Re: Press releases

[Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net>]

On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 16:36:23 -0800
"Corey Burger" <corey burger gmail com> wrote:

> 
> Wow. I wouldn't read either of those press releases. As printed press
> releases, maybe, if forced.
>

You would read the first paragraph, trying to find out whether this
might be something interesting. If the first paragraph sounds
interesting, you might read the second.

If you then find out that it's a cool story for your magazine, you'd
like all background material at hand, especially if you never heard
about Novell or Microsoft before. If you never heard about them, you
will use Google just to make sure these companies are not just a
silicon valley fad.

Everybody is bored, btw, about first paragraphs with 'the best, the
highest', or 'the tallest dwarf (among humans)' in them, althought the
last formulation might get missed by some journalists. However, only
unprofessional writers will copy such paragraphs. A bullet list is
turned into a sentence like "XYZ does A, B, and C."

Maybe you'd like to read:

 http://live.gnome.org/MarketingTeam/WritingPressReleasesHowto


Concerning our chances, whether certain journalists will write about
the release and uses our press release:

  * The usual, non-IT press: 
      - No way, except by accident, or in a special section.

  * The Linux press:
      - Of course, they cover our releases, otherwise it's not Linux
        press. It might boil down to a single paragraph, though: the
        news about a our release is hardly valueable for their readers.

  * The professionalists IT press:
      - They probably write about it. In Germany, 25% of the readers of
        the leading IT magazine run Linux on their desktops. Linux is
        already important enought in the professional IT space, and so
        is GNOME on Linux desktops.

  * The business IT press:
      - They may write about the release: GNOME is a potential
        competitor to Windows for their readers.

  * The consumer IT press:
      - They may write about the release but it's rather unlikely.
        GNOME with Linux is not even close to be a Windows competitor
        for their readers. However, some of them have a small Linux
        column (at least some here in Germany) where the release might
        get a small paragraph.

  * private, online publishers (blogs, etc.)
      - They may use the press release 1:1 such as last time.


Cheers,
Claus