Re: Press releases

["Corey Burger" <corey burger gmail com>]

On 3/10/06, Rajiv Vyas <r rvyas gmail com> wrote:
> > Concerning lenght: The argument is, ehm, misleading. Otherwise, we
> > should simply write: "GNOME 2.14 released." and that's it. That's the
> > shortest version possible.  ;-)
>
> I agree.  I am a former journalist (non-tech press before) and also
> worked in public relations. I think the press release needs to be a
> bit longer than couple of paragraph for various reasons, but most
> importantly: it gives reporters enough material to understand what
> GNOME is and also use some of it for their stories. Otherwise, in this
> day and age, just write couple of sentences like "GNOME version XXX
> release. For more information visit Website xxxx." Why even bother
> writing two paragraphs.
>
> Just to get an idea on how big a press release needs to be, below are
> links to press releases on SuSE 10 and MSFT's Windows Service Pack
> launch. See the second release to get an idea on the depth they have
> gone to explain some of the features. This is despite the fact that
> everyone knows about MSFT and even XP. Who seriously knows about GNOME
> except geeks or those who use Linux. If we are planning to broaden our
> reach, we need to dumb it down a bit and put some more information in
> the release.
>
> http://www.novell.com/news/press/item.jsp?contentid=a2e8d2eb89036010VgnVCM1000000100007f____
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/aug04/08-06WinXPSP2LaunchPR.mspx

Wow. I wouldn't read either of those press releases. As printed press
releases, maybe, if forced. On the web, no way. There are links on the
web for good reasons. The cost in this case is not too high.

As for journalists wanting more information, I mentioned we have
excellent release notes.

I also mentioned in my first mail that I excluded the About Gnome
stuff on the mail because it doesn't really much change from release
to release. Any final press release would have that included. Maybe I
didn't communicate that clearly.

Regardless, as I mentioned before, I will work on this more this
weekend and get a complete press release, including the About Gnome
and Contact sections.

Cheers and thanks for the great feedback,
Corey