Reporting of 4NCL in the media

[John Upham]

I may be wrong, but I've not seen any recent reporting of Division Three activities in the chess or any other kind of media. Should I hope for more or I am being unreasonable? I've not looked in Playboy, Heat or Nuts magazine for some time so maybe I am being remiss in my coverage.

I am putting together a sponsors presentation (somewhat hopeful I agree!) for the AMCA teams next season and would like to state that our other teams activities are covered.

Who do I need to talk to in 4NCL to provide media exposure data for prospective sponsors?

Thanks for any help in this matter, JEU : AMCA Team Manager.

[Claire Summerscale]

Dear John
You can, of course, talk to me about this or any other 4ncl related matter. Please feel free to email me directly with any questions or queries.

Division 3 reports, including photos and games, just as for the other divisions are being done as I speak.

Kind regards
Claire

[Richard Bates]

I've never really understood why the 4NCL doesn't seem to do a proper press release any more. Reports, photos and games are all well and good (and appreciated because a fair amount of work obviously goes into them) but, and i'm willing to be contradicted, i can't see that what is produced is really what is needed to get the widest coverage in the media.

Turning what is currently provided in the way of a report into a newspaper article probably requires a fair amount of work by the journalist, therefore inevitably reducing the chances of an article appearing in a timely fashion, if at all. Whereas a well drafted press release, with a small selection of games, should effectively write the article for them, and require no more work than simply taking off the fax machine/email (pro-actively provided) and transferring into print. This could apply to both a preview and the subsequent report.

Obviously this could all be happening anyway and i'm just not aware of it...

[Mike Truran]

If I recall correctly Richard Furness used to do them, but since his death they have pretty much ceased. If someone is willing to volunteer I'm sure we would be delighted to accept the offer............

[John Upham]

Mike,

Do you know if Schach-Bundesliga has a Press Officer? Would 4NCL be willing to appoint such an officer and, if so, would they have access to a budget?

[Mike Truran]

The contacts for the Schachbundesliga are the following:

Marketing, Vermarktung:
Christian Hüneburg
Tel.: 0160 / 665 74 65
christian.hueneburg (at) schachbundesliga.de

Redakteur Schachbundesliga:
Georgios Souleidis
Redakteur der Schachbundesliga
Tel.: 0234 / 5461897
georgios.souleidis (at) schachbundesliga.de

Whether these are paid posts or not I can't tell from the available information. A lot of the reporting is done by Georgios (the editor), although individual teams also submit their own reports.

It would be good to appoint a Press Officer (if one could be found). Funds however are a little short at the moment, and I expect that the 4NCL will make a (small) loss this year, so it would be difficult to find the funds to pay a Press Officer at the moment. We pay an honorarium to have the current reports produced, so if the general consensus was that we should pay to have press reports produced too I could build the extra cost to do press releases as well into the 2009/2010 budget. There would of course be some effect on the entry fees, but spread across all the teams the individual effect for this particular item would be small.

[Richard Bates]

If I recall correctly Richard Furness used to do them, but since his death they have pretty much ceased. If someone is willing to volunteer I'm sure we would be delighted to accept the offer............

Well that is of course the problem...

As long as it's recognised as something that would be desirable that is something

[Mike Truran]

That may be so, but unless a volunteer puts his/her hand up to do the job or we decide to pay somebody to do the job in the absence of a volunteer the recognition that it's desirable may be something but it still doesn't get the press releases written.

Maybe I'll raise the matter at a future captains' meeting (we'll probably have one when all the teams are together next at Hinckley Island) to canvas views. In the meantime, if somebody out there has some spare time on his hands......

[John Upham]

I've mailed the 4NCL Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2393918814 and a volunteer has stepped forward already (and its not me!)

I'll keep this thread posted ( ) of more developments...

[Mike Truran]

Good man! Perhaps you can put whoever it is in touch with Claire or me in due course.

[Jonathan Rogers]

This would be most welcome. One suggestion for whoever might take it on - send an email to all captains immediately after the weekend to ask for immediate reactions, and to point out any particularly interesting games or combination. No doubt only a few captains will reply but it will still help to produce a more rounded report, and will reduce the likelihood of exciting moments being missed.

I for one would reply to such a mail. Had I been invited to do so after this last January weekend, for example, I would have pointed out the very pleasing combination in Headlong v O'Toole (round 5, division 2) which, understandably (since they cannot be expected to look at all 256 games per weekend) seems to have been missed by Jack and Claire. I would also have pointed out that far from "gaining a draw" with Simon Williams (as Jack and Claire put it) Felix Ynojosa had been beating him, and he rightly turned down the first draw offer. Yes, we were very close to seeing the first win by a twelve year old against a GM in the 4NCL, but there was no hint of it in any of the 4NCL publicity.

Perhaps I should have offered these observations anyway, but generally one is more likely to respond to a request to do so - not least because (at the moment) one is not necessarily sure exactly who has the job of compiling the report for any particular weekend.

[Richard Bates]

That may be so, but unless a volunteer puts his/her hand up to do the job or we decide to pay somebody to do the job in the absence of a volunteer the recognition that it's desirable may be something but it still doesn't get the press releases written.

Indeed. However, in my defence, my post was in the context of having posted about this once before and having gained the (probably erroneous) impression that the current production of weekend reports and press releases were seen as equivalent, when the two are very different with very different purposes and aimed to very different audiences.

[Mike Truran]

Jonathan et al

Jack Rudd is producing the 4NCL reports at present - I'm sure he would be glad to hear from anyone who wants to contribute to his journalistic endeavours.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Jonathan et al

Jack Rudd is producing the 4NCL reports at present - I'm sure he would be glad to hear from anyone who wants to contribute to his journalistic endeavours.

Yes, yes, he would.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Ok, I will fulfill my promise after the March weekend! I still think a round robin mail to all captains would help though, not least because I don't have Jack's email address to hand.