New electronics editor at the IET
Paul Dempsey is to take over the role of electronics editor on the IET’s technology magazine, E&T.
Starting next week Paul takes over the role from Chris Edwards and will remain in Washington, USA, working remotely.
Paul, who has been a long term contributor for E&T, will report to former editor of the year Dickon Ross.
Chris will continue to freelance for the IET and will be general technology freelancer.
August 2, 2010 at 4:21 pm | Europe, People | No comment
How not to do your PR
According to countless experts editorial endorsement is one of the most influential ways to deliver your message. Being able to answer a journalist’s questions promptly is therefore vital if you want your ‘expert opinion’ to appear in an article. However, time is often limited and other companies can usually supply comment on the same subject, meaning journalists can easily get information elsewhere.
With this in mind, we’ve been given a guest contribution from the journalist Jon Titus, here he lists his pet hates and how companies can avoid them. These are all old problems (see 2008 piece from Sally Whittle), easy to fix, but still have not been sorted. Over to Jon.
I spent several days trying to track down someone at a large microcontroller company so we could talk about on-chip-debug capabilities. That experience prompted me to list some of the most annoying aspects of trying to contact companies by email or phone. Here goes:
1. When someone in your company transfers a call, have them state that person’s name and extension number. “I’ll transfer you to Mr. Smith at extension 123.” And have everyone include their extension number and title in their outgoing voice-mail message. After going through TouchTone hell to find someone to talk with, I don’t want to go through it again to get back in touch. I’d rather call your competitor who makes phone conversations easier.
2. When you put people on hold, please tune in some music or tell them about your company. We don’t need, “Your call is very important to us…” How do you know? Why not tell callers the average wait time to talk with someone. They can decide to stay on the line or call back later. No need to tell people their call will be answered in the order in which it was received. We know that, too.
3. Ensure when someone leaves your company you have a person who can handle the email and phone messages for the departed staffer. Nothing worse for editors on deadline than finding they have left three or four voice messages and sent email to someone who’s long gone. When someone leaves, record a new message that says something like, “Melanie Ford is no longer available. We’re transferring your call to…” Set the departed person’s email account to bounce back a short message about who to use as a new contact person. Don’t let messages and email end up in “dead” accounts.
4. I’ve run into situations where a receptionist would not connect me to someone at the company because I didn’t know anyone by name. I couldn’t talk to someone in the marketing department unless I knew who I wanted to talk to. How dumb is that? I found several names on the company’s Web site and finally asked to speak to the president by name. That got me to the president’s assistant but I never got a return call. I won’t call them again.
5. If people call and identify themselves as editors or writers, everyone in your company should know how to handle the call and who they should transfer the call to. First, you get the caller to the proper person as quickly as possible. Second, you don’t have employees blabbing gossip or unofficial information to writers. If your company uses a PR agency, have an internal company contact who can provide that information–and put it on your Web site. Receptionists should have that information at their fingertips.
6. Unless you’re on your deathbed, use your voicemail or an automated email response to let callers know you are at a conference, out for the day, on vacation, sick, or otherwise not available. Then refer them to someone who can help them NOW.
7. Don’t let your voice-message box get full. Every once in a while I get a response, “This mailbox is full and cannot accept further messages.” Great. You’re the only person at the company I know to contact and I can’t leave a message for you. If you’re away for an extended time, have a backup plan so a colleague can get and handle your voice messages.
8. Include a complete “signature” in all email communications. All too often email comes with a person’s name and company, but without a phone number. I don’t want to go through a telephone menu of choices and an automated TouchTone “name lookup” to find you when I want to talk rather than email back and forth 10 times.
9. Editor and writers aren’t perfect. People at your company should ask for complete information, including a caller’s phone number, title, publication, what they want to talk about and their deadline. Avoid confusion.
10. When you leave a message–this applies to editors and writers, too–slow down. Slowly state your name, what you called about, and your phone number. You can speak much faster than I can write and when you speak quickly, words and names can run together. Then state your phone number again. It might help to note your time zone, too. You probably don’t want me to call you at midnight your time.
11. Listen first. When I try to identify myself as an editor, some receptionists don’t let me finish. They tell me they don’t talk with advertising people, don’t handle subscriptions over the phone, don’t talk with newspaper editors, and so on. Listen to what callers have to say and then respond. That goes for editors and writers, too.
