[NCLUG] RFC: draft of press release -- comments from another side

[NIESEWAND,OLIVER (Non-HP-FtCollins,ex1)]

Speaking as a former journalist (magazine and local news), there's something
to be said for avoiding subtly in the message you want to convey. You might
get more mileage in the "if you're fed up of being treated like a pirate or
paying massive licensing fees, then why not let us help you look at Linux"
approach.

The reason is that most journalists don't spend much time reading press
releases and if an obvious story doesn't leap out at them quickly or they
don't understand what it's about, they'll just throw it in the trash and
move on to the next one in their stack of 50 or so releases they'll get a
day.

I expect there's a possibility that some local technology correspondents are
already reading this list. If not then it might be worth calling a couple
and giving them personal briefings when you release it, for two reasons. 

The first is that they are probably always on the lookout for any new local
technology stories and will be pleased to get this one.

The second is that they should have more of a clue than your average
journalist and so should be able to couch the message you want to convey in
simple but accurate terms. 

Just some thoughts. 



My opinions are my own and do not reflect those of my employers.



-----Original Message-----
From: John L. Bass [mailto:jbass at dmsd.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 10:08 AM
To: nclug at nclug.org
Subject: Re: [NCLUG] RFC: draft of press release -- comments from
another side


Sean Reifschneider <jafo at tummy.com> writes:
> While in theory I agree with this sentiment, in practice I think it may
not
> be as effective for the target audience.  It seems like the MS
press-releases
> along similar lines combatting Linux tend to be any less negative.  Since
> these are certainly carefully crafted by a whole army of people hired to
do
> such things, I think we could use them as a metric of how natagive is TOO
> negative...

With the popular press slamming MS for this type of negative campaign, it
probably would be a mistake to ratchet up the Linux side to behave at the
same (or any) negative level ... lest they take bad press to. See eWeek
2/5/01
front cover, bottom of page, article by Peter Galli "Microsoft grapples with
Linux threat".

John
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