pages, including a process that could see a 9:20 a.m. story on the newsstand by 10 a.m. (p. 47)
• Homing pigeons were used to take photo negatives from sporting or other distant, ongoing live events to the newsroom. (p. 48)
• In a sign of the future of reader interaction, the Bulletin editors tried to drum up more reader letters. (p. 49)
• Reporters making sure to go out into the field with plenty of dimes to call the newsroom from a pay phone. (p. 56)
• Newsroom rewritemen who took phone calls from in-the-field reporters and turned in beautiful copy but never got bylines were unsung heroes, including Fred McCord, who once wrote that “the soles of Depression-era job seekers were worn so thin they could feel the difference underfoot between a nickel and a dime.” (p. 57)
• “Let the story sing and put the facts in the sidebar.” (p. 58)
• To get through to the Governor about a controversial execution, Paul Cranston landed in a balloon in his front yard. (p. 68)
• Dennis the Menace comic strip was first bought by the Bulletin and Cranston (p. 69)
• Sending a reporter to the Assembly, a fancy Main Line dance referenced earlier (p. 70)
• Like in Harrisburg and other newsroom, PR agents would bring liquor around Christmas to the reporters and ‘the Divvy’ would divide the liquor among the most senior reporters. (p. 76)
• A source threatened suicide if a story ran, the editor said ‘if he jumps, we’ll have  second day story’ (p. 82)
• In 1947, the Philadelphia Record closes because of strike by its union and the paper is bought by the Bulletin (p. 83)
• A reporter hid in a closet to a railroad scoop (p. 83)
• Transit authority gave a fifth of whiskey to all transit reporters in good graces (p. 84)
• The Bulletin was so locally focused, that a newsroom joke was that when World War III started, the lead of its story would be the impact on Kensington. (p. 85)
• The Bulletin was so notoriously fearful of taking a strong stand editorially, that when it endorsed Joe Clark for mayor, he was quoted as saying ‘How could you tell?’ (p. 87)
• Editorial page writer Don Rose, author of eight books, was the father of 12 and, at his death in 1964, 74 grandchildren. (p. 87)
• The Bulletin’s first female Philly editorial writer came in 1969 (p. 91)
• Overall from editorial to news to cartoons to advertising, it was a restrained paper timid and losing ground to a resurgent Inquirer
• April 12 1847 Bulletin first launches by Alexander Cummings, known as the Cummings Evening Telegraphic Bulletin (p. 93)
• The Bulletin was last in circulation of 13 dailies in Philly with 7,000 daily papers, when bought by Robert McLean in 1895. 10 years later it was number one. McLean family owned paper until 1980 (p. 94)
• Bulletin headquarters were at Juniper and Filbert from 1908 to 1955, when the Bulletin moved to the building across from 30th St, Then the Bulletin had 2,500 employees and 720,000 circulation.
• In 1951, at a party at the Pen and Pencil Club celebrating a reporter leaving, she was given a clock with the engraving ‘Her copy is always on time.’ (p. 94)
• Bulletin reporter George Staab went to Horatio Hackett School at York and Frankford near where I live, though he never graduated high school (p. 94)
• More stories of the city editor submitting letters to the editor (p. 98)
• The Virgin Mary’s figure is spotted in West Fairmount Park and tens of thousands come to see her (p. 101)
• In 1963, Nicaragua President Samoza knew the Bulletin and its slogan (p. 107)
• One reporter was covering a fatal stabbing. Said editor Toughill: “Is it black? Then fuck it.” Black crime was ordinary. (p. 112)
• That same editor used a secret phone in a courtroom to call in the results of a a controversial crime to beat everyone else. (p. 112)
• Philadelphia Record owned the New York Post. (p. 112)
• Controversial law-and-order mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo, before that, the primary police informant on the 1964 cop corruption series that gave the Bulletin and Philadelphia its first Pulitzer
• Though black communities were often ignored in the 1940s and 1950s, that started to change in the 1960s, including a big feature on the black community (p. 117)
• In covering the Civil Rights movement in the South, a Bulletin and Washington Post reporter sat together in first class, but the New York Times reporter sheepishly admitted his paper would only pay for coach (p. 122)
• The Penn Central Railroad bankruptcy was the country’s largest (p. 123)
• “Part of the tension [in news writing] comes from the irrational fear that maybe you won’t be able to bring it off this time.” (p. 130)
• How Martin Luther King Jr. changed in the course of a few years as one Bulletin reporter covered him (p. 131)
• In representing the distrust and disdain Bulletin reporters had for the Inquirer, one reporter tells the story of sitting next an Inquirer reporter at an event and afterward the Inquirer reporter saying ‘let’s get together and we can go over your notes.” (p. 132)
• One reporter’s story of surviving Nazi-held Vienna (p. 138)
• “Bad idea, kid. You’re thinking big. This is Philadelphia — think small.” an editor tells a reporter (p. 140)
• “If it ain’t local, forget it” (p. 143)
• An old-timer on leave came in to keep the Newspaper Guild out of the Bulletin 1975 (p. 143)
• “To some, all this is no big deal. For me, it was close to everything. A dream made real by a rumpled press card.” said Hans Knight (p. 145)
• One editor told a woman applicant that the Bulletin didn’t need a female reporter because ‘we already have one.’ She made it in and eventually covered Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir (p. 148)
• “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” said New Yorker writer AJ Liebling (p. 150)
• If bulletin didn’t have a story, it didn’t happen p150, claim staff bigger than inqy and daily news together
• Orrin Evans was the first and only black Bulletin reporter when Claude Lewis came in 1967 (p. 153)
• Evans was moved that Lewis was offered the Harrisburg bureau, something Evans could have never gotten when he had started because of racial prejudices (p. 155)
• Story of Lewis taking advantage of an off-the-record conversation with a prosecutor (p. 157)
• One reason black reporter hires went up in the 1960s was that leading black celebrities would only be interviewed by black reporters, so many younger, less experienced blacks were hired over whites, which caused resentment. (p. 157)
• Lewis was beaten by police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (p. 158)
• Lewis became the first black columnist (p. 159)
• Reporters fought Editor George Packard, who was making many changes to the Bulletin, eventually, he became too divisive and was asked to leave, another way that Gene Roberts and the Inquirer continued to innovate and win the battle (p. 161)
• The 20th annual Association of Black Journalists conference was held triumphantly back in Philadelphia (p. 163)

