Re: [meteorite-list] Re: Brenham Follow-on Effect
Notkin wrote: Well, thanks for making us feel good about all our hard work. Always nice to receive feedback from an expert. Geoff, Please don't get twitchy. You're reading email insult where none was intended. Relax! You did a marvelous job. The element of luck operates in the negative sense in these matters. Despite the best job of promotion in the world, if, say, some terrorists had blown up a major US anything and managed to kill a good number doing it, or any of many potential big-story events had happened, your worthy story (and lots of others) would have vanished in the smoke. I meant no disrespect nor did I mean to belittle your fine efforts nor frankly do I think I said anything much to even imply it. If there was any criticism at all in anything I wrote, it was for media's taste for the if-it-bleeds-it-leads story opportunity. If anything, you should read my comments as praise for accomplishing an up-hill task so well. Sterling K. Webb --- Sterling posted: I think the most obvious reason for the lack of press focus on Park Forest (March 26/27, 2003) is the fact that the invasion of Iraq, or Gulf War II, commenced on March 20, 2003 and was, at the time of Park Forest Good point. I didn't recall that both events happened at roughly the same time. As for the character of the news story, the media is far more interested in Act of God events than human accomplishments, especially scientific ones. On a national level perhaps. I was referring to state-wide news and did not clarify that. Local TV and newspapers in Kansas were MUCH more interested in Steve's Brenham story than any world events. This clearly illustrated by the fact that Steve was the lead story on the evening news the same day that we put out the press release and carried the front page of the Saturday Wichita Eagle. We chose to break the story with local media first, generate local interest, and then get the story to the AP so it would go national. That's exactly what happened. And no amount of press releases and promotion would make finding a new main mass of Brenham a news story if it were competing against, say, the D-Day landing or a major act of terrorism or a good-sized hurricane. Had we been competing against D-Day any fool can see we wouldn't have been on the front page, but Brenham is still a news-worthy story, and still would have received coverage. Science sections need science stories whether or not there is a war on. But getting there is mostly a matter of luck. Well, thanks for making us feel good about all our hard work. Always nice to receive feedback from an expert. A great story will get out into the media if it's properly promoted, and Steve and Phil's discovery is a great story. We certainly had luck on our side in that we were not competing against any major news events, but we also generated the initial stories ourselves and were able to track them very clearly, as different press releases went to different media outlets at different times. FYI it was a personal friend of mine who put The Wichita Eagle journalist in touch with me (that was networking, not luck). She gave Steve the cover story. We also sent press releases to specific people in Kansas TV. One of them called me less than five minutes after receiving the release, and scheduled an interview for that very evening. The cover story, combined with the TV piece, had a high enough profile to get picked up by the AP. That was promotion, not luck. Geoff N. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Re: Brenham Follow-on Effect
If anything, you should read my comments as praise for accomplishing an up-hill task so well. Dear Sterling: I did misinterpret your comments, and thank you for be so thoughtful as to clarify. We did work hard on promoting the story, and I appreciate your compliment. Sorry for the misunderstanding. My P.R. specialist called me yesterday, and said how well it all went, and how lucky we were that there was no other *major* news story to compete with ours. It was a statement very similar to your observation, and something with which we certainly have to agree. Steve has noted that each time there is a big meteorite story, it seems to suddenly get overshadowed by an even bigger news story -- Park Forest being a perfect example, as you reminded us the other day. So, I guess we got by okay on this one, with no new war or major calamity : ) We're working on website for the big Brenham with a lot of new photos, and I hope to be able to share that with the List very soon. Meanwhile, the King of the Pallasites will be on display this weekend -- Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 19 and 20 -- at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum for anyone who might be in the neighborhood: http://www.tulsaairandspacemuseum.com Steve will be there too, of course, and no doubt dazzling hordes of school children with tales from the world of meteorites. Thanks again and best to all, Geoff N. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Re: Brenham Follow-on Effect
