The number one or two issue in Washington this week?  From a message development perspective, “Legislative Washington” is trying to garner support for healthcare reform (What are you trying to accomplish?); There is a major disconnect in Washington today, and it all boils down to poor message development. Sad. Developing and communicating an effective message is not easy. That being said, I have always found three questions to be extremely useful in the identification and development of a message:

Among the watchers are POLITICO, the WASHINGTON POST, and perhaps the NATIONAL ENQUIRER will be setting up an official office.  0160; In THE NEW YORK TIMES, David Carr observes that Sally Quinn might have fallen not so much for the tone and content [her own dysfunctional family] of her column as because Washington is no longer a society.  0160; They watch every move of the pols.  0160; And given the Darwinian competition for scoops, sources, and scandal, little is held back, as in the days of Camelot.

No sooner had I posted the announcement about going to the 2010 Ragan Speechwriters Conference than word came from the organizers that the event has been canceled due to the snowstorms that have hit the Washington DC area. I Tags: Speechwriting Ragan Speechwriters Conference washington DC Snowstor I was looking forward to presenting at the event and meeting colleagues.

Another sign of the lessening influence of the WASHINGTON POST:  Politico.com, whose influence is growing, reports that WAPO is shutting down three bureaus by the end of the year.  0160; A few news aides have been let go but most the staff have the option to relocate to Washington D.C., 0160; They are in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.  where the newspaper is headquartered. 

0160; In the print copy and not available online is a chronicle of the decline and fall of the WASHINGTON POST.  For those who still go to bookstores, it's worth the $4.95 to pop for the February 4th edition of THE NEW REPUBLIC.  0160; Digitals will relish how print and web were kept separate, including in different locations, until recently. ...Tags:

With Politico.com owning the media influence game in Washington D.C., 0160; WASHINGTON POST is being subsidized by the parent's successful Kaplan business.  Moon's WASHINGTON TIMES has been holding on at all.  Politics has become too important a category to be covered by marginal players like the WASHINGTON the worst can be expected for the town's newspaper business.  0160;

"Washington's Birthday is a United States federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February. As Washington's Birthday or Presidents Day, it is also the official name of a concurrent state holiday celebrated on the same day in a number of states." --Wikipedia.com The third Tuesday in February is designated as the federal holiday known as President's Day. This year it's gotten crammed into a holiday weekend It is also commonly known as Presidents Day (sometimes spelled as Presidents' Day or President's Day). Oh, Lincoln's birthday

Web creation POLITICO.COM is eating the WASHINGTON POST's lunch, with a nice side of influence.  0160; Yet, just like THE NEW YORK TIMES and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL,  WaPo can't seem to save itself.  0160; It just seems out of touch with the 21st-century zeitgeist. The classic example is bringing back old-power player Sally Quinn. 

The game that the corporation Washington Post might have played would have been to accelerate its involvement in Kaplan and sell the newspaper or the parts of it which someone would buy.  0160; Instead, it simultaneously pursued the Kaplan migration into online education and tried to confront the threat from Politico.com.  0160; That has proven to be a mistake.

I spent most of last week at the American Society for Training and Development ( ASTD ) International Conference and Expo (8000+ attendees) here in Washington, DC at the very impressive Walter E. Washington Convention Center . Tags: Commentary conference presentations teleprompter Tweetchat Twitter Washington Convention Cente The days were chocked full of interesting sessions, interesting people and interesting observations.  The organizers did a great job.