Scoop Update #10 – Three Ways To Love Scoop

Thursday, 10 October 2002, 3:32 pm
Column: Alastair Thompson

In This Edition: Everyone Loves A Winner…. Vote For Scoop! – Be An Angel - Do You Know Any Advertisers?

This is the 10th in a series of occasional newsletters to subscribers to the My Scoop community.

Way To Love Scoop No. 1
Everyone Loves A Winner…. Vote For Scoop!

Yes it is that time of year again…. Internet awards season. A somewhat ho-hum to do to be sure, but everyone loves a winner and as you read on you will become aware that this is the easiest way to Love Scoop that we have on offer today.

At the time of posting the NZ Net Awards ( http://www.netawards.org.nz/) – in which Scoop cleaned up last year THANKS TO YOU! - are yet to appear.

Meantime we have the Netguide Net Awards, more or less same format, but with Netguide, you the voter get to win prizes too!

On the other hand the more accomplished surfers among you will have noticed that every site and their dog, Stuff etc… are also urging their readers to vote for them. Therefore we need you to redouble your efforts and get the word out that loving Scoop is the