"Dear Journalist" community challenge — May's destination: Iceland 🇮🇸

I’m happy that this challenge has piqued the interest of some of you already! :smiley: Let me address some of your concerns:

Both good ideas! Usually we do this quickly when journalists contact us, but I can get in touch with a few local members beforehand, just in case.

Good point! Still working on that text.

I’m… not sure on this. On one hand, yes, Postcrossing can work as an indirect way to market your own country to foreign visitors. On the other hand, the websites of the tourism institutions are focused on said visitors — they are for tourists to see. The goal here was more to spread the word about Postcrossing to Icelandic people themselves, and I’m not sure how the tourism board would go about that. :thinking:

A valid concern, but for now, I don’t think we risk hitting the annoyance threshold as this is just a topic in a corner of the forum. :slight_smile: Maybe one idea would be for people to post here on the topic when they’re sending a postcard and to which of these media outlets. That way, we’d keep a rough count (maybe on the wiki itself), direct efforts towards the ones less poked so far, and maybe even try to find new ones, if we see that a lot of people are participating.

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Yes, anytime is good — feel free to just grab some postcards and send them to those addresses!

Post here when you’re sending them out, and to which newspaper/radio, so we can maybe keep a rough count. :slight_smile:

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So… maybe something like this as a template?

Dear Journalist,

Isn’t it nice to receive a postcard from a far away land? :slight_smile:

This is why I joined Postcrossing – a community of postcard enthusiasts keeping in touch through traditional mail and filling each other’s mailboxes with smiles. There are lots of us around the world and some in Iceland too!

Get in touch if you’d like to talk to some local postcrossers there, so they can tell you the story of how the world comes to their mailboxes in times of social isolation!

Waving from (country name),

(your name)

I’m assuming any journalist would then google Postcrossing and get in touch, so no need to include your email or any personal details.

Please don’t feel like you have to use this template though — it’s just a base to draw inspiration from. The more personal and unique the message, the better!

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send cards to
RÚV, Fréttabladid and Iceland Review

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International postage for Canadians: $2.71 = US$2.20.

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I love this! In January I sent over 20 postcards to countries low in in Postcrossing users to their tourism boards or equivalent foreign offices. None of them replied and three of my cards were sent back without ever leaving the USA. I just sent a card to the The Reykjavik Grapevine! I really like this campaign.

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Mine are ready to go, one for each media outlet!
I ended up choosing a few from the Azores, so I could start the postcards with:

Dear Journalist,

Can you guess one thing Iceland and Portugal have in common? If you answered volcanoes, you’d be right — we have a few of those in the Azores islands. Another thing we have in common is that both our countries participate in Postcrossing… etc etc

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

PS - I’ve added little :heavy_check_mark: marks next to the name of each media in the wki, to signal how many postcards have been sent there so far — just so that we have an idea of which mailboxes might need a bit more love.

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I am sending a card to **[Morgunblaðið] :slight_smile: I hope this will work!

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Welcome to the forum @Elske75, and thank you for joining on your first contribution. :slight_smile: We’re keeping our fingers crossed there will be some result!

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Witch country would you do next after Iceland?

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Not sure! I think we should perhaps see if there’s any impact from this kind of action, before deciding to go ahead with more campaigns. :sweat_smile:

Assuming it goes well, which next countries would you pick? I’ve more or less detailed some criteria above: a country with a reasonable GDP per capita, a well-functioning postal service, where English is spoken or taught and relatively few postcrossers. Any suggestions?

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India meets all of these criteria and compared to our population, we have very few Postcrossing members.

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What about oversea territories or an arab country or Israel?

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Excellent idea! Count me in. I will choose a card and address tomorrow. Just for the record, I’m not doing this because I’m eagerly waiting for my first postcard from Iceland, but because I find this such a great hobby and am convinced that many other people who have never heard of Postcrossing, may share my opinion.

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I am so in! I will send one to “IceNews” as there are no check marks listed! Great idea!

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I’m sending to IceNews :slight_smile:

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Hurray to you both! :tada: I’ve added your little ticks :heavy_check_mark: to the wiki.

Mine went off yesterday — safe travels!

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Iceland has ONE new user! :confetti_ball:

Ok, it’s definitely not as a result of this campaign, since our postcards haven’t had enough time to arrive to their destinations, but still — it’s a 0.4% increase, and I give everyone permission to celebrate it while we wait patiently for postcards to arrive!

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I sending out this colourful Germany Postcard to Viðskiptablaðið.
I already set a checkmark in the wiki.

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Norway fits the bill. Some 15 times more inhabitants than Iceland, yet only 5 times as many Postcrossers. And we already have a perfect program to showcase it in, if you can find a member willing to show off their collection and hobby, a show that’s been going for years visiting regular people and their little quirks of life.

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