This Philadelphia daily newspaper family tree is framed in the Inquirer editorial board room at 400 N. Broad Street. Photo by Russell Cooke. Click to enlarge.

There were a dozen or more daily newspapers in Philadelphia at one time, I hear. Trouble is, I couldn’t seem to find anyone who could name what all of those papers were.

So I went and did some good old fashioned research — with some great direction from representatives of the following institutions.

Below, find a historical timeline of daily newspapers in Philadelphia, or at least what I could decode using four sources: primarily the Pennsylvania State Library newspaper collection [call number: Philadelphia] and the archives of the University of Virginia, with some help from a 1997 collection of essays called ‘Nearly Everybody Read It,’ edited by Peter Binzen (whose other book I recently read) and an essay from Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia member Gerry Wilkinson. (I compiled some other notes on the Inquirer here.)

Check it out below and offer any criticism or comment — I’m certainly expecting that this is incomplete, so any other leads are appreciated!

This goes from most recent to least recent, and if anyone can follow all the openings, rebrandings and mergers enough to get an accurate count of daily newspapers at a variety of times, I’d love to hear it.

• October 2010: Philadelphia Media Network announces plans to leave the Inquirer Building for the former Strawbridge Building at Eighth and Market streets.
• February 2009: Philadelphia Daily News is made ‘an edition’ of the Philadelphia Inquirer, then owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings, which went through bankruptcy and was eventually bought by a group called Philadelphia Media Network.
• November 1995: Philly.com is launched
• Jan. 1982: Philadelphia Evening Bulletin closes
• Late 1977:  Quebecor-owned Philadelphia Journal launches, focusing on sports coverage and a tabloid format, but was squeezed out, closing in 1981.
• December 31, 1969: Inquirer and Daily News bought by the Knight paper chain, merged with Ridder in 1974
• 1957: Walter Annenberg purchases the Daily News, becoming the Inquirer’s sister paper
• Feb. 1, 1947 Philadelphia Record, owned by J. David Stern and facing a ‘crippling strike,’ bought by Evening Bulletin for $13 million, adding a Sunday edition and picking up radio station WCAU, which had recently launched a TV station.
• July 31, 1936: Moses Anenberg (Walter’s father) purchases the Inquirer
• April 16, 1934: Inquirer absorbs the Public Ledger, adds a Sunday edition
• March 31, 1925: Philadelphia Daily News launches
• 1925: Inquirer moves to its longtime location at Broad and Callowhill streets, costing $10 million.
• 1920: The Philadelphia Press is bought by the famed Curtis Publishing Company, which renamed the formerly Ben Franklin-owned Pennsylvania Gazette to the Saturday Evening Post.
• 1918: Evening Public Ledger absorbs the Evening Telegraph.
• 1902: Public Ledger absorbs the Philadelphia Times.
• 1900: Public Ledger absorbs Taggarts’ Sunday Times.
•  1885: Public Ledger absorbs Philadelphia Press.
• 1884: Philadelphia Tribune begins printing.
•  June 25, 1882: Philadelphia Record begins publishing daily.
•  1876: The Philadelphia Public Ledger absorbs the North American, briefly publishing as “The Public Ledger and North American.”
• 1875: Times begins publishing daily, continuing Illustrated and continued in 1902 by the Philadelphia Times.
• 1866: Evening Star begins publishing daily, halting in 1900. (not sure if merged).
•  1864: Evening Telegraph begins publishing daily.
• 1863: Daily Age begins publishing daily.
• 1862: Daily Constitution Union begins publishing daily, becoming the Evening Union in 1867.
• April 1860: Inquirer rebranded as the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• 1857: The Press begins publishing, continued as the Philadelphia Press in 1880.
