On Tue, 2005-08-16 at 20:47 +0100, Daniel Carrera wrote: > > It depends on where you send it. Different outlets have different > > standards, and there is a gray area, as you recognize. However, in > > general, the more that a media outlet prides itself on doing journalism, > > the more likely it would be considered a news release. > > Okay. Where do you think Newsforge lies?
Since I've been writing regularly for Newsforge for some months, I feel safe in saying that Robin Miller emphasizes journalism as strongly as he can, and that the staff feels the same way. By contrast, Linux Today seems more willing to publish news releases while marking them as such. > Davide just proposed that we invite Eva Lichtenberger, a Member of the > European Parliamentvery who was active in the campain against software > patents, to give a keynote at OOoCon. Would that be newsworthy without > being a press release? It looks like it to me :-) The announcement wouldn't be news, although her keynote probably would be. What I would suggest is, when she is confirmed, drop a note to media outlets (or to any journalist you've had contact with - and, yes, this is a hint), and help arrange for an interview with her, either as part of a larger story, as you suggest, or as a story in itself. During the course of the interview, it would be very natural to mention that she is speaking at OOoCon. In this way, everyone would win. OOo would get the exposure in the news that it wants, and the media outlet or journalist would get a good story. As an aside, when I was doing PR for high-tech companies, I kept a spreadsheet on all the journalist with whom I dealt. Besides including their contact information, I kept a record of interactions with them, the stories they wrote, and what subjects they were interested in. With this information, I could contact the right people for each story I was trying to get out. -- Bruce Byfield 604-421-7177 http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield "Inspiration and craft plus time and effort minus fear and doubt multiplied by purpose equals song." - Ray Wylie Hubbard. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