Dear List, I think the most obvious reason for the lack of press focus on Park Forest (March 26/27, 2003) is the fact that the invasion of Iraq, or Gulf War II, commenced on March 20, 2003 and was, at the time of Park Forest, in the most hotly contested uncertainty of outcome. The morning of the 27th, when Park Forest was reported, coincides with the most massive aerial bom- bardment of Bagdad, complete with extensive and spectacular video of the event from inside the city, while troops in the field were deadlocked in static and punishing battles 60 miles to the southeast. As for the character of the news story, the media is far more interested in Act of God events than human accomplishments, especially scientific ones. And no amount of press releases and promotion would make finding a new main mass of Brenham a news story if it were competing against, say, the D-Day landing or a major act of terrorism or a good-sized hurricane. In matters of coverage, timing is everything. Many a minor story has ballooned to major merely by hitting on a dead spot in the news cycle. If the news is full, baby down a well goes to page 37. If there's nothing else happening at the moment, it lands on page one. However, once a story reaches enough people to interest a sufficient number, the story acquires a life of its own. But getting there is mostly a matter of luck. Sterling K. Webb --- Notkin wrote: Jeff K. posted: I have also found it quite amazing that this find seems to have generated such a vast interest across the US. Maybe even more than Park Forest. Dear Jeff and List: You've made a very interesting observation Jeff. I also believe the press coverage on this is much greater than Park Forest. We know of print/TV stories in Canada, England, Germany, and in your home country of Australia too (Melbourne Times) in addition to close to 100 news stories here in the U.S. I think the reasons for this are two-fold: 1) Park Forest was a random Act of God-type event. Once the story has been written, there isn't a lot that can be done in terms of a follow-up, except for those of us with specialized interest (i.e. How can I get a piece?). The Brenham story has human interest: here is a professional meteorite hunter and his partner who came up with a good strategy -- after ten years of thinking about Brenham -- and were then tremendously successful. Newspapers love big success stories, *and* treasure hunts, *and* local interest -- Steve was born in Kansas, so we have all three. 2) There was no sustained effort to promote the Park Forest story as far as I know, and why should there be? Phil and I have written press releases, sent emails, faxes, and photos all over the country. I hired a P.R. expert as my media advisor; we also have a new website under construction. Steve has done multiple interviews (even I did two interviews) and has staged public events: the big pallasite was on display at the Afton Observatory near Wichita on Saturday evening, and local TV and papers were there to see it. This is a great story, and a fun one, and we've worked really hard at promoting it. These things don't happen by themselves. Glad to see it's working! What's really interesting to me is how a story like this galvanizes the public, and suddenly people are finding meteorites under their beds and scouring the internet for more information about them. I bet all this media attention will generate more than one new meteorite hunter. When people hear about a Million Dollar Rock being found in a farmer's field, a lot of them want to get in on the action : ) My website has been hammered with nearly 2000 hits this weekend (about 300% extra) with people searching for Pallasites, Brenham, etc, etc. I've also had a plethora of emails from people wanting to know how much their meteorites (aka Normal Rocks) are worth. Same here. I've also had several crackpot phone calls from people who have found meteorites. One of the was really scary. The guy said he'd found a 6 by 10 ft. meteorite that looked just like dolomite. D'ya know what dolomite lerks like? he bellowed. He then went on to tell me he'd like me to help him with his book on the other side of evolution which shows that feller Darwin's ideas was based on a load 'o waffles. At that point I excused myself. For our friends in Canada, Discovery Channel Canada will be airing a new piece on Steve and the big Brenham either tonight or tomorrow night on their Daily Planet segment. We believe that it will be shown in the U.S. next week, and will try to get exact showtimes for you. Steve is finally on his way home, so hopefully he'll be able to post to the List soon. Thanks to everyone who sent emails of congratulations. I have been keeping him up-to-date, and we've saved copies off all of your posts. Finally: PLEASE don't forget to send your Joel Schiff gifts to
[meteorite-list] Re: Brenham Follow-on Effect
