▲ 9 points

Twice on the front page of HN, but no journalist is interested. What to do?

by bozho·13y ago·11 comments·view on hn ↗

I have submitted my algorithmic music projects - computoser.com and the related android app to hacker news and both times it got to the front page, with many positive comments.

That made me think I can get the algorithm covered in some tech blog/magazine, so I wrote to news@..., but nothing happened.

Then I tracked down journalists that have written on the subject of computer-generated music, got their emails (around 15 people), and emailed all of them, each with a personalized message, mentioning why I've picked them. No reply.

I've also written to multiple editorial teams with a suggestion for a guest article on computer music - no reply.

These include Mashable, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Ars, Wired, TheNextWeb, The Verge, GigaOm.

Why is it that something seems to be much appreciated by the community, but no journalist seems interested? Should I continue writing emails to these people until they either block me or reply? Or should I skip tech journalists and try to find another way to make service visible to more people?

11 comments

For what is worth:

1) Try music tech journalists first.

Computer Music, Keyboard, Future Music, The Mix, Electronic Musician, and such.

2) Also try "Popular Science" style of magazines.

3) Make sure your emails dont go directly to the SPAM folder. No plethora of URLS (looks like spam), capitals (looks like spam) etc. They should also not look like desperate pleas for publicity, or they will trash them manually.

Better send a short message to each journalist, to pitch the idea (1-2 paragraphs), and only then send the full thing, when they will be waiting for it.

4) Go with lesser players than Wired, Gizmodo et al. If those lesser players pick your story up, there are high chances it will also be picked by the majors (most news are recycled from source to source).

That's a good one. And it seems you've made the common mistake to email news@. My general advice is: Never, ever email news@. A news site doesn't cover you, a writer does. So go after writers, not publications.

This article should outline all the steps you need to follow: http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/80121/How-To-Get-Media-...

(It should be easy to get a post based on the traction you have shown above)

Thanks, I knew that, that's why I also found people that could be interested because of previous related articles.

Why is it that something seems to be much appreciated by the community, but no journalist seems interested?

Hard to say. Bloggers are usually always hungry for content, but the popular blogs are harder to crack, as they get enough eyeballs that people compete to get on their sites. Remember that they're ultimately eyeing everything through a lens of "What is going to get me the most ad impressions and generate me the most revenue"?

Getting press coverage isn't necessarily as simple as "get on the front page of HN, get mentioned by $FOO publication". The field of PR is a big area, with a lot of accumulated idioms, patterns, experts, relationships, etc.

Should I continue writing emails to these people until they either block me or reply?

I would. What do you have to lose? Don't be annoying or whiny or turn into a stalker, of course. But there's a lot to be said for persistence.

Or should I skip tech journalists and try to find another way to make service visible to more people?

One thing I'm a big fan of, is the work of Ryan Holiday, author of Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of A Media Manipulator[1]. You might also find some value in a fairly basic book on PR like The New Rules of Marketing and PR[2] or some of the "Guerilla Marketing" stuff by Jay Conrad Levinson[3].

Also, if it's really important to you to get coverage, hiring a PR person isn't always a bad idea. I know there's been a lot of negative stuff said on HN lately about PR agencies and startups, but part of the "secret sauce" is the pre-existing relationships these guys have with journalists. It may or may not be fair, but a good PR person can help you get coverage that would be hard to generate organically. If you're even slightly interested, I know a good PR guy who might be able/willing to help. Shoot me an email and I can arrange an introduction.

One final thought, is to try using a press release submission service like PRWeb[4] or PRNewsWire[5]. It will cost you a little bit of money, but it's an option to get some attention. Note that you won't get TechCrunch / Gizmodo type coverage out of this (well, probably not anyway), but your thing should at least wind up listed in Google News.

There's also a lot of interesting PR related advice on Quora. Check out this question[6] and some of the "similar questions" links around it.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-Manipulator...

[2]: http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Marketing-PR-Applications/dp...

[3]: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3D...

[4]: http://www.prweb.com/

[5]: http://www.prnewswire.com/

[6]: http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-blogs-and-sites-a-new-sta...

Great, thanks for the extensive tips. I'll try these. I'll probably even try the PR option. This is my side project, so I'm not super-keen on getting it to market (I'm not sure if the business model is workable), but I do like the idea and I think I can afford to thrown in some money.

Music blogs/forums will be interested.

Matrixsynth, Muffwiggler, Gearslutz, check all of these out.

"I've also written to multiple editorial teams with a suggestion for a guest article on computer music - no reply.

These include Mashable, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Ars, Wired, TheNextWeb, The Verge, GigaOm.

Why is it that something seems to be much appreciated by the community, but no journalist seems interested?"

Because they specialize in people who consume, not creators.

Actual creativity on the internet that isn't "viral" is niche and doesn't bring in pagehits.

"Tech journalists" really are catering and pandering and not interested in all aspects of technology. Pay attention to the content that gets published, is it really ~that~ interesting or is it pushing popular nerd'ry to a mass audience?

Can you paste the copy of one of the emails you sent to these journalists here? Right now you are the common denominator in the problem, so maybe there is something in the way you're communicating or asking that could be improved.

Hello,

I'm contacting you, because I read an article of yours about computers and music ([article title]), and thought that you might be interested in my project as well - http://computoser.com

It provides a very simple web interface to a (practically) unlimited set of music tracks, generated without any human input. And although it is not the first algorithm to generate music, I think it's the first web-based, user-friendly interface to such an algorithm.

When I first released the project, I submitted the story to HackerNews to gather initial feedback from fellow "hackers", and the it was very positive - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4819269, which inspired me to make some improvements.

The improvements are already in place, and although the algorithm is not perfect, I think it's worth taking a look at. I'd be happy to get your feedback, or in a best-case scenario - get it covered.

You make Computoser sound dry and boring. Tell a story!

You say "I think it's the first web-based, user-friendly interface to such an algorithm." That's not unique or notable. What makes your algorithm different? What challenges did you face while building it? What fun/interesting interactions have you had over it? What sort of feedback did you get about it?

You need to work on your PR-speak. Simple = "dumb". You need a word without such unfortunate connotations, like elegant or uncluttered. Try something like this:

I recently read your article about computers and music titled ([article title]). Thus, I thought that you might be interested in my project as well <a href="http://computoser.com>Computoser</a>, which provides a very accessible and intuitive web interface to a virtually unlimited set of music tracks, all generated without any human input. Although it is not the first algorithm to generate music, to the best of my knowledge, it is the first time such an algorithm has been available via web with a user-friendly interface.

Announcement of the project, and later the related app, made the front page of Hacker News, an accomplishment in itself. Initial feedback from fellow tech professionals was very positive (See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4819269 and {the other hn link}). I was surprised that it did so well on such a large and competitive forum. The experience inspired me to make some improvements. Those improvements are already in place. There is no doubt still room for improvement but initial response is extremely encouraging.

I am currently looking for feedback from industry insiders like yourself and offering you the chance to be the first to cover the story, assuming you find it worthy.

Thanks so much for your time.

Respectfully, Bozho

Edit: "Computoser" should be clickable but it should be the name of the site, not the url. Similarly, you should name the two hn links. But hn is mucking up my formatting etc.

Thanks :)