[Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes, 11/17/2005

[Elizabeth Thomson]

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from November 17, 2005*

You may recall a brief "thread" on the Editors' Club listserv last 
week concerning Institute guidelines for issuing press releases. It 
occurred to me that the topic of press releases and working with the 
News Office was a good one for the meeting itself, and voila, that's 
what dominated last week's discussion.

Below are some highlights:

I began the discussion by directing folks to two key News Office web 
sites: the first answers general questions about publishing MIT news. 
Among them: "How does the News Office decide which stories will get 
published?" And "will the News Office assign a writer for my story? " 
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/publish-news.html

 From there, check out the quick primer on writing news 
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/write-news.html. "We're very interested 
in working with people on their stories," said News Manager Kathryn 
O'Neill, who can be reached at kathryno at mit.edu, (617) 258-5401, if 
you have further questions.

That said, both Kathryn and I emphasized that the office can't 
publish or distribute as a press release everything that comes 
through the door. Because we have a small staff, we have to pick and 
choose what stories we'll spend our human resources on. For example, 
stories and press releases must be written for a relatively general 
(albeit smart!) audience.

Case in point: A few months ago a postdoc sent me a note about 
research he was publishing in a  physics journal. Problem was, I 
understood exactly three words in his abstract. I wrote him back and 
gently told him it was too technical. He offered to rewrite the piece 
for a more general audience.

The second draft was indeed much better, but it, too, was *still* too 
technical, and I knew it would not appeal to a broad audience. What 
to do?  From our database, I sent the postdoc the names/e-mail 
addresses of a few key reporters working for physics magazines, and 
told him to send it directly to those folks with a personal note. A 
few days later I heard back from a very excited young man: 
Physorg.com ran the story on their web site.

*Photos*

The News Office is ALWAYS looking for cool photos or photo 
opportunities. Call Donna Coveney, our photographer, if you see a 
robot doing somersaults down the Infinite Corridor or something 
equally interesting....Donna is at x3-2709 or coveney at mit.edu. One of 
Kathryn's favorite photos of late involved the recreation of Easter 
Island heads in miniature 
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/easter-island-0316.html. Debbie 
Levey, an Editor from civil and environmental engineering, brought 
this one to Donna's attention.

What sorts of photos are we *not* interested in? "Pictures of people 
sitting at tables, shaking hands, or lined up like a firing squad," 
said Kathryn.

Another important note regarding photos: if you hire a photographer, 
MAKE SURE you get permission from him or her to use the photos not 
only for Tech Talk and online, but also for distribution to the 
media. It's wise to embed that information in the image via 
photoshop, Kathryn said.

Finally, Kathryn noted that the News Office is currently in the 
process of creating a photo archive.

*Next Meeting*

The next meeting of MIT Editors' Club is TUESDAY, December 6, from 
12-1 in the News Office (11-400). Please note that this date is 
different from the Dec. date I distributed in earlier minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Elizabeth
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Elizabeth A. Thomson
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<thomson at mit.edu>

<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
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