Wednesday, September 07, 2005

What happened to my publicity drive?

Now I know why my hang glider publicity drive was not picked up by more media outlets.

I had originally sent a press release to the Press Association, and a reporter called me for further details, so I was sure that I would get a good write up.

Well today I came across this release! No wonder the major news outlets never published it. Compared to my press release, this is a joke! and that is what was put on the Press Association's newswire where all the media outlets check for newsworthy stories.

Anyway since my August training didn't go as planned, I'm not too bothered, as I wanted to get my CP before looking for potential sponsors.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Shola

Whilst I wish you the very best of luck in your adventure I am convinced you will never succeed on a hang-glider unless you have a ground crew with you, and even then it will be extremely difficult, and very weather dependant, as I'm sure you realise. On a paraglider (I paraglide myself) it would be more feesible purely because when you land after a cross country flight you can pack it up and hitch to your next destination (presumably close to a SW facing flying site). With a HG this just isn't going to be possible.

Also, 5-7 days is very optimistic unless you are doing it on a motorised hang-glider of course. LE to JOG must be at least 800 miles, so you are talking of flying 100+ miles per day, which is a hell of a flight on just one day, and only ever accomplished by a handful of experienced HG pilots. And then to have S or SW winds every day for a week just isn't going to happen...

Anyway, I realise it's a life dream and all that, but on a hang-glider without an engine, it's just not going to happen.

But best of luck anyway!

Shola said...

Not wishing to repeat myself.

See How I'm going to do this.

Thanks Tim for the comments though.

Anonymous said...

There's no real action in the release. Plans, not achievements. Send out more releases, maybe in a series rather than as one-offs, to mark some newsworthy or visually interesting stage in your preparations. You might find it easier to get a good photo of you in training into the local papers - with the emphasis on "local man does this, plans this" - as a way of building up a portfolio of coverage that might attract the interest of the more influential media.

Shola said...

Thanks Owen,

The lack of training in August did mess up my plans, as the releases where to go out after the week, when I would have achieved my CP and also taken pictures of me training.

I will send out more releases once I've sorted out my training with Lejair. I'll be a CP then.

Shola said...

Geoff, Thanks for the comments, just to clarify, I plan to do the flight in a powered hang glider, so I'll be looking mainly for flyable weather, no XC conditions. Anyway this is still a while away, so i'll concentrate on my CP for the time being, but have beed doing a lot of reading, and still learning a lot.