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Notes for PR People

Public relations reps don't want to annoy writers, and that's just as well, because we don't want to be annoyed, nor do we want to be particularly vexatious to them (so it works out well for all).

Below are some documents I hope you'll read and share with your colleagues. Please print them and scatter them about the office. My copyright prohibition does not apply here. So long as you leave my name on them, you may make as many copies as you like and post them anywhere.

• How to send press releases
• What to do about pictures, other graphics, and prices
• Product review rules and guidelines
• Rant #237 (Don't call me, I'll call you)
• Rant #238 (I don't sign NDAs)
• Rant #239 (You got it wrong!)

How to send press releases

A group of us have been circulating this letter for a couple of years now. Following its guidelines will help you to communicate more effectively with the computer/high-tech press contingent in the Toronto area

July 23, 1998

RE: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PR INDUSTRY

FROM: Paul Lima, Richard J. Morochove and Myles White on behalf of an ad-hoc group of 25 technology freelance writers

Recently, several freelance tech writers were discussing how we preferred to receive press releases by e-mail rather than fax. While almost all the PR agencies who deal with us now use e-mail, we concluded that they
use it in ways that can make receiving, filing, reviewing and reading press releases, announcements, white papers and other material most difficult.

After consultation, we e-mailed a short note to 25 freelance tech writers to see if they had similar opinions. They do and, in the spirit of constructive feedback, we decided to share the results of our informal survey with you.

When it comes to electronic communication, here's what freelance tech writers prefer, and why they prefer it.

We prefer:

* To receive e-mail press releases rather than fax releases:

Not all freelance writers have fax machines or fax software. Many of us have only one phone/fax/data line. Considering the number of press releases and announcements we receive, we would go through a lot of paper, ribbon and ink cartridges or fill our hard drives with fax images rather quickly if we received press releases by fax. Also, our phone lines would be tied up for an inordinate amount of time. Send e-mail to myles@computerwriter.com 

* To receive e-mail press releases embedded in the e-mail message (as this is) rather than as attached files:

Attached files may contain viruses and they can be a nuisance to manage or manipulate. Files that contain graphics, such as embedded logos, are larger than need be, take too long to download and clog up hard drives. Some freelancers are so strongly opposed to receiving unsolicited attached files that they erase them from their ISP's system rather than download them.

Attached files sometimes arrive with no extensions so, even if we wanted to open them, we wouldn't know which application to use. In addition, you may use Office 97 or some other Windows 95/98 word processor, but not all freelance writers do. Some use word processing applications that run under Windows 3.1, DOS, the Mac OS, OS/2 or other operating systems. That means we can't open your attached files or, if we can open them, we receive an inordinate amount of strange code mixed in with your message.

Embedded messages, on the other hand, can be easily read, filed, saved and, yes, even deleted directly from the e-mail reader which means we don't have to search our hard drive to move, save or delete files.

* To receive e-mail messages that are not UUENCODED and that do not otherwise contain strange coding:

All e-mail messages are encoded. Some messages are UUENCODED. Unfortunately, not all e-mail readers can decode UUENCODED messages. The default for most e-mail readers is MIME, but almost all e-mail readers will
also decode BINHEX messages. Releases that cannot be decoded are, to put it simply, impossible to read.

Some messages contain strange codes because software applications, such as GroupWise, are not properly configured for Internet e-mail. These codes (which most often effect special symbols) make releases difficult to read and may result in misunderstandings concerning financial data, measurements, quotes, etc. Some releases written in Word or other non-ASCII software packages are simply pasted into (embedded into) e-mail messages and sent. While the message may look good at your end (and while we appreciate that you've embedded it), it can arrive with strange coding in it. The best way to ensure we get the message you want us to receive is to embed ASCII text in your e-mail message to us.

* To have e-mail intended for a group of writers sent to a blind copied list (the BCC field)

When e-mail messages are not blind copied to a group, two things happen: you expose our e-mail addresses to everyone receiving the e-mail (which is something many of us would prefer not to have happen); you make us scroll through a list of e-mail addresses that can be several pages (or more!) long BEFORE we get to your message (which is not an efficient use of our time and can leaves us feeling a little antsy before we get there). If you
send your message to a blind copy list, the recipient sees only his or her e-mail address and can get right to your message.

* To see release-specific e-mail message subject lines:

Believe it or not, many of us do read and file the material we receive. If the release contains a generic e-mail message subject line (Press Release from Company XYZ) it will probably get lost in the generic subject line
clutter and be overlooked when we conduct article research. If it contains a message-specific subject line, we are more likely to find it when we need it.

* To have releases targeted at writers based on their beat:

We acknowledge that it can be hard to define a writer's beat, and we don't expect you to err on the side of caution. However, some of us have very specific beats and prefer not to receive mass e-mail releases we will never use. If in doubt, ask us what we want to receive. We will answer. 

In summary: No faxes please. And no attached files without permission from the writer. Send us information embedded in the e-mail message. When
sending to a list of writers, blind copy the e-mail to your address list.