June 28, 2010 at 5:38 pm | America, People | No comment
Markt & Technik VDE award
Markt& Technik’s careers editor, Corinne Schindlbeck, has taken home a technology media prize by the VDE Südbayern.
The prize was awarded for outstanding journalistic work, which helps to attract young researchers to electronic engineering and information technology. It was presented at an awards dinner in Munich’s Bayerischer Hof.
Further information is available on the M&T’s sister web based publication, elektroniknet.de – a Google English language translation here.
VDE Südbayern’s chair, Petra Frederick, said ‘the organisers wanted to reward outstanding technical developments and commitment in developing enthusiasm for technology in the southern Bavarian population.’
February 22, 2010 at 1:45 pm | Europe, People, Publication | No comment
Praxis "scales down" on RF
PMN understands Jan Vollmuth left Elektronik Praxis at the end of 2009. This means two things:
- Gerd Kucera is now covering the industrial wireless sector
- Elektronik Praxis has “scaled down” its RF coverage
We’re not sure exactly how scaled down this is meant to be, however. With the shift to 4G and the wireless streaming of HDTV becoming key themes for 2010 it seems odd to end it completely.
That said, there has been one RF story by Praxis in the past month – by Holger Heller. However, this relays company news rather than advancing technologies.
January 27, 2010 at 9:23 am | Europe, People | No comment
Françoise Grosvalet retires
A fond farewell to Françoise
After 31 years working in the French electronics media, Françoise Grosvalet today retires from Electronique International and moves on to pastures new. An Electronica without her will seem strange indeed, she’ll be sorely missed by all. Good luck Françoise, à la prochaine!
December 15, 2009 at 3:27 pm | Europe, People | No comment
Supply Frame poach Christenson from EETimes Asia
SupplyFrame Media, which provides an online source of electronic component information and advertising, today announced that Todd Christenson of YMeasure will represent sales for China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. The addition will provide SupplyFrame Media with a local point of presence for its AsiaPac customer base.
The move comes just 18 months after Christenson joined EETimes Asia from Hearst Media.
According to the press release Todd has been brought in to help grow business through delivering measurable advertising results for its clients.
December 8, 2009 at 3:57 pm | Asia, People | No comment
New York Times, new lead writer
The New York Times has today announced a new lead writer for its technology section, Bits.
Nick Bilton (pictured), was previously on leave from the NY Times to write a book about the future of media, technology and storytelling called I Live in the Future: & Here’s How It Works. Before this sabbatical Nick worked on a range of technology projects for the NY Times. According to the NY Times Bits post:
“He returns to us more passionate than ever about multimedia journalism, so expect to see some experiments here on Bits in the coming months.”
Nick can also be followed on Twitter.
November 11, 2009 at 3:15 pm | America, People | No comment
ElectroniqueS announces editorial lead
François Gauthier has been appointed as editor in chief of the new ‘ElectroniqueS‘ magazine.
ElectroniqueS is the result of a merger between ‘Electronique International’ and ‘Electronique’ magazines and the first edition out on the 20th January.
François was previously editor in chief at Electronique. It was anticipated that François would take the editor in chief position at the new title following the retirement of Electronique International’s Françoise Grovalet. The publishers have also announced Pascal Coutance as deputy editor. Pascal will take charge of digital developments – website, mobile etc.
November 10, 2009 at 2:23 pm | Europe, People, Publication | No comment
Electronique merger
Two major French electronic titles, Electronique and Electronique International are to merge. The result is a magazine called ElectroniqueS. 11 issues will be created per year with three specials.
The first edition will appear in January 2010.
The move by its publisher was anticipated and highlights the difficulty of running a weekly magazine in the age of instant online news.
That said, its rate card is still quite high and the rate card cost for a whole page advert is €8,200.
The new website is already up and running and will include a section for whitepapers in 2010.
The one unknown is staff. We understand that Francoise Grovalet will be retiring at the end of the year and the staff writer Pascal Wilhelm has already left the organisation.
October 29, 2009 at 4:10 pm | Europe, New title, People, Publication | 1 comment
Muehlbauer and Vollmuth leave Praxis
Publitek Media news has learned that Jan Vollmuth and Andreas Muelbauer have both left Elektronik Praxis. It is understood both have been made redundant.
Andreas has said he is unsure what his next move is but will consider freelance work.