Subject: Re: imparting clues to the trade press...and PR departments

From: "Tim Kehres" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 00:21:53 +0800

I'm not convinced that all of this is required.   We're not out to compete
with the likes of those that are advertising during the Super Bowl.  We're
not trying to sell anything, or garner market share.  As such, comparisons
to PR budgets of the fortune 500 makes no sense to me.   In fact since we're
not trying to sell anything, our chances of getting the ear of the
journalists should be a LOT higher if we come off as trying to provide them
assistance in doing a better job, rather than one of the 5 million companies
that are competing for space in their publications.

As we are trying to provide information to the press and journalists, the
IETF web site is a simple way to start to at least formulate the message
that we want to convey.  Later, if necessary and desired, direct mailings
can be made to the various main press contacts.  It can also be done
electronically (I'm *NOT* implying spamming here :-)).

Of course, we do need to have a clear and concise message that needs to be
delivered.   Seems that a good starting point would be an IETF FAQ for
Journalists.   Given the group here, this does not seem to be an
insurmountable problem.

Best Regards,

Tim Kehres
International Messaging Associates
http://www.ima.com

-----Original Message-----
From: John W. Noerenberg <[email-masked]>
To: Keith Moore <[email-masked]>
Cc: John Curran <[email-masked]>; [email-masked] <[email-masked]>;
ietf-press-clues <//[email-masked]>
Date: Saturday, August 28, 1999 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: imparting clues to the trade press...and PR departments

>At 8:14 PM -0700 8/27/99, John  W. Noerenberg wrote:
>>At 9:13 PM -0400 8/27/99, Keith Moore wrote:
>>>issuing "anti dis-information press releases" might actually be worth a
try.
>>>for it to work, we will need to develop machinery to crank such things
>>>out fairly quickly...
>>
>>Doing PR right is hard work.  We're up against a sea of
>>organizations with much more resources dedicated to the task of
>>selling their message to the trade press.  The Fortune 500 spends
>>$.5B US annually on PR.  Better PR for the IETF would be a very good
>>thing.  But I think we're out of our league.
>
><sigh> My number was off by a factor of 3.  The Fortune 500 spent
>about $1.5B US in 1998 on PR.  My apologies.
>
>

---

From: "John W. Noerenberg" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 08:49:41 -0700

At 12:21 AM +0800 8/29/99, Tim Kehres wrote:
>As we are trying to provide information to the press and 
>journalists, the IETF web site is a simple way to start to at least 
>formulate the message that we want to convey.  Of course, we do need 
>to have a clear and concise message that needs to be delivered. 
>Seems that a good starting point would be an IETF FAQ for 

Tim, these are very reasonable suggestions.  In fact, things like 
this are very much in the reach of "We do engineering", imho. 
Providing more opportunities for educating laypeople about the IETF 
should definitely be part of what we do, and deserves discussion on 
its own.  By warning against indulging in building the PR arm of the 
IETF, I want people to understand that professional PR is not cheap.

>Later, if necessary and desired, direct mailings can be made to the 
>various main press contacts.  It can also be done electronically.

At 11:42 AM -0700 8/28/99, Larry Masinter wrote:
>ISOC: http://www.isoc.org/isoc/media/
>
>The Internet Society has a media/press office, a
>web page that describes how media contacts can be made,
>and it periodically issues press releases that describe
>initiatives.

I think we could accomplish a lot by linking the information Tim 
outlines with ISOC.

---

From: "John W. Noerenberg" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 08:49:41 -0700