• 1850: the North American absorbs the American Daily Advertiser, the frequently renamed ancestor of the Pennsylvania Packet.
• 1847: American Sentinel rebranded as the Evening Telegraphic Bulletin.***
• 1847: Spirit of The Times and Daily Keystone begins publishing daily, continued as the Spirit of The Times in 1849.
• February 15, 1845: “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe first published in the Inquirer

• 1845: The Inquirer is called “The Pennsylvania Inquirer and National Gazette.”
•  1845: North American absorbs the United States Gazette, rebranding as the North American and United States Gazette.
•  1844: The American Advocate begins publlishing daily except Sunday, until 1845.
• 1840: Charles Dickens novels run serialized in the Inquirer
• 1839: Inquirer merges with the Daily Courier, briefly known as “The Pennsylvania Inquirer and Daily Courier.”
• 1839: North American absorbs American Daily Advertiser to form the North American and Daily Advertiser.
• March 25, 1836: Philadelphia Public Ledger begins printing, soon after absorbing the Philadelphia Transcript.
• 1835: The Daily Transcript begins printing.
• 1832: Pennsylvanian begins publishing daily except Sunday, continued as the Daily Pennsylvanian in 1855.
  
• 1829: the North American begins publishing.
• Monday, June 1, 1829 — Pennsylvania Inquirer launches**
• 1828: The Daily Chronicle begins publishing daily, except Sunday, continued as the Daily Courier in 1834.
• 1824: Franklin Gazette absorbs the Aurora General Advertiser.
• 1823: United States Gazette continues merged Union, United States Gazette and True American.
•  1820: National Gazette and Literary Register begins publishing daily except for Sunday, followed in 1841 by the National Gazette and Literary and Commercial Register.
• 1820: American Sentinel and Mercantile Advertiser begins publishing daily except Sunday, which launched as a weekly in 1815 and was shortened to the American Sentinel in 1824.***
• 1817: United States Gazette merges with True American to form Union, United States Gazette and True American.
  1812: Star of Liberty begins publishing daily except Sunday, though it doesn’t survive the year.
• 1807: Democratic Press begins publishing daily.
• 1804: Political and Commercial Register begins publishing daily, ending in 1820.
• 1802: Independent Whig, and Philadelphia Commercial Gazette begin publishing daily, though it folds soon after.
• 1801: Gazette of the United States is the rebranded version of the earlier Gazette properties.
• 1800: Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser is rebranded daily of Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser.

• 1799: Constitutional Diary and Philadelphia Evening Advertiser begins publishing daily, only to fold a year later.
• 1798: True American, and Commercial Advertiser begin publishing daily, continued by the True American in 1815.
• April 24, 1797: Porcupine’s Gazette begins publishing daily following a weekly version, ending in 1800.
• 1796: Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser begins publishing.
•  1796: New World begins publishing daily, continued as the Universal Gazette in November 1797.
• 1794: Philadelphia Gazette and Universal Daily Advertiser begin publishing daily.
• 1794: Aurora General Advertiser begins publishing daily except for Sunday, following the weekly General Advertiser.
•  April 5, 1790: Gazette partnership rebranded as the Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Daily Advertiser.
• 1788: Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Evening Post begin publishing daily except for Sunday.
• Oct. 7, 1786: Independent Gazetteer begins publishing daily, rebranded as the Independent Gazetteer on Jan. 9, 1790.
• Tuesday, September 21, 1784: The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser begins publishing daily, the first paper to do so in the country, after first being launched as The Pennsylvania Packet on Oct. 28, 1771 by John Dunlap, who printed the Declaration and the Constitution.

