Hello to all the Forum Veterans! The “Dear Journalist” challenge appears to have petered out. May I be so bold to rekindle it on my own dime?
I would propose we sent our Postcards to Uganda. To the Bukedde-Newspaper to be precise, which is the leading daily Newspaper in Uganda with more than 30.000 Copies sold.
I am certain they would report about Postcrossing and maybe the International Press will pick up on it, too.
We might not just get positive Publicity for Postcrossing, we might help the Ugandan Economy as well!
They certainly can use every help they can get.
To show that I am not just running my mouth I offer to send the first 60 Postcards on my own dime, all you would have to do is sent me the Message you want me to put on the Postcard and I´ll put it on the Card and send it on it´s way.
Would you Guys be interested in that or did the “Dear Journalist” challenge die from lack of interest?
The challenge died because it had no effect. In fact, at least one of the countries currently have fewer members than it did before the challenge, and there was a report on national radio during that attempt.
Thank you GermanOyimbo for that development, but as some one who haisl from Uganda, lets not use the Bukedde news paper. Bukedde is a news paper used by 98% OF PEOPLE WHO didn’t go to school, its a news paper targeting the uneducated population and it aims only one region. If you are promoting that idea then i recommend you use the new vision news paper and monitor. Those are the papers that are read by people who can spread the word about post crossing.
Hello @otimalfred,
thank you for your valuable input, we probably should use the Daily Monitor:
However, it seems to be the Consensus of this Forum that the “Dear Journalist” challenge does not work and should not be attempted. I disagree with that Sentiment and uphold my Offer.
This Challenge could be what I would call a “WAKALIWOOD”-Moment for Postcrossing.
For all not familiar with WAKALIWOOD, here is a Link. Just look how much Press they got!
Since I am but a Greenhorn on this Forum my Opinion doesn´t carry much weight.
You on the other Hand are one of the very few Postcrossers from Uganda. If you ask @meiadeleite for another attempt I don´t see a reason why she would say no. And I am certain that we could manage to increase the Number of Ugandan Postcrossers signifikantly. After all, Uganda has a Population of more than 44 Million People and there are only 16 Active Postcrosser in the ENTIRE Country. There is a lot Room for Growth!
Everybody who agrees with me on that, please Like this Post.
I really liked the idea of Dear Journalist, it was a pity it stoped.
I think we surrendered too early. We got some good results when it was done for Norway (although little) and some less encouraging results from other countries. But we barely tried a few of them!
Mail from Norway is expensive but I’ll send a couple postcards to the last two papers you linked.
Perhaps you could edit the post and directly write the address on it? For people that may have more difficulties navigating the website.
I wrote on the topic about how we could choose countries for the challenge that may give us more success.
Hello @Lhyz ,
I think the problem with the way the Dear Journalist challenge was handled was that you dilluted your message by contacting several Journalists/Media Outlets. When one newspaper receives one or two Postcards it is likely to get ignored, but when one newspaper finds, lets say, one hundred postcards in the inbox that fact alone may be considered newsworthy.
I thank you for your enthusiasm, but I don´t want to ruffle any feathers here on the Forum by starting to run a rogue DJC. Since I am but a Newbie on this Forum we wouldn´t be able to find enough people to participate anyway. That would only work if @meiadeleite would make it official and I have little hope that she will do that.
But thanks for your kind words, I really do appreciate them.
How can I participate in this? I like the idea of choosing just one journalist at one newspaper or radio station or whatever, so as to result in a more dramatic effect.
Hello @WindyDesign , unfortunately the “Dear Journalist Challenge” was abandoned by the Leadership and I have failed to bring it back. However, I really do appreciate your kind words.
Oh, that is too bad. I was thinking about other options when I learned of the demise. I am new to Postcrossing, so forgive me if this has been broached before, or done before.
Has the following ever been tried?
Identify a high school in Uganda, communicate with the headmaster or principal there. Arrange a group effort where Postcrossers can sign up to write a postcard to the school. Maybe 20 or 30 postcards arrive at the school, and then the principal or headmistress, hands those postcards to students who want to receive a card. Also handed out is a paper about how to join Postcrossing.
It seems to me that any effort like this might bring about a few Ugandan members. If this works, maybe it could be repeated at several more Ugandan schools, and then could be tried with other countries also.
Indeed, this initiative kind of petered out. The results weren’t super encouraging, and I think we felt a bit bad for wasting everyone’s time and money…
Is it worth rekindling it? And is there something we can change to make this more effective, perhaps?
Maybe choosing only one influential media outlet per country would be a good idea.
Postcrossers from country X choose the media outlet, they know better.
Then we send them postcards. Message in the postcard should be the same, and simple. Ideally they receive the postcards more or less at the same time. No need to restrict target country to those proficient in English.
Great questions @meiadeleite !
How to make this Postcrossing promotion project more effective?
So, here are some thoughts … maybe this is all already done, and I don’t know enough about the process, and, therefore, these thoughts might be moot.
But, here goes … One of the best ways to make any project more effective is to have ‘boots on the ground’. That is, someone in the country who can check in and follow up with the news media / magazine publications / local tourism etc. Ex.: “Did you know about Postcrossing? Here’s some information.” Maybe get a real person’s name and update the Postcrossing page with that information.
Then a couple of weeks later: “Did you get some postcards from around the world? A little birdie told me that one was mailed from Portugal, and one from Poland, and one from Peru.”
Depending on the outcome of that conversation, ask directly: Would you like more information? I’m happy to share what I can with you? Maybe you’d like to see my collection?" etc., etc., etc. Thus, the Postcrosser provides a busy newsroom editor with easy and colourful access to “a story” about Postcrossing.
In other words, it’s great to send cards. But what then? What, exactly, to write about? to feature?
Newsrooms and magazine publications are busy, shortstaffed, and run on deadlines. What we might need to do is make is easier for them to ‘see’ the story, and to put it together.
One thing that just occurred to me is that meetups are held all the time in active countries like Germany, Russia and USA. Postcrossing could transfer them the “job” of promoting the project. The meet-up organiser chooses a country and media outlet and the attendees all send them a postcard. Postcrossing can encourage this as a standard meetup activity in Meetups Guidelines: feedback welcome!
Sorry, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Forcing attendees to write a card could result in a declining interest in going to meetups, because of the price of stamps, or also just lack of motivation to participate in this “challenge”.
