[ubuntu-uk] [uk-marketing] Writing for your local rag

[Chris Rowson]

> I've had a few articles published in "special interest" magazines (no,
> not that sort!) - not Linux-related but related to my own area of
> investment specialism - and I currently have an agency running a
> national PR campaign for me in the "day job", so have a bit of
> experience in getting ideas into traditional media.
>
> What I've found is that magazines tend to like articles that:
>
> - Are bang on target for their content area
> - Are well-written, in the sense of readability (relatively short
> sentence construction, no plosives next to fricassives, and so on)
> - Are free (in the sense of pizza)
> - Don't come over as if they were written by a religious nutcase (place
> the following in order of importance, 1: ending world poverty, 2: curing
> cancer, 3: ensuring programmers have a legal right to modify sourcecode,
> then work out what the order of importance is for the magazine readership!)
>
>
> - Many of them also seem to like articles that appear to interview other
> sources (There is one particular freelance journalist who phones me up
> for a soundbite every few months when he's pitching for a particular
> magazine.) If you are an IT consultant, don't hesitate to get
> sound-bites from your clients about their use of Ubuntu - the angle of
> "local firm XXX switched and...."
>
> - More and more local magazines have realised that they can't compete as
> an aggregator of generic news, so are pushing the "local angle" more and
> more... so by all means write for the East Riding of Yorkshire, if you
> live there, or can interview a local firm / celebrity, and make the
> article about THEM.
>

Thanks for the advice Mark - that gives me a new angle to look at this from.

Cheers

Chris