Is Communication in a Coma?

What Does This New World of Communication Mean to Our Community?

The purpose of our community is to engage you in the answers and next questions that have a direct impact on who understands you and how well you connect with others.

Here’s what I’ve noticed recently and ask you to come forward in the comments areas with your extensive experience or new questions.

A little over a year ago, Ted Gioia, The Honest Broker, said the new media would triumph over old media in 2024. He points to this evidence:

• Joe Rogan is now more powerful than any establishment journalist.
• Elon Musk drives the news cycle as Twitter CEO in ways Walter Cronkite never dreamed of.
• Cable news can’t match the impact of the biggest YouTube channels and social media accounts.
• Substack has moved out of the fringes of the media world and breaks stories just as the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal once did.

Right after the 2024 election, Gioia provided The 6 New Rules of Communicating.

Here are the new rules of engagement — for politicians, broadcasters, and all aspiring experts, decision-makers, and leaders.

1. You gain more trust when seated, not standing.
2. Don’t speak at people — speak with them.
3. An informal tone is more persuasive now. Even leaders must adjust to this.
4. Conversations have more influence than speeches.
5. Spontaneous communications delivered from a personal standpoint are considered more ‘real’ than a script created by a team or speechwriter.
6. Soundbites and talking points are less impactful than storytelling, humor, and off-the-cuff comments.

If we anchor our conversation in these new rules, we challenge you, our GPC members, to consider how these shifts aren’t just disrupting communication — they’re reshaping what it means to be a great communicator today.

What if we explore:

• The mindset of adaptability — in a world where the platforms, tools, and norms keep changing, how can we as communicators stay nimble without losing authenticity?
• Embracing imperfection — there’s power in being unpolished and human — something Gioia’s piece touches on with new media’s rise. How can communicators lean into this without sacrificing credibility?
• Communicating with intention — with so much noise, the skill isn’t just talking — it’s knowing when to listen, pause, and be deliberate. That’s leadership in communication, no matter your professional label.

If you have a better idea or angle, now would be the time to brainstorm.

There are many professional communicators and published writers in our community and to all of you I say, send me an email and suggest an article or story you’d like to write as a guest author.

When we see facts, we smell a good story and I trust you have the writing chops to make it come alive and provide the context and insights that make it interesting. For example, here’s an interesting fact that goes into the conversation here about what we do when communication wakes up from its coma:

The Washington Post lost $100 million last year, and digital visitors dropped from 114 million in November 2023 to 54 million in November 2024 — a collapse of 53%. During that same period, many alt-media outlets doubled in size, but the Post’s online readership fell by more than half. Some of the best-known journalists have left. Jennifer Rubin left the Post on January 13 and just ten days later had a stunning 335,000 subscribers on Substack. That’s an extraordinary achievement by any measure — and a useful reminder of why new media is triumphant right now.