[ILUG] Pro patent article in the Independant last night

[David Golden]

On Friday 24 June 2005 13:03, nadir at compsoc.nuigalway.ie wrote:
> you know what we should do, is try to get the times to do an article
> on it. We should try to contact some of the better reporters, and see
> if we can get a good article, although there isn't much time left.
> That said it pobably wont help us much.
>

I've asked a similar question of IFSO: When ILUG puts out a press 
release (has it ever?), does its budget stretch to feeding it to a wire 
service?  

A main reason articles with similar messages and text spring up 
everywhere is because they are just lifted from the news wire services 
such as PRNewswire [1] and PrimeZone [2].  The way they work
is that for a  fee (probably less than you imagine), you  put your PR on 
the wire.  The wires are these days patched directly into a GUI on 
computers of staff in news companies....  "news" media editors scan the 
headlines on the wire and decide what interesting sounding stuff 
they'll publish i.e. it's not a guaranteed avenue to press presence, 
but it sure helps.

You see, there doesn't _have_ to be a carefully orchestrated far 
reaching campaign by a shadowy evil conspiracy on the opposing  side 
for them to get their propaganda printed everywhere, because many news 
media  people just lift nuggets from the wire services almost verbatim, 
as well as the fact they treat wire services as filters for news, as 
wire services carry releases from entities who have "enough money to 
matter".

No, it's not nice, but it's how it works, and if you don't play the 
game, you're not so likely to get column space.

Given the severity of the issue, it might be sensible for ILUG to
consider.

Best Regards,

David Golden


[1] http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/
[2] http://www.primezone.com/