Stories (RSS)
Care and feeding of the press, community style
(8 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
With the openSUSE launch last week, I spent quite a bit of time talking to press — either on the phone, via e-mail, and on IM — about openSUSE 11.1.
In 2009, I hope that many members of the openSUSE community will have opportunities to speak to press at one point or another, in order to promote and educate about the work that’s being done within openSUSE. I can give high-level overviews of features and trends in the community, but no one is going to explain the importance of work on specific projects as well as the people who actually do the work. So don’t be surprised if you get an email from me or someone in Novell PR saying “hey, can you talk to somebody about your work…?”
Since I’ve been on both sides of the fence (interviewer and interviewee), I’d like to give a few suggestions for talking to press if the opportunity presents itself:
- Be expansive — I’ve noticed that many developers give fairly terse answers, up to and including responses like “you can see what’s new in the release notes.” While technically accurate, it’s not what reporters and journalists (or their editors and readers) are looking for. Take the opportunity to explain the features and how they benefit their intended audience. If you wonder why some projects get better press than others, one reason is that the projects in question understand how to work with press and give them material to work with.I can’t stress this one enough. When a door is opened and you have the opportunity to talk about the good work that’s being done, take it. Give some detail, and show enthusiasm.Responding to questions is sort of like creating a useful bug report. Saying “it doesn’t work” gives the developer little to work with. Saying “look at the release notes” gives the reporter little to work with.
- Be responsive — if you say you’re going to respond by a certain day or time, do so. If you can’t, try to pass the request on to someone who can respond in a timely fashion. (Which is one good reason to involve PR – part of their job is to find the right person to respond and shepherd the response through in time to meet the reporter’s deadline.)
- Be polite — the standard of communication between developers is, let’s face it, fairly blunt. Successful interactions with the press need to be diplomatic. If an article gets a fact wrong, a polite correction is OK – a flame isn’t. The adage about not picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel still applies, even when there’s no actual ink involved.If it helps, try to remember that press are not generally able to be experts on all thing they cover. (This goes back to rule 1 – be expansive…) Most reporters genuinely try to get the facts right, and when they don’t will welcome polite corrections.
- Be on message – as a reporter, I hated talking to executives who’ve gone through media training and think that a good interview practice is to parrot the same responses to every question in order to “stay on message.” I don’t recommend that.However, I do recommend thinking about what you are trying to accomplish by participating in an interview. If you want to highlight XYZ features in the latest release of a project, make sure you get that message across.Do not feel obligated to stick with the original premise of a question. If a reporter gives you something like “Well, lots of people say that project ABC is better at blah than your project, why is that?” Reframe the question, and don’t give a quote that reinforces a position you don’t agree with. (I get a lot of questions trying to position openSUSE as a competitor to Fedora, for instance, rather than as a competitor to Windows. I won’t go down that path. While I’m happy to talk about what makes openSUSE unique and interesting, the goal is not to win users away from Fedora, it’s to spread Linux to users stuck on proprietary platforms like Windows.)
Also remember, you should never feel obligated to answer all of a reporter’s questions. A “that’s not my area,” or the like is perfectly acceptable.
- Be careful – remember that when you’re talking to press about a story, everything you say is “on the record,” and don’t count on information being offered “off the record” staying that way.I’m not saying that many reporters will purposefully report information offered off the record (though some will), I’m saying that all reporters are human and subject to mistakes. Information that’s not offered can’t be reported. And don’t confirm “rumors” and such — sometimes a smart reporter will take a shot and luck into getting someone to confirm it.
- Be the media – don’t wait for press to come knocking at your door. If you’re working on projects that you can talk about, do so. Early and often. Blog and use social media (Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook, etc.) to mention your work, hitting milestones, any hurdles that the community could help with. Join the openSUSE-marketing mailing list / team if you’re working on a project that could benefit from publicity and ask for some assistance in publicizing. (Remember, of course, that as blogs are often quoted by IT press, you shouldn’t say anything on your blog you don’t want to see on the front page of Slashdot or Digg…)
I can’t overstress that last bit. It’s easier than ever to get the word out about open source projects, and taking the time to blog and so forth about work being done on projects can pay off big time.
I think all these points are totally valid and it’s something we should live by not just when interacting with the press, but when interacting with life in general.
I’d like to see if we can change the coverage a bit in the next round of media attention. While reporters may word their questions similarly, they generally are asking the same question and the articles I read whether its openSUSE or anything else is starting to become one and the same. Just swap out the name of the product being reported on.
Basically, I see: What’s new. What’s cool. How did we get to this point, etc. Everything focused squarely on the product. Well, what’s new today, is old tomorrow when the next distro releases something that’s even better than yours, and so on goes the saga. Where’s the human side of the story? The diverse type of users that use openSUSE, the diverse use of openSUSE, the impact openSUSE makes on people’s lives. Businesses that use openSUSE. And so forth.
Reporters have a responsibility too to engage with the community they’re reporting about and not just look for an “expanded release notes” type article. In this way, more people beyond the standard user base might consider openSUSE (or Linux in general.) At this point, when I read articles after a story breaks, I generally view them all the same, and rather hunt each article for that one gem the other reporters didn’t catch onto, instead of reading the entire article as a full article of genuine interest.
Good thoughts, something like 1+1 of public relations, but I found it by accident.
Now is bookmarked to have it handy.
I am a writer for a music magazine, doing interviews and stuff and I agree with what you say.
I would like to add three points: When you’re doing an interview please be honest. *Talk about problems you faced* and how you *solved* them. Because this is more interesting for the readers than the stereotype answers like „The new $thing is better than the old $thing.“ Of course it is, that’s what the world expected, but that’s no story.
And the second point: Please be patient. Don’t expect that the interviewer has deep knowledge about you and/or your work. Interviewers are (hopefully) good in asking questions, but they might be the worst DAUs when it comes to technical aspects. If they were good in writing code, they would write programmes themself instead of asking hackers about it.
Third: At least for me there is nothing more frustrating than to get answers which are copies of what the marketing departement said. And I get angry when I read all the same answers in all the other magazines. Who do you think I will be asking the next time I need an interview? That saturated person who gave me boring answers or this new hacker, who is hungry and vivid, where I feel that he burns for what he is doing?
Thanks for the comments – I totally agree, and had the same frustrations when I was working as a reporter.