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1/18/2005</title></head><body>
<div>MIT EDITORS' CLUB<br>
</div>
<div>*Meeting Notes from January 18, 2005*</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Our first meeting of 2005 addressed a topic essential to
communicators: How do you find story ideas? Below are examples offered
by Editors at this meeting:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--Get out of the office! Everyone agreed that this is key,
whether you peruse lecture announcements posted along the hallways or
make an appointment to get a tour of a lab you haven't been in for a
while.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--Many folks send regular e-mail notes to faculty asking about
news in their areas. Debbie Levey, editor of the newsletter for Civil
and Environmental Engineering, does so every few months; the
communications folks from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical
Research send out quarterly queries. Debbie finds that it's most
effective to give several examples of what she means by news:
"Will you be presenting at a conference? Has a paper been
accepted by a technical journal? Have you done (or are you planning)
something interesting within the MIT community?" As an example of
the latter, she referred to one professor's secretary who also happens
to be an artist and gives lectures to that end that complement the
prof's design class.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--Network! Keep in touch with administrative officers and
other good resources for story ideas. I personally find that Editors'
Club folks (YOU) are invaluable.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--Do electronic searches for media stories about your
lab/department, or the university as a whole. Jay Chrepta, the
new communications officer for the Department of Mechanical
Engineering, wrote that he's had great luck with but Google News
(news.google.com) and Yahoo News (news.yahoo.com). Both have email
alerts for specific search criteria. Also: try LexisNexis, which is
free for MIT folks through the Libraries (<font face="Lucida Grande"
size="-4"
color="#000000">http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe</font>).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--Many of the major technical journals such as Nature and Science
alert the News Office (me) if an MIT scientist is publishing in the
following week's issue. Although a week is barely enough time to write
a news release, get it reviewed by the scientist, AND potentially get
photos taken, it's better than no advance notice at all. The best of
all worlds? When a scientist (or member of Editors' Club! Hint! Hint!)
calls to tell me that a paper has just been ACCEPTED by a given
journal. That usually means that the article itself won't be out for
3-4 months, which gives plenty of time to prepare a press release (and
photos) about the work.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>*Next Meetings*</div>
<div>Following are the dates for MIT Editors' Club meetings through
June. All meetings will be in the News Office (11-400) from
12-1.</div>
<div><br>
Wednesday, FEBRUARY 23<br>
<br>
Monday, MARCH 14<br>
<br>
Thursday, APRIL 21<br>
<br>
Tuesday, MAY 10<br>
<br>
Thursday, JUNE 16</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Cheers!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Elizabeth</div>
<div><tt> </tt></div>
<div>===================================<br>
Elizabeth A. Thomson<br>
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
News Office, Room 11-400<br>
77 Massachusetts Ave.<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307<br>
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)<br>
<thomson@mit.edu><br>
<br>
<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www></div>
<div>===================================</div>
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