Rafe Needleman has been covering technology for over 25 years as a journalist and communications leader.
Needleman's technology journalism experience started at InfoWorld, where he was the reviews editor. Later, he became editor-in-chief of one of the original computer magazines, Byte, and then was founding editor of the first glossy enterprise technology magazine, Ziff-Davis' Corporate Computing, which is where I met him. (At the time, I was at a sister publication called PC/Computing. Later, I went on to be one of the reviews editors at InfoWorld, so our careers have criss-crossed in many ways over the years.)
Rafe’s editorial leadership continued at Red Herring, where his "Catch of the Day" column introduced over a thousand startups to the venture capital community. He has also served as editor-at-large at CNET, editor-in-chief of Yahoo Tech, and editor-in-chief of Make: Magazine.
Needleman has applied his expertise to communications strategy and content creation for executives at companies such as Cisco, Qualcomm, Samsung, and more.
He led developer relations for Evernote, and has authored three books, including a Star Trek quiz book and a primer on local networking.
I caught up with him on a Zoom call recently to talk about content creation, what makes a good editor, how his background as a journalist helps him as a content creator, and what’s going on in journalism.
This is the latest in a series of interviews I'm doing with top content creators, editors, and writers. To get these posts as they appear, subscribe now!
Q: Can you give us some context on the type of content work you’re doing now?
Rafe Needleman: I’ve been working at agencies for the last few years, mostly on thought leadership content for executives, including bylines that position them as authorities in their fields. I handle the technical pieces, which can be a bit too specialized for generalists. My work ranges from ghostwriting to editing, internal communications, award submissions, and more. I also do media training.
“An editor improves message clarity and impact, and makes your voice more unique.”
Q: What makes a good editor, especially in your line of work?
Rafe: Generally, a good editor understands what the client wants to say and also what they need to say. An editor improves message clarity and impact, and makes your voice more unique. We sometimes end up helping craft and sustain a persona, especially for execs who haven’t written much.
In large organizations, where there are layers of hierarchy, editors have to deal with multiple layers of edits and approvals. Sometimes one person’s edits undo another person’s, and those revisions can seem endless sometimes. One learns patience and diplomacy. People want to prove that they are adding value through the process. Some do, but sometimes it gets to be a little too much.
Q: What strategies do you use when interviewing subject matter experts? How do you get the most out of a subject matter interview?
Rafe: As a journalist, when you're reporting, you’re trying to get good sound bites. You don't tell your subject what the questions are ahead of time, ever. You want to make sure you get real, off-the-cuff responses so the emotionality is in there.
In a corporate environment, it’s different. You need to do the homework, send the questions in advance, and try to encourage responses that aren't just interesting but also move the message in the direction that was agreed on when the project was assigned.
I often speak with highly technical “subject matter experts” who may not be media-trained. For example, if you’re talking to a mid-level engineer to get the details on a product, that engineer will not be a traditional journalistic interview. They're not trying to hide anything, but they might not be comfortable getting interviewed. Getting them to reveal the kinds of things about themselves that would add color to the story might be difficult. You can get there if you have time, but sometimes you have very a limited window to get what you need.
What makes any story interesting is talking to someone who is passionate about a particular technical thing. I want to talk to the person who's sweated bullets to bring a feature or technology or a product to market, because they care. They will tell you, oh, it was so hard to do this feature, we had to solve this technical problem and fight with the standards body.
My aim is to get them to talk about what genuinely excites them about their work. You need that passion for the story to be interesting, even if the SME isn’t ultimately in the story.
“ I want to talk to the person who's sweated bullets to bring a product to market, because they care.”
Q: You mentioned there can be endless cycles of revisions in corporate content. How do you navigate that?
Rafe: Diplomacy is crucial. Just keeping yourself together and responding factually, being diplomatic and clear in everything.
Giving reasons for your edits helps a lot. You can write: “I think we should say this because X.” Being humble about your opinions is also crucial. You need to realize you're not the editor-in-chief. You’re a service provider.
Q: Are you incorporating AI tools into your writing and editing process?
Rafe: Yes, though I don't create content outright with AI. I use it for brainstorming and education, and to give me ideas on structure and headlines.
You can ask a chatbot for a dozen headlines on a particular idea, and it'll give you 11 really bad ones and one that's valuable. A human might run out of steam after the first five bad ones and go home.
You can also use AI to check facts. I was doing a piece the other day on the history of an industry, and there was a lot of stuff that I had pulled together from all over the place: various sites, my own recollections, Google research, and so on. I asked the AI, is this passage historically accurate? And it said, it is up until 2023, but then I don't know anything beyond 2023. No problem — I can check the parts after 2023. But it confirmed that what I had said was right up to that point.
AI, of course, lies and hallucinates. But it is not bad for checking things when you ask a yes or no question, especially if you ask the same question in different ways. And as long as it’s not your only check.
Q: Do you have thoughts on the world of journalism right now?
Rafe: I worry about people learning to write skeptically. I worry even more about people learning to read critically.
As more and more of the money for content creation goes to people who have a product to sell, and the readership gets more accustomed to reading commercial or slanted content, I’m concerned about how people understand what is true, and what people consider to be good writing.
The demand for good writing has to start on the readers’ side. If you want better storytellers, make better readers.
“The nature of journalism is changing. But people will always pay for good stories.”
Q: Any final advice for writers transitioning from journalism to corporate or PR roles?
Rafe: The most important thing that I had to learn is that this is a different role. It requires listening for indirect messages that you might not get in a newsroom.
In a newsroom, people will just tell you you're a dickhead or they think you’re wrong about something. But in this kind of environment, they’re not going to tell you directly. Not everyone comes from a newsroom environment.
There’s always something new to learn. One of the pieces of advice I got about looking for a job is to optimize for fun and learning. And this kind of work is fun, but it is also really about learning.
I'm using all my editorial skills, but in a different way, writing for different people, for different customers, for different ends.
Whatever I'm writing, I just want to be proud of it, for there to be some craft to it. And hopefully, whoever reads it, it touches them in some way, educates them, tickles them some way that AI-generated slop won't.
Obviously, the nature of journalism and what we do is changing. Who pays for storytelling is changing. But people will always pay for good stories.
