Free Greek/Media contacts

The Outreach Committee should be made aware of any contact with the media.

When a reporter is working on a story, they should be given a copy of the Media Kit (still in progress as of 2/06), and assigned a "shepherd." The shepherd should be the reporter's main contact at Free Geek, and is responsible for finding suitable people for interviews and MAKING SURE they FOLLOW THROUGH, getting statistics and other supporting materials to the reporter in a timely fashion.

Also see these wiki pages: Media Kit, Stats and Testimonials.

Douglas Howard found some excellent resources online, for adding info to this list:


 * Yahoo:
 * Portland Metro - Newspapers - Links - but no weekly and monthly papers
 * Portland Metro - Radio Stations - Links
 * Portland Metro - TV Stations - Links
 * Newspapers with Address, Phone, FAX, Contact, (but no links) (very good compilation)
 * Radio, TV, Newspaper: Descriptions and Links to websites
 * Oregon newspapers online

National/International Media (general interest)

 * Christian Science Monitor. Elizabeth Armstrong Moore wrote a story 11/2005 about Portland as an Open Source leader. She appears to live in Portland and also freelance for Willamette Week. We should establish contact with her.
 * Reuters wire service
 * Teresa Carson, Portland reporter. Pete knows her.
 * The Associated Press
 * Bill McCall, the business editor of the AP Portland bureau, came to Free Geek with a photog at the end of September for a piece on e-waste, and mentioned following up with a more FG-specific feature. Oso talked to him. Xen will contact him about that followup.
 * BBC Click
 * 12/05 stories about technology and social change. Contact

Local/Regional daily press contacts

 * The Oregonian
 * contact list - direct phone and email for EVERY O. REPORTER/EDITOR
 * department contact list
 * Nathan can get in touch with the reporter who did the last big FG story (about Collab etc) he's a business reporter.
 * Pete knows Dylan Rivera, business reporter, and Janie Har, Oregon politics reporter. Also Melissa Coffman, a marketing designer/project coordinator.
 * Xen knows DeAnn Welker, a copy editor at the O.
 * Revphil knows Joseph Rose Crime & Justice Writer and James Yu Editorial Assistant - Sports
 * 12/19/05 Mike Rogoway did profile on Ward Cunningham, inventor of wikiwikiwiki
 * The Observer
 * African/American-oriented daily (?) publication
 * The Columbian (Vancouver WA)
 * Don Hamilton, reporter, Pete knows him well.
 * The Statesman Journal (Salem)
 * Far away, but worth contacting for stories about state legislative action relating to open source or recycling-related legislation. Stephanie Matlock, features editor at the SJ, is a friend of Xen's.
 * The Gazette-Times (Corvallis)
 * Also a bit out of our usual reach, but should be contacted for those occasional stories with an OSU/open source connection. Entertainment editor Jake TenPas is a good friend of Xen's.
 * Daily Journal of Commerce
 * Pete knows ad director Cris Schulz

Local broadcast stations
PDX Radio web site has good overview of radio stations.


 * KBOO 90.7 FM (indepentent community radio station)
 * KPOJ AM 620 (Air America affiliate) progressive/left wing talk
 * runs (ran?) a spot from spiritone.com which plugged Free Geek as a place to donate your PC
 * doesn't do local news beyond brief headlines...only local show is Thom Hartmann, 6-9am. An interview/maybe 20 minute call-in segment might fit with this program, might be a long shot.
 * Oso wants to get advertising, but it's expensive.
 * Pete knows ad rep Sarah Wetjen.
 * PSAs (10, 15, 30 seconds) can be sent either as text or recordings.
 * OPB radio 91.5 FM, TV Channel 10 (NPR affiliate)
 * KATU Channel 2 (ABC affiliate)
 * Oso was on AM Northwest in Summer '05. According to Debi many volunteers/donators came in as a result of that appearance.
 * KOIN Channel 6 (CBS affiliate)
 * KGW Channel 8 (NBC affiliate)
 * Pete knows Kris Brenneman
 * KPTV Channel 12 (FOX affiliate)

general interest

 * Portland Tribune
 * HalfAss Pete worked there 4 years. All the good FG-friendly reporters have moved on. Some contacts but no great ones. Connie Pickett, Managing Editor. Jacob Quinn Saunders, news reporter. Todd Murphy, education reporter.
 * Revphil knows Joseph Gallivan Features Writer (who is also probably not there anymore) and a photographer who... uh she is a really good friend, but not all that influential i bet.
 * Portland Business Journal
 * Andy Giegerich, reporter. Good friend of Halfass Pete, has written of FreeGeek before and is very pro-FG.
 * Shelly Strom, reporter. Pete knows her. She has written of FG in the past.
 * Willamette Week
 * Looks like Elizabeth Armstrong Moore, the reporter who wrote the recent Portland/Open Source piece for Christian Science Monitor (that was syndicated all over), is freelancing for Willy Week as well. Let's not let this opportunity pass!
 * Cameron Browne is a freelance photographer who sometimes shoots for the Willy Week and is a friend of Xen's.
 * Find out production schedule of Blender (if it's really annual?) It's a magazine guide to Portland they make.
 * Portland Monthly (beware similarly-titled Maine pub)
 * Ben Jacklet, reporter. Good friend of Halfass Pete, very pro-FG. Pete might have advertising contacts there too.
 * Sylvan Goldberg, reporter. Working on Open Source story. Pete will contact. Or, Ben will have Sylvan call Oso.
 * Oregon Business: monthly, magazine format.
 * Robin Doussard, new editor. r___d at oreg__business.com 503-223-0304 x229, married to Tom Potter's PR dude
 * Portland Mercury
 * Revphil knows Scott Moore - News, Steve Humphrey - Editor, Marjorie Skinne - Writer
 * Pete knows Zach Hull, marketing director. Small enough paper that this might be an "in" to editorial.

