Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 16:06:35 -0500 From: "Mike Avery" <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com> To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Making press contacts (was: Re: Charles Henrich a Star? ) Message-ID: <199904192120.QAA26264@hostigos.otherwhen.com> In-Reply-To: <6253.924549638@zippy.cdrom.com> References: Your message of "Mon, 19 Apr 1999 20:12:55 BST." <A6D02246E1ABD2119F5200C0F0303D10FEEF@octopus>
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On 19 Apr 99, at 12:20, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
> > I take your point but actually, a press release is something we write
> > and "release to the press", whether they print it or not is another
> > matter :-)
> So far, the press that we know of (and most of us don't have much in
> the way of press contacts, I certainly don't) has not printed it. :(
Oh.... that's easily resolved.
Magazines are there to print news. And every time the magazine is
printed, something has to be in there. Feeding the hungry column
inches isn't easy. So... your material might as well be in there instead
of something else. The trick is you have to convince the writers and
editors that your press release is news. Of course, what is news is
subjective.... so spreading the message to more people is a good idea.
Here's what I'd do... as you read magazines, note the names of the
writers and editors. If any of them cover material that could also
cover FreeBSD, jot down their name(s). (To put this in perspective -
if Harvey Schwartz only covers printers, sending him a note is
probably a waste of time. If Fred covers network operating systems,
he needs your press releases.) Also, many magazines print the email
addresses of the writers and editors on every article. If the
magazine you're reading does that, jot that down too.
If the magazine didn't include the email address, once you have all
the names collected from a magazine, flip to the front of the
magazine and look at the information there. Often in amongst the
table of contents and other masthead information is a section on
"how to contact us".
If that hasn't helped, check their home page and look around. Do a
search on the author and editors names.
If you still haven't gotten it, call the magazine. Ask for the editor in
charge of the appropriate section. Tell the editor how much you
enjoyed the writer's recent piece on whatever, and that you'd like to
send the writer a "thank you". And then ask for the email addresses
of the guilty parties. Get the editor's email address also, if you
haven't already. If an article is good, that suggests that an editor
helped it. Sometimes by refining it, sometimes by not ruining it.
Either way, they deserve thanks.
Once you have the email addresses, put 'em into a distribution list or
mailing list and use 'em. Also - set it up so people don't see all the
addresses you sent it too. The best news is exclusive news. And
while we all know it was sent to 100 other people (or more), we'd like
to dream that we alone got it. And scrolling down 100 names in the
"to:" and "cc:" sections is a real drag.
You can try to setup a "FreeBSD Press Releases" mailing list, but
subscribing to it would require action on the part of the people you
are trying to reach... all in all, I don't think it would work too well.
Needless to say, if some of the people get annoyed and ask to not
receive any more press releases, stop sending 'em. You usually don't
win points by annoying people.
Mike
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Mike Avery MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com
(409)-842-2942 (work)
ICQ: 16241692
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