unReview: Blogs

I admit that writing last week’s unreview inspired me to share another group of unsung heroes: blogs. Sure, you can see the full list in my blogroll and you’ll probably recognize many. But only a handful of the blogs I subscribe to have been truly valuable over the long haul – the online long haul being more than a few months and valuable in terms of deserving a reading deeper than a quick scan. So here are 15 blogs on several topics that I have been consistently deep-reading (I deep-read several others, but some of them either act more like online publications or media outlets, or they’re not in the forefront of my attention now).

• Branding Strategy Insider – Branding. Strategy. Say no more.

• Brand New – Commentary on identity redesigns from around the world, with before and after images and analysis.

• Cause Capitalism – Business with a social mission. Cause marketing. Capitalism with a human face. Call it what you want, but do it.

• Culture By – The online outlet of Grant McCracken, of the Chief Culture Officer fame. Anthropology meets economy, and cultural insights ensue.

• Dan Pallotta – Hosted by the Harvard Business Review, with one post a week, at most. Constructive criticism of the status quo in “the humanity sector”.

• Dark Roasted Blend – Admittedly, this one’s less about deep-reading and more about deep-looking – at “weird and wonderful things”. Steampunk or retrofuture, anyone?

• Dim Bulb – Jonathan Salem Baskin’s sharp, and on occasion curmudgeonly, criticism of various developments in the world of marketing.

• Generation Bubble – Infrequent, but always long and insightful posts, about identity and culture in the digital, consumerist era, from the left of the field.

• Learned On – Andrea Learned on marketing and sustainable business from and for women. Determined, insightful, clear.

• Marginal Revolution – Prolific (several times a day) and enlightening, as much fun as economics gets. Seems like only Tyler Cowen can pull it off.

• Organizations and Markets – A collaborative blog on organizational development in market economy. Among other things, also offering the best argument against using PowerPoint: Every time you make a PowerPoint, the dataviz wiz Edward Tufte kills a kitten.

• Portland Architecture – Very local focus, obviously. Brian Libby’s insights about the city’s built environment.

• Rocket Watcher – Practical marketing for start-ups. That straightforward.

• PsyBlog – Popular psychology for your everyday needs. Perfect with the morning coffee.

• Tom Asacker – “Unlocking hearts and minds in today’s idea economy”, goes the tagline. Though the range is somewhat broad – business, branding, culture, entrepreneurship, innovation, inspiration – the interconnectedness may just be the point.

Subscribed or just visited any of these? Please share your experience in Comments. Include pointers to your favorite deep-read blogs!

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Image credit: Howdy, I’m H. Michael Karshis’s photostream

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