In This Edition:
Member News - Today's Trucking
Member News - Howard Elmer
Media Tech - E-Mailing Press Releases
On The Lighter Side
Next Issue Due Out 9/13/02 - Deadline
For Materials 9/9/02!
Ed. Note - Due to
summer travel schedules, this is a shorter than average issue
of the Dispatch. We'll be back after GATS with more news!
Member
News - Today's Trucking
Today's Trucking magazine
won a gold and two silver awards at the 2002 Kenneth R. Wilson
awards in Toronto last night, including a sweep of the category
for best industrial writing. The Kenneth R. Wilson awards honor
the best writing and graphic design in business-to-business publishing
in Canada.
Editorial director
Rolf Lockwood won best industrial article for "Specs that Sell,"
about buying trucks with resale in mind, published in June 2001.
He won second place in the same category for "In Search of Fair
Pay," a story about driver compensation that appeared in July/August
2001. Contributing editor Allan Janssen took second place in the
how-to category for "Squeezed," which lays out strategies for
buyers who think they have a "lemon" truck. It was published in
September 2001.
Editor Stephen Petit
and contributing editor Jim Park earned a top-five honor in the
how-to category for "Personal Questions," about border-crossing
procedures for truck drivers. There were more than 650 entries
in the competition this year. Gold and silver awards are presented
to the first and second place winners in each category, and top-five
finishers receive an honourable mention.
Today's Trucking was
the only trucking industry publication recognized in the award
program. "If you're a trade magazine, the 'Best Industrial' and
'Best How-to Article' categories are the ones you want to win,"
said Petit. "They indicate a commitment to helping readers do
their jobs better. That's the guiding principle of our magazine
-- a principle Rolf established 15 years ago when Today's Trucking
was created."
It is the third time
in the past five years that Today's Trucking has won best industrial
article. The industrial category deals with industry methods,
equipment, techniques, or management practices. The Kenneth R.
Wilson awards are presented by the Canadian Business Press, an
association of business-to-business publishers.
Member
News - Howard Elmer
Member Howard J Elmer,
freelance editor, is experiencing a brisk trade in medium-duty
related editorial to a growing variety of recreational outlets.
With applications currently pending before several States to allow
production of Fifth-wheel trailers of up to 45 feet in length,
the RV media is more keenly aware than ever of the products the
truck market has to offer.
In addition, publications
aimed at ATVers, snowmobilers and amauter racers are looking to
balance their coverage of the custom trailer market with examples
of towing power. This activity extends to component reviews and
related aftermarket add-ons.
Opportunities exist
for media exposure with a variety of speciality publications.
Members can forward any information they feel may be of interest
to: Howard J Elmer PowerSports Media Service, write_on_boy@sympatico.ca
or call 905-455-0145.
Media Tech - E-Mailing
Press Releases
Just
a quick reminder folks. When broadcast e-mailing a press release,
the preference of the overwhelming majority of journalists is
to have the copy placed as plain text in the body of the e-mail
message. There are too many incompatible versions of MS Word
out there for it to be effective as a distribution format. On
top of that is the concern of Word Macro Viruses embedded in the
file. As such, many journalists will delete these e-mail messages
without ever trying to review the content.
Also,
do not attach the images related to the release, but rather, provide
a direct URL link where the journalist can download the image
if desired. Many of the Nation's top editors spend more than enough
time at the far end of a slow connection, so these attached images
become more of a problem than a convenience.
Last
but not least, to protect the privacy of those journalists who
have agreed to receive press releases via e-mail, do not use the
"CC:" option to address the e-mail to your entire mailing
list. To keep the e-mail addresses confidential, use the "BCC:"
option or invest in distribution software. For those PR folks
who use AOL as their e-mail provider, Netscape can be configured
as your browser/e-mail client to enable the use of "BCC:"
e-mail addressing.
On
The Lighter Side
An
Alexander County Deputy pulled a car over on I-57 about 2 miles
north of the Missouri state line. When the Deputy asked the
driver why he was speeding, the driver answered that he was
a magician and a juggler andhe was on his way to Branson to
do a show that night and didn't want to be late.
The
deputy told the driver he was fascinated by juggling, and if
the driver would do a little juggling for him that he wouldn't
give him aticket. The driver told the deputy that he had sent
all of his equipment on ahead and didn't have anything to juggle.
The deputy told him that he had some flares in the trunk of
his squad car and asked if he could juggle them. The juggler
stated that he could, so the deputy got three flares, lit them
and handed them to the juggler.
While
the man was doing his juggling act, a car pulled in behind the
squad car, a drunk got out and watched the performance briefly,
he then went over to the squad car, opened the rear door and
got in. The deputy observed him doing this and went over to
his squad car, opened the door and asked the drunk what he thought
he was doing. The drunk replied, "Might as well take my butt
to jail, there's no way in hell I can pass that test."