In closing, allow us to state that we wouldn't be sending this e-mail if we did not value the PR agency-writer relationship. Sure, we may carp about you sometimes, just as you may carp about us, but we are all involved in the
communication business and we hope this information allows you to communicate more effectively with us in the future. 

Since no attempt was made to put together a comprehensive PR agency mailing list, we strongly encourage you to circulate this open letter within your agency and amongst your colleagues and to post it in relevant news groups or on PR Agency bulletin boards.

Sincerely,
Paul Lima
Richard J. Morochove
Myles White
on behalf of the Ad-Hoc Group of 25 freelance writers

Pictures and Prices

January 17, 2000

Journalist Photos and Price Resources

This open letter to high-technology companies and their public relations agencies has been generated by a recent conversation with one of my editors and the events that followed. I had written a review of a product; he wanted a photograph to run with it. The small, low resolution shot at the company's Web site was awful and, even if it had been good, wasn't usable because of its size and quality.

During the conversation, we noted that some companies were more technology savvy, and aware of our needs, than others. Three Web sites in particular featured in our conversation for different reasons: Intel (www.intel.com), Toshiba Canada (www.toshiba.ca), and Wacom Technologies. We were heaping praise on Intel and Wacom (a Vancouver, Washington based graphics tablet manufacturer at www.wacom.com) solely because both sites, through a Press Room link, provide both low-resolution and downloadable high-resolution product shots — often several samples of each product from which to choose. 

These sites give editors several choices and the quality of the high-res shots is sufficient to run in various printed media. They're also notable because while Intel is a large company with lots of resources, Wacom is not, so what I'm suggesting here has more to do with will than with money. I won't bore you with the list of companies that jumped to mind with what we considered poor Web sites with relation to this matter — at least not yet.

Toshiba Canada's site is noteworthy simply because it carries a suggested retail price, in Canadian funds, for its products — information that is all too often missing from many company Web sources — and the price list is all in one place. Looked at from our point of view, it's a waste of time to have to call for this information, leave a message via voice mail (no one is in their offices or at least answering their phones any more), then to wait for the response — too often getting it well past our deadlines.

Oh, by the way, the upshot of our conversation was that the company's product photo didn't run in the newspaper. By the time the editor contacted the PR agency, it queried me about the exact model number of the product in question, I answered, and they had a photo pedaled over to the editor's office where he had to have it processed into digital form, it was too late. He didn't get his visual augmentation to the page and the company didn't get the extra attention that a photo would have garnered (and it was a highly positive review, too). And it could all have been avoided. 

One last note: While the companies mentioned are all hardware manufacturers, this applies to software folk, too (box shots, screen shots, and of course, prices are useful here too).

We have the technology folks. Many of you sell it. Many of us write about it. Let's use it.

mw

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Myles's Product Review Guidelines - Updated March 2003

1. I never review beta, demo, or time or system-limited* products. If there's a full-blown, shrink-wrapped, unconstrained version of the product(s) you wish to submit for review, that's good. Anything else is a time-waster. (If it or another product in my system doesn't work, what condition do I blame?)
   • I test software on multiple systems running several versions of Windows. I will not review products containing time-bombs that require individual registrations to operate.
   • If you send a special version of your product(s) to writers, say a software application that includes both Mac and PC versions in the box or a hardware device, such as a printer, with extra cables, ink cartridges, paper, or other doodads in the box, please tell me so I don't report it as a standard shipping configuration. You have no idea how much that annoys editors and readers (and me).
   • If the price changes between the time you send me a product and I write about it, please tell me (I'll usually check with you just before I file the review, but it would help if you'd let me know anyway). Publishing the wrong price information causes editors to levitate, spit green goo, hurl objects across the room without touching them, and speak terrible curses in really scary voices – and that's nothing compared to what it does to me. 
     
2. Product(s) should be sent to me
   1. if by courier: to 172 George St. S., Paisley, ON N0G 2N0, or 
   2. if by snalmail, to PO Box 207, Paisley, ON N0G 2N0, 

   no matter which publication I may indicate is the target of the review. Do not send review products to the publication's offices. If you do, I'll never get them.
   

3. If there's an evaluation agreement (for hardware only), it may be faxed to 519-353-4528 at any time of the day or night. Please DO NOT use this number for sending press releases, product announcements, or press event invitations (those should come as straight text in the body of an e-mail message — never as a binary attachment — see above). Please do not e-mail loaner agreements; fax them instead.
   
4. Software is not returned
   
5. Hardware is returned, if requested. Please include a pre-paid or collect return waybill from the courier of your choice with the product(s). I pay neither incoming nor outgoing shipping costs.
   • If you send a courier to pick up a product instead, please note that nothing leaves here without a waybill copy, receipt, or record of some kind (this policy allowed me to prove I'd shipped a $6,000 notebook that went missing earlier this year). In short, I won't let the product go until the driver gives me a receipt. Period. No exceptions. Ever.
     • However, if you're generating the waybill from your office and there is no other choice, please fax a copy of the waybill to me well in advance so I can print it, then present it for the driver to sign (519-353-4528).
       