smaller/more specialized

 * Vancouver Business Journal 360-695-2442
 * Jessica Swanson, managing editor
 * PDX magazine: new "lifestyle" magazine
 * New Connexions (New Agey thing)
 * they are trading ad space for hardware with us and they want me to write about FG as a community space for them. -Xen) Can you give some details about that trade arrangement, and ideas what we might use the ad space for (or already using the ad space for?) --Pete 13:15, 8 Dec 2005 (PST)
 * The Alliance (workers' collectives)
 * Matteo knows somebody, cause PAWC is running an ad (see 12/05 council minutes) that FG is participating in.
 * Street Roots
 * Has a front-page article in their current issue on e-waste, with no quotes from Portland peeps. For shame! Xen will contact about more FG coverage. If they dont respond well I will write a letter. Too many former free geekers sell them papers for this kinda insolence (Aside: Street Roots' last fundraiser/grantwriter was former FG intern Ariel Marsh, so we have sort of an in.)
 * The Asian Reporter

community newspapers: weeklies, monthlies

 * Community Newspapers, Inc.
 * Chain of papers (under same ownership as Tribune) mainly weekly community suburban papers. (closest are Sellwood, Gresham, Clackamas Review. Tribune is under same ownership.)
 * Merry MacKinnon, freelance reporter. Friend of Pete's. Very much a progressive, into recycling and all that. Very non-technical. Writes for Lifestyles NW (Portland seniors), East County News (Lents-Gresham, low-income) and Sellwood Bee primarily. Lifestyles NW story will run about 2/1/06.
 * The Southeast Examiner
 * The Hollywood Star
 * Not sure of the status of this paper, but Pete might have an in.
 * The Skanner: bi-weekly, African-American focus.
 * Boring/Damascus Observer: it's far away, but Pete knows the main reporter Marty. Damascus will be a very interesting place over the next decade and beyond.
 * Northwest Women's Journal

specialized publications: environmental, geeky, etc.

 * Sustainable Industries Northwest
 * Editor: Brian Back (friend of Pete) owned by Sokol-Blosser family (wine makers)
 * Orion: Before Xen was hired by Free Geek, she tried to sell Orion, a national environmental magazine, on letting her cover FG for their Blueprints for Change section. No dice, but I still say they'd totally love the cut of our gib. Will hassle them again.
 * Renewable Report
 * PGE's quarterly newsletter. Sent to PGE Renewable Power customers. Thor Hinckley, renewables at p g n dot com. Good candidate for a short canned piece?
 * Metro Parent
 * Teresa Carson (pete's friend) does the calendar.
 * editor Marie: 503-460-2774 editor@...
 * Angels Among Us, monthly column where we could write an article and have them print it. Would have to lead in with CforK. One magazine page, couple photos.
 * Portland Family: similar to above?
 * Computer Bits: defunct Portland magazine :(
 * PC World
 * PC Magazine
 * Linux Journal
 * Wired Magazine: Brad Stenger (from the Hardware Grants group) has accepted a position there (fall '05?)

online publications

 * Blue Oregon: Progressive Oregon blogging site
 * News 4 Neighbors: community-oriented Portland web site.
 * editor: David Pool dpool at hevan_t dot com (he is active on mailing lists, and a volunteer?)
 * Oregon Herald: I can't figure out just what the hell is up with this site. Feels like a scam, but what kind I can't say. It's some kind of auto-aggregator of Oregon news.


 * TWiT: This Week in Tech, weekly hour long panel podcast
 * Robert X Cringely: weekly column and podcast.
 * slashdot: geeky news aggregator...it's way big.
 * designtechnica: geek toys and new gadgets, Suzie Ridgway is a friend of Revphil Jan16th: they want to do a story about the geek, more soon

student newspapers

 * Many student papers have science news departments, or at least one designated science reporter -- likely to cover both environmental and tech issues. Publishing schedules are helpful, since they usually don't publish when students are on break. Turnover at these papers is naturally very high, but we should keep basic contact info on file. Different student bodies are going to be interested in us for different reasons, so I'd like to include relevant information about the character of the school in each section.


 * Google recently gave a big grant to Oregon universities OSU and PSU for open sourcy stuff. (contact info in articles)


 * OSU Daily Barometer
 * Editor in Chief DD Bixby (as of 12/05), Advisor Frank Ragulsky
 * 541-737-3191 • Contact the editor
 * OSU is host to Open Source Labs and has a decent environmental science program.
 * Barometer historically has at least one designated science or tech reporter (at times they have had an entire science section).
 * We have occasional tie-in events (OSU Open Source Day, hardware donations, etc.) that should occasion a press release to the Baro.
 * Christen knows the current editor and the advisor.
 * When they can write about us: The Barometer publishes five days a week during OSU's regular academic year and is weekly during the summer.


 * PSU Daily Vanguard Contact
 * Production schedule:Xen swears up and down that in her day, the Vanguard wasn't a daily, and feels old. Academic-->production schedule likely mirrors the Baro.
 * Contact/history: Near the end of 11/05, Xen, Phil, Clout and several others spoke with Vanguard reporter Nate McKee about the Geek, the digital divide and the Unwire Portland project.
 * A search of the Vanguard archives shows no story about this yet. He did share the fascinating and press release-worthy tidbit that FG's site is one of very few (with the others being local government type sites) that would be free under the terms of the current bid. Go team Geek!


 * We Mean Business: Small Business Development Center (PCC) quarterly (?)
 * Does Wren have some history with PCC Business school?

links
relevant wiki pages:


 * Posting PSAs
 * Volunteer Recruitment has names of some contacts at colleges etc.
 * Where to post jobs has some other ideas
 * Portland WikiPedia Media!