Comment 1001 for bug 1

Newspapers, radio and tele all depend on having good stories.

Get free advertising by setting up a good story for them to report on and contact a couple of reporters so they know when and where to be to get the story. Preferably about 1 story per month.

This works most easily with local newspapers. Local 'rags' in England like to get photos of the town mayor who will often jump at the chance of visiting a new, innovative 'start-up' (or pre-start-up) businesses, especially if it gives him/her a good positive 'photo-opp'. Getting a couple of news-reporters on your side (aswell as getting the mayor onboard) can be a huge help in the future of your business. Note that newspaper articles with pictures and/or that take up 1/2 or 1/3rd of a page are more likely to be spotted but anything is better than nothing. Opening ceremonies, trade-fairs and other 'big events' are preferable (Cava costs £5 but explodes like champagne. A car-park with a canopy and bunting can look too posh sometimes) but again anything is better than nothing. At one place we got a photo of the inside of the office in the local rag but there wasn't enough room for the photographer, both workers and whoever was visiting, so me and Adrian stood outside while they took the photo-opp.

Linux is so unusual that there are bound to be some hilarious gaffs in the first few stories but don't worry too much as future articles may begin to clear up confusions, also people's interest might be piqued. Try to keep articles to a single topic so that there's more potential for more articles in the future.

When you get an article published keep a cutting of it and note the name of the paper and date published. People are unlikely to notice the first one but after a few months you may find someone mis-quoting an early article (which was probably inaccurate anyway). Also it's good to show banks and potential partners all your publicity (yes, even the bad/inaccurate).

Why pay for advertising when you can get that for free? If you must spend money then try spending it on setting up a 'big event' but make sure reporters will get there - then you get a lot more coverage per £1.

If you are likely to get some publicity then i recommend chatting with Ubuntu's media-relations/advertising people to see if they can help, perhaps with old posters, a selection of discs for people to try out at home etc, perhaps they have a lot of good advice too ;)

Good luck all and regards from
Tom :)