Patterson’s Political Commentary in New Magazine Geared Toward CEOs

A new magazine has come on the scene, St. Louis CEO, and yours truly shares the political commentary space with three others on a rotating basis. My first column appears in the current issue, August 2007. I wrote about the need for better regional leadership so that we can see the big picture — important for business interests in my view. But hey, I’m not a big time CEO.

The other three writing in the political commentary page are former U.S. Senator and current co-chairman of Fleishman-Hillard, Jim Talent; State Rep and attorney Connie Johnson; and former chief of staff to the late Gov Mel Carnahan; Brad Ketcher, also an attorney. The other three must be wondering who this Patterson guy is. My next column will be in the December 2007 issue.

The magazine is geared, as the title indicates, to the CEO. This is not to be confused with a business owner. Last month, the premier issue, had a very nice review of small jet planes and a run down of what local CEOs were flying in these days. This month, in the ‘cars’ section, is a review of the new Bentley Continental GT which is priced at a mere $180,000. My house isn’t even worth that!

If you are an important CEO you already have the magazine in your mail. If you didn’t receive a copy in the mail, you are not an important CEO. Anthem Publishing is still working on distribution agreements for local newsstands. Your best bet is World News in Clayton although Left Bank in the CWE might carry it as well.

Also in the August 2007 issue is an article about blogging called, Blogging Distraction. The point is that businesses need to understand blogging and perhaps join in. Writer Robert Amberg indicates it is important for companies to pay attention to their brand and identity online, “marketing through blogs is an evolution of communication.” Amberg continues, “Your customers are moving online and so too must the businesses that market to them.”

I’ll take that a step further and suggest that government is a business with customer and needs to be mindful as well of the need for customer services being online. Being able to pay parking tickets online, for example, has been quite helpful to me in the past. Just as the business CEO might have a blog to help control a company message so too much local elected officials. In this day of free blogs there is really no excuse for local politicians not communicating via a blog.