by Almanax
Thu Feb 7th, 2008 at 11:51:30 AM EST
A key element for making the petition successful is to take active steps to sustain and accelerate the momentum of media coverage which will both inform people about the existence of the petition, legitimate it as a large and serious effort and in turn generate more coverage.
A good way to generate media coverage is to collect email-addresses of newsmedia in this thread and have Eurotrib readers write emails and send them off to all outlets of the same language. There are two benefits to this: Firstly, most people are more likely to fire off a short email if they don't have to look up email addresses first. Secondly, locals and nationals of certain regions and countries have a much better knowledge about which media outlets are worth contacting because they have large and possibly sympathetic audiences and/or are most likely to be responsive.
For instance, although the main broadcasters are an obvious target, there are also a number of websites and newspapers with huge audiences which are not generally very well known. To give an example, in my home province in Austria, there is a local media monopoly that dominates the newspaper and Internet-provider market. This local newspaper reaches more than a hundred thousand people daily and their online-portal, which also carries daily newsheadlines, probably also reaches many, many thousands.
Another example: In Austria there are a number of national newspapers, but the one that is probably most likely to carry a story on the petition online or in print is the left-of-center "Der Standard". In terms of audience, it may be useful to know that the right-wing "Die Krone" is by far the largest and most influential Austrian newspaper. A story in print or on their online portal would be a major success. If locals know particular editors and their email-addresses (rather than, for instance, just the general contact address of the channel) - even better!
I think a good email should be short and limited to the following points:
- The main URL ( http://www.stopblair.eu/) and/or its language specific counterpart
- A very brief outline of what it is ("Petition against Blair assuming the new office of EU President")
- A statement that as a listener/national/reader you would welcome direct reporting on the petition, or at least the mentioning of it in related coverage.
- Links to previous media coverage to legitimise the petition and show broad based interest in it (major links such as from the FT or BBC are particularly useful in this regard).
It would probably be best to avoid pre-written sample emails which everyone sends unchanged as some sort of political spam. Better write your own very short but individual email and then send it off to all addresses that match your language in turn. Ideally, one would not copy all addresses into the same mail, but send the emails off individually and change the header in each case to the appropriate "Dear XXX Team,...). In the preliminary list for Austrian media below, I have always provided the name of the outlet that can be put into the XXX space above.
If people post addresses (and short description of what they are for and in which language), I can incorporate them into the main post here. I will also post the (German) email I have already written below as an example.
Please only post information that is publicly available and no internal email addresses etc.
Note that many European newspaper websites can be found here: http://www.zeitung.de/
Austria:
1. Editor of political section of website of main left-of center national newspaper ("Der Standard")
Email: onlinepolitik@derStandard.at
Copy to: info@derStandard.at (main contact email for print and online editions)
2. Contact for main news-website of Austrian state TV & Radio broadcaster ("ORF")
Email: online@orf.at
3. Contact for Foreign Affairs section of largest Austrian newspaper ("Die Krone")
Email: ausland@kronenzeitung.at
4. Contact for popular Austrian late night TV news-show ("ZIB2")
Email: zib2@orf.at
5. Contact for national youth-radio broadcaster ("FM4")
Email: fm4@orf.at
Phone: +43-1-505-22-55
6. Contact for foreign affairs section of online portal of major tabloid "Oesterreich"
Email: welt@oe24.at
7. Contact for major Austrian political magazin "Profil"
Email: redaktion@profil.at
8. Contact for west Austrian online portal and news-site "Vorarlberg Online"
Email to editor (Mag. Elisabeth Gunz):
elisabeth.gunz@teleport.vol.at
Germany:
1. Contact page of Germany's most popular news-website ("Spiegel Online")
Email from:
http://www1.spiegel.de/active/kontakt/fcgi/lesermail.fcgi
2. Contact page for biggest German tabloid ("Bild")
Email from:
http://www.bild.de/BTO/kddb,templateId=kddbContact.html
3. Contact page of "Die Tageszeitung" (TAZ) - the most left of center major German daily newspaper
Email from: https://www.taz.de/6/kontakt/
4. Contact for "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" (major South German newspaper and website)
Email: redaktion@sueddeutsche.de
5. Contact for "Handelsblatt" (major business newspaper)
Email - press releases for online edition: interaktiv.pm@vhb.de
Email - readers' letters for oline edition: handelsblatt.com@vhb.de
Email - readers' letters for print edition: hb.wipo@vhb.de
6. Contact page of major Berlin city newspaper ("Berliner Zeitung")
Email from:
http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/kontakt/
7. Contact for the publication of the German Left Party ("Linkszeitung")
Email: leserbriefe@linkszeitung.de
United Kingdom:
1. Contact for free London METRO newspaper
Email (news editor):news.london@ukmetro.co.uk
Regional offices: news.manchester@ukmetro.co.uk, news.liverpool@ukmetro.co.uk, news.yorkshire@ukmetro.co.uk