As I’ve done in passed years, as this year comes to a close, I like to dive a bit into the work I’ve done here in the last 12 months to gauge what was popular and what I was most proud of.

Below, find my 10 best read posts of the year and a few others I thought were worth reading.

10. Rejection takes you further than success: why getting rejected a lot brought me here

9. Homelessness in Philadelphia: what I learned working for a social services startup for a year
v

8. How to be a freelance journalist: real advice from another young, unknown journalist on freelancing

7. Five criteria for the flourishing of news entities of the future

6. Broetry Poetry Slam: ‘Portrait of a Bro’ in Spoken Word [VIDEO]

5. What Philly.com should be: a comprehensive, collaborative and open source for all news in Philadelphia

4. Selling Out: why some acquisitions are good and others are bad for Philadelphia business

3. Social entrepreneurship: how Philadelphia could have a regional distinction for startups

2. Why did you become a journalist?

1. Universities should host the newsrooms of their neighborhoods

And because popular rarely means best, Here are my favorite posts that didn’t happen to among the mos read:

1. January: Why Journalism should be like the catering business
2. February: Eleven lessons that shaped how I live my life
3. March: Why print will last so much longer than you think it will (hint: we can feel it)
4. March: 9 YouTube videos that changed my perspective on the world and the lessons I learned
5. April: 25 things I learned from the best newspapermen (and women) around
6. May: Gentrification: thoughts from seven years as student and young professional in Philadelphia
7. June: News needs to make more money on the popcorn
8. July: Technically Media meeting style: effective, productive and professional from home
   
9. August: Glengarry Glen Ross: 10 sales lessons from the 1992 cult classic movie
   
10. September: How 9/11 helped shape New York City for the better
    
11. October: Will jobs ever come back?: maybe there is an answer to the employment bomb
    
12. November: When you buy something, you are voting for its existence

The celebrated HBO historical drama Boardwalk Empire, set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, is making its way through its second season, and I’m catching up, having recently finished watching the first season.

The well-funded period piece, with backing from Scorsese, Wahlberg and others, tracks the life and times of a character based on a real political boss of the time. It’s a compelling story, tinged with real happenings, heavily researched authenticity and complex characters. In short, it’s a great watch.

Having finished the first season, there are a few takeaways I found myself internalizing:

1. ‘You have to learn how much sin you can live with,’ said the lead character ‘Nucky,’ played masterfully by Steve Buschemi, in one episode. How much of it and what kind are life decisions worth making early and sticking to through your efforts to live a life you cherish.
2. Know what your asking price is — Whether it comes out or not, the most artful dealings are made by men in this series who know specifically what they want, what they’ll be willing to give up and what could be defined as success and failure. We could all do a better job of having clearer objectives and asks before walking into a meeting.
3. Have an inside man and treat him well — You won’t please most of the people, so it makes sensible strategy to keep close associates who are leaders of their respective communities. It can be a source for information, effective lobbying and essential insight.
4. You’re either moving up or coming down — If you’re in a competitive market, business, industry or organization, your political power, talent, awareness, impact or clout is either improving or falling. Those directions can change winds, but mostly, they’re trending in one direction. Know which one and act accordingly.
5. Freedom of expression gains never cease to amaze me — Any remotely accurate historical drama always leaves me thinking that everyone in the past was stupendously suppressed, in emotions, sexuality, gender, race, hopes, dreams, attitudes and anything else possible. The obsession with normalcy that came out of our country’s massive influx of immigration was frightening.

For the few of you who haven’t seen the show, check out the first season trailer below.

Find the story online here, and my section here. Go buy a copy.

I was included for being one of three co-founders of local technology news site Technically Philly and being involved in the development of the city’s startup and hacker communities. I was perhaps most pleased that I have so far survived the Philly.com comments, mostly because I have helped build a small for-profit with three full-time employees.

The automatically-generated plaque that a company offered me by email after this news story ran. Though the $169 price tag was a little more than I thought worth it, I was interested in the process and how the newspaper itself didn't offer this.

While I am certainly proud to be included, I am humbled knowing that there are so many other young Philadelphians making great change. There is no way this list of 10 could do that justice. It’s just a highlight of some of us, and I’m proud to be part of it, but I am more than aware of how many others could have been on this list.