6. If you're having product(s), whether software or hardware, shipped to me directly from the US, that's not a good idea. Have the product(s) shipped to a Canadian representatives or PR agency first, then transshipped to me. Otherwise there are special (admittedly tedious) instructions.
   • Any product(s) arriving with shipping, duties, brokerage fees, or taxes owing will be summarily refused delivery and returned unopened.
   • To avoid hassles at the border and at my front door, always mark both shipping label and waybill with the following: "Sample without value, for evaluation only. Not for resale. Not subject to GST."
   • NEVER ship via DHL. This company's drivers don't know whether there are charges owing. They say there are none, then an invoice arrives six months later. They've done it repeatedly. The only successful way we've found to do business with them is not to business with them at all. Shipments from outside Canada arriving via DHL are refused delivery and returned unopened, no matter what the driver says at the door about whether or not there are charges.
     • Acceptable alternatives to DHL include FedEx, Purolator, or (if you must) UPS.
       • If any of these companies bill later, I'll simply send the invoice to you for payment
   • See (4) and (5) above regarding product returns
     
7. Product brochures, fact sheets, and other bumpf, ESPECIALLY INCLUDING CURRENT CANADIAN STREET PRICING should accompany the product so we don't waste each other's time with me requesting and you providing (particularly at 3:00 am when I'm likely to be writing the review(s)). 
   • If this material is available at a Web site (good!), simply include the URL. (And if it isn't, why not?). 
   • If you don't know the street price, or your company's policy is only to divulge a "list." "estimated retail," "suggested retail," or "estimated street price," then please provide the name of at least two (online or storefront) retailers carrying the product in Canada.
     
8. Please provide, ahead of time, the name of a technical wizard I can pester if (a) something goes wrong, (b) there's something I don't understand, or (c) I just want to chat about a particular technology and its ramifications. Include his or her name, e-mail address, and daytime telephone number with the bumpf in (7) above. 
   • Please do not waste my time providing the name of a PR or marketing person who knows squat about the technical aspects of a product.
     
9. I don't care particularly about pictures; the editor(s) will request them from you directly or set me to the task if they want some, but it would be best if high-res pix are at the company's (or your) Web site for retrieval at our convenience. If they're in a non-public area, please provide the direct URL and password, if any — See the letter above for more detail on pictures, or simply visit the press rooms at www.intel.com or www.wacom.com to see how the pros do it.

Thanks

mw

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Don't call me; I'll call you

The technology of e-mail works. If you send a press release, I'll get it. In fact, I get so many releases, product announcements, invitations and other bumpf that I have a hard time reading them all in addition to doing the work I get paid for (writing about the products). I do not have time to hold your hand and reassure you that I got your missive.

So, let's make some assumptions, shall we? I got your (press release, invite, announcement). You don't have to call to follow up. In fact, if you do, I'll likely grouch at you, albeit gently. If you do it twice, I'll raise the volume and be anything but gentle. If you do it a third time, I'll ask to be taken off your distribution list and I'll contact your clients and ask them to talk to me directly instead of through you (because I'll have ascertained that you're too damned dumb to work with).

Now, that's fair, isn't it?

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I don't sign Non-Disclosure Agreements or attend NDA or embargoed events

To quote my colleague, Richard Morochove, I'm a writer, not a secret agent. I do not sign non-disclosure agreements or participate in NDA events. 

I have several reasons. The main one is that when I've done so in the past, I've always been burned — either because the company had already released the info to shareholders in Canada or the US or had given it to US journalists prior to asking Canadian journalists to clam up.

I've been a journalist in every medium there is, covering virtually every subject, for over 30 years. I can find out what you're hiding; I don't need special advance notice — and I don't have time to hear about things about which I cannot write.

NDAs are almost always marketing ploys designed to advantage the company involved and I don't work for you.

So, don't bother asking. I'll refuse. Don't spring an NDA on me at a press event without warning; I'll walk out (loudly).

The only time I may make an exception to this rule is if the information I'm seeking is for a book (very long lead times). In that case, I always keep my side of the bargain.

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You got it wrong!

I make every effort to write accurate assessments of products. Even my opinions are based on as much accuracy as I can summon. But I'm only human. 

If you're sure I've misquoted you (or your client), or inaccurately reported a fact about your (or your client's) product, please contact me (myles@computerwriter.com). 

If it turns out that you're correct, I'll make every effort to revise an online article or to get editors of print publications to let me stick a correction on my next column (keeping in mind deadlines and lead times).

If you disagree with an opinion, that's your privilege. But keep in mind that your job is to spin marvelous clothing and that mine is to spot and report naked emperors. We may simply have to agree to disagree. (Still, that doesn't prevent you from writing letters to editors, does it? But I'd appreciate it if you'd at least send me a copy.)

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