Sterling posted: I think the most obvious reason for the lack of press focus on Park Forest (March 26/27, 2003) is the fact that the invasion of Iraq, or Gulf War II, commenced on March 20, 2003 and was, at the time of Park Forest Good point. I didn't recall that both events happened at roughly the same time. As for the character of the news story, the media is far more interested in Act of God events than human accomplishments, especially scientific ones. On a national level perhaps. I was referring to state-wide news and did not clarify that. Local TV and newspapers in Kansas were MUCH more interested in Steve's Brenham story than any world events. This clearly illustrated by the fact that Steve was the lead story on the evening news the same day that we put out the press release and carried the front page of the Saturday Wichita Eagle. We chose to break the story with local media first, generate local interest, and then get the story to the AP so it would go national. That's exactly what happened. And no amount of press releases and promotion would make finding a new main mass of Brenham a news story if it were competing against, say, the D-Day landing or a major act of terrorism or a good-sized hurricane. Had we been competing against D-Day any fool can see we wouldn't have been on the front page, but Brenham is still a news-worthy story, and still would have received coverage. Science sections need science stories whether or not there is a war on. But getting there is mostly a matter of luck. Well, thanks for making us feel good about all our hard work. Always nice to receive feedback from an expert. A great story will get out into the media if it's properly promoted, and Steve and Phil's discovery is a great story. We certainly had luck on our side in that we were not competing against any major news events, but we also generated the initial stories ourselves and were able to track them very clearly, as different press releases went to different media outlets at different times. FYI it was a personal friend of mine who put The Wichita Eagle journalist in touch with me (that was networking, not luck). She gave Steve the cover story. We also sent press releases to specific people in Kansas TV. One of them called me less than five minutes after receiving the release, and scheduled an interview for that very evening. The cover story, combined with the TV piece, had a high enough profile to get picked up by the AP. That was promotion, not luck. Geoff N. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Re: Brenham Follow-on Effect
Geoff, Hello. Thanks for keeping us posted about Steve's awesome find. Just had a few questions that you might or might not be able to answer. Can you post some close up shots of it? Just wondering about it's condition. Is there much rust on it's surface? Any cracks? How is it adjusting to the enviroment now that it's out of the ground? Was if found completely intact or were there smaller fragments surrounding it? Any way of determing if there was a crater? How far was it found from the other main piece? Any info on the metal detector used? Are you searching for other pieces? Any serious purchase offers? Any chance it might be displayed in Tucson? Steve did a great job on the Today show! Thanks again. - Carl - Original Message - From: Notkin [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite List meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 9:56 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Re: Brenham Follow-on Effect Jeff K. posted: I have also found it quite amazing that this find seems to have generated such a vast interest across the US. Maybe even more than Park Forest. Dear Jeff and List: You've made a very interesting observation Jeff. I also believe the press coverage on this is much greater than Park Forest. We know of print/TV stories in Canada, England, Germany, and in your home country of Australia too (Melbourne Times) in addition to close to 100 news stories here in the U.S. I think the reasons for this are two-fold: 1) Park Forest was a random Act of God-type event. Once the story has been written, there isn't a lot that can be done in terms of a follow-up, except for those of us with specialized interest (i.e. How can I get a piece?). The Brenham story has human interest: here is a professional meteorite hunter and his partner who came up with a good strategy -- after ten years of thinking about Brenham -- and were then tremendously successful. Newspapers love big success stories, *and* treasure hunts, *and* local interest -- Steve was born in Kansas, so we have all three. 2) There was no sustained effort to promote the Park Forest story as far as I know, and why should there be? Phil and I have written press releases, sent emails, faxes, and photos all over the country. I hired a P.R. expert as my media advisor; we also have a new website under construction. Steve has done multiple interviews (even I did two interviews) and has staged public events: the big pallasite was on display at the Afton Observatory near Wichita on Saturday evening, and local TV and papers were there to see it. This is a great story, and a fun one, and we've worked really hard at promoting it. These things don't happen by themselves. Glad to see it's working! What's really interesting to me is how a story like this galvanizes the public, and suddenly people are finding meteorites under their beds and scouring the internet for more information about them. I bet all this media attention will generate more than one new meteorite hunter. When people hear about a Million Dollar Rock being found in a farmer's field, a lot of them want to get in on the action : ) My website has been hammered with nearly 2000 hits this weekend (about 300% extra) with people searching for Pallasites, Brenham, etc, etc. I've also had a plethora of emails from people wanting to know how much their meteorites (aka Normal Rocks) are worth. Same here. I've also had several crackpot phone calls from people who have found meteorites. One of the was really scary. The guy said he'd found a 6 by 10 ft. meteorite that looked just like dolomite. D'ya know what dolomite lerks like? he bellowed. He then went on to tell me he'd like me to help him with his book on the other side of evolution which shows that feller Darwin's ideas was based on a load 'o waffles. At that point I excused myself. For our friends in Canada, Discovery Channel Canada will be airing a new piece on Steve and the big Brenham either tonight or tomorrow night on their Daily Planet segment. We believe that it will be shown in the U.S. next week, and will try to get exact showtimes for you. Steve is finally on his way home, so hopefully he'll be able to post to the List soon. Thanks to everyone who sent emails of congratulations. I have been keeping him up-to-date, and we've saved copies off all of your posts. Finally: PLEASE don't forget to send your Joel Schiff gifts to our friend Maria at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] We've heard from a lot of people, but hope to hear from a lot more. If you've enjoyed reading Meteorite magazine please send something to the fund so we can acquire a really nice thank you for Joel during his recovery. Also, write to me off-List if you'd like your remaining subscription for M to be put towards our fund. Thank you, best wishes, to all, Geoff N. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http
[meteorite-list] Re: Brenham Follow-on Effect
Jeff K. posted: I have also found it quite amazing that this find seems to have generated such a vast interest across the US. Maybe even more than Park Forest. Dear Jeff and List: You've made a very interesting observation Jeff. I also believe the press coverage on this is much greater than Park Forest. We know of print/TV stories in Canada, England, Germany, and in your home country of Australia too (Melbourne Times) in addition to close to 100 news stories here in the U.S. I think the reasons for this are two-fold: 1) Park Forest was a random Act of God-type event. Once the story has been written, there isn't a lot that can be done in terms of a follow-up, except for those of us with specialized interest (i.e. How can I get a piece?). The Brenham story has human interest: here is a professional meteorite hunter and his partner who came up with a good strategy -- after ten years of thinking about Brenham -- and were then tremendously successful. Newspapers love big success stories, *and* treasure hunts, *and* local interest -- Steve was born in Kansas, so we have all three. 2) There was no sustained effort to promote the Park Forest story as far as I know, and why should there be? Phil and I have written press releases, sent emails, faxes, and photos all over the country. I hired a P.R. expert as my media advisor; we also have a new website under construction. Steve has done multiple interviews (even I did two interviews) and has staged public events: the big pallasite was on display at the Afton Observatory near Wichita on Saturday evening, and local TV and papers were there to see it. This is a great story, and a fun one, and we've worked really hard at promoting it. These things don't happen by themselves. Glad to see it's working! What's really interesting to me is how a story like this galvanizes the public, and suddenly people are finding meteorites under their beds and scouring the internet for more information about them. I bet all this media attention will generate more than one new meteorite hunter. When people hear about a Million Dollar Rock being found in a farmer's field, a lot of them want to get in on the action : ) My website has been hammered with nearly 2000 hits this weekend (about 300% extra) with people searching for Pallasites, Brenham, etc, etc. I've also had a plethora of emails from people wanting to know how much their meteorites (aka Normal Rocks) are worth. Same here. I've also had several crackpot phone calls from people who have found meteorites. One of the was really scary. The guy said he'd found a 6 by 10 ft. meteorite that looked just like dolomite. D'ya know what dolomite lerks like? he bellowed. He then went on to tell me he'd like me to help him with his book on the other side of evolution which shows that feller Darwin's ideas was based on a load 'o waffles. At that point I excused myself. For our friends in Canada, Discovery Channel Canada will be airing a new piece on Steve and the big Brenham either tonight or tomorrow night on their Daily Planet segment. We believe that it will be shown in the U.S. next week, and will try to get exact showtimes for you. Steve is finally on his way home, so hopefully he'll be able to post to the List soon. Thanks to everyone who sent emails of congratulations. I have been keeping him up-to-date, and we've saved copies off all of your posts. Finally: PLEASE don't forget to send your Joel Schiff gifts to our friend Maria at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] We've heard from a lot of people, but hope to hear from a lot more. If you've enjoyed reading Meteorite magazine please send something to the fund so we can acquire a really nice thank you for Joel during his recovery. Also, write to me off-List if you'd like your remaining subscription for M to be put towards our fund. Thank you, best wishes, to all, Geoff N. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