For the record, though, I am only 25, not 27. I should also say that I am certainly nervous about being included because of my relatively small contribution at such a young age. I look forward to being involved in much more in the future.

A PDF of the cover here and the article here.

I should also add that my colleague Sean Blanda was also recently included in a young up-incomers list.

The act of selling products, of course, is like finding your Atman of the service industry, so, acknowledging that that is at the top of the pyramid and any kind of client work is the foundation, let’s look at what helps these service businesses thrive enough financially to ever endeavor to trial a product or two: the three “R’s.”

By service industry, I’m thinking of professional firms that do things like web design, marketing, consulting, strategy and other high-level tasks that many companies will look to outsource.

There are three “R’s” that every successful company in a service industry achieves in building into its revenue strategy:

• Retainers — In most cases, you first work with a client around limited, deliverable-driven projects (or at least this is what we find valuable for both us and those with whom we work) for six months or a year. These are often big lifts that make heavy use of staff time, resources and insight. Good work happens here. But ideally, if value can be offered long-term with maintenance or further staff development, longer-term or continuing contracts of smaller value but steady income allow real stability and scale in the type of business (service) that isn’t very good at either.
• Recommendations — I can remember questioning the value of someone else speaking good on your work — words pasted on some leaflet or buried on a website. But in the past few years, I’ve found occasion when those very words, even when detached from the human being who supposedly said them, have been requested. Having a list of published testimonials and the client list that comes with them is endlessly valuable to draw upon in discussions, sales and strategy. When you’re starting out, use past work or give up some free work to start building that network.
• Referrals – This is surely related to the recommendations but quite a bit more valuable. Of our work at Technically Media, most of our clients come as a direct result of an introduction and private suggestion to work with us. Referrals are prized for a legion of reasons: cold calling sucks, you can better calendar-out clients, it becomes a curated list of clients with whom you want to work, the expectation is for you to succeed so winning is easier and more.

Sales tactics to lead and those to avoid are seemingly peppered throughout the classic, star-studded, independent black comedy Glengarry Glen Ross from 1992 that I finally got to watch — after quoting clips for years.

“We’re adding a little something to this month’s sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired,” says the character Blake, setting the mood early on.

As you might expect, there are some takeaways to be had.

The film, adapted from a 1983 play that won a Pulitzer Prize, shows the desperate, two-day plight of four real estate salesmen specializing in investment properties in retirement developments like Arizona and Florida. They’re getting squeezed by corporate to increase sales, represented by Alec Baldwin’s memorable, single-scene performance (watch a clip below).

Shot in Brooklyn, apparently subtly set in Chicago but including a New York Telephone sticker early on, was a critically-acclaimed box office bust that earned a Best Actor nomination at the Oscar’s for Al Pacino, who was joined by Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and other familiar faces. (Watch below a clip of Pacino’s famed monologue-laced sales pitch)

The film, dubbed ‘Death of the Fuckin’ Salesman’ because of its similar themes to Arthur Miller’s classic play and its coarse language, is an actor’s film destined to be a cult classic: well shot, smartly lit, full of monologues, a simple plot with deeper themes, filled with younger versions of top-flight actors. Yes, you know, all the reasons for it to not succeed financially.

My Takeaways:

1. “A man is his job,”says Shelley Levene, played by Jack Lemmon. Even if you don’t define yourself by your work, the very fact of choosing work that allows you to not be defined by it makes it a part of who you are. What we do, what we spend most of our time doing, surely says a great deal about who we are.
2. “It takes brass balls to sell…” says Blake, played by Alec Baldwin. The effort, confidence and savvy to sell damn near anything is an admirable, enviable and, often, loathsome toolkit.
3. ABC. Always be Closing — Those immortal words from Baldwin’s character are very nearly cartoonish in the movie, but the sentiment is real. Before entering any meeting, know what your ask is, what is considered a success. Because, my friends, as Toby Keith sings, “if you don’t know where you’re going/You might end up somewhere else.”
4. “You’ve never even been on a sit,” says Lemmon’s character, accusing Kevin Spacey’s bookish character of being unaware of the real challenges of sales.  Two things on this point: one, there is a clear sense that any entrepreneur, any red-blooded American, really, should have some sales experience; and two, well, gosh, Brian Kirk and I use this phrase ‘going on a sit’ from time to time just because it sounds so god damn cool.”
5. Appearances matter — This, of course, is nothing new, but the movie’s humor comes best when the real estate agent characters are deploying any mechanism of treachery to fool potential clients into believing any number of lies (the properties are moving fast, deadlines are rapidly approaching, their operation is very established, etc.). Picture Jack Lemmon in a phone booth on a rainy night asking his lead on the other end of the call to hold on a minute, as he shouts to a fictional secretary named ‘Grace’ to get his nonexistent plane ticket ready. Lies are, ultimately, bad for business, but the point is clear. In most cases, you are who you present yourself as. You probably do good work and know your industry well, but do you look like you do?
6. Tell a story, get familiar, speak with passion — Lying or not, succeeding or not, even these small-time real estate agents are always doing these three things. (1) They have a story arc for why what they’re selling is the right fit and what now is the right time. (2) They are getting and remembering names and details to develop a connection and making that ‘no’ even a touch harder. (3) They are speaking like what they’re talking about matters.
7. Have a deadline, always have a deadline — In the movie, every character is always leaving, so, yes, we need to make the deal now. It’s all hogwash, of course, and the lying isn’t necessary, but understanding that without a deadline of some kind, getting the movement you want is always going to be harder is paramount.
8. Make people explain themselves — This fits into a classic of journalism: shut up and let your interview speak. We too often bail each other out or simply misunderstand each other when we impatiently finish people’s sentences or thoughts, when, rather, it’s better to wait someone out. In sales, a sense of directionless from someone else, is an opportunity to create direction for you both. Details are like family, you love them, but they don’t always need to be around. Bring them up when they’re beneficial or focus on the overall meaning or broad vision otherwise.
9. Ownership of the upperhand goes round and round – Throughout the movie, the cast of characters is always attacking someone else, only to find that vitriol coming back hours later. It was a combative, competitive work environment of one-upsmanship. It didn’t seem like any of the characters were aware that he would surely be in a different situation soon. That’s a lesson everyone should remember. Give help, because you’re surely going to need it soon.
10. “You never open your mouth unless you know what the shot is,” says Ricky Roma, played by Al Pacino. Perhaps one of the better, less known quotes of the movie, Pacino’s character scolds Spacey’s for bluffing without knowing the context and screwing up a deal. The big takeaway for me is that — while, clearly, lying is bad business, despite its common usage in the film — going hard on a sell, bluffing or not, is only the right bet when you’ve done your research. Know who, why and how this is the person to sell on this subject. Otherwise, it’s easy to get burned.

Any other takeaways from other fans of the film?

1. Signing off initials — If you have multiple people using your organization’s account, sign off with initials for transparency, personal connection and ease.
2. Do create regular content — Part of my schtick is having a lunchtime regular feature, like Noontime Number for Technically Philly and Running News at Noon for Back on My Feet. It’s something followers come to expect and helps you be sure to fill content.
3. Do take the RSS feed from your blog and then do a second (or third) tweet later for ifferent audience — It helps feed the beast, but also means your next tweet will hit for a new audience. Note, though, that some feel Twitter should be all engagement, so sending an RSS feed is somewhat looked down on. Still, I think as long as an RSS feed doesn’t dominate your Twitter conversation, it’s an added value.
4. Do tweet your content more than once — Yes, as a follow up to the item above, keep in mind that Twitter users tend to focus in at different times, from the morning to lunch to the evening or something like it, so by tweeting a story a few times (without getting spammy), you have a better chance of hitting an interested party.
5. Do use CoTweet to manage multiple accounts with multiple user — the former central Pennsylvania startup has a lot of good features for archiving messages, assigning followup and forward posting tweets.
6. Instead of just responding, RT a meaningful message — When you reply to someone, RT her message and add your own when space allows. This gets other people into the conversation. If no one is interested, then take it to DM or email.
7. Do more often have a call to action — (usually a link) but don’t be afraid to offer meaning in words. It’s a push media, so what are you pushing? Don’t take that to mean you should always be pushing your stuff, but conversation, engagement, sharing, linking, etc. are all good calls to action.
8. Do be able to share a specific point in those 140 characters — So, ‘Man speaks at classroom’ is a whole lot less effective than ‘this is how we can make homework suck less, man says,’ which can inspire conversation or thought or response or, even better, a click.
9. Tweet strong quotes or (even better) hard numbers – I’ve always found pushing clear information and statistics travels better than something less actionable or more vague.
10. Break quick news on Twitter — When you’re reporting on something, feed good, interesting, independent content on Twitter. When possible, sure, having a link of yours can help you capture the clicks, but ultimately, you’re trying to create an audience and you do that with content, so Twitter needs its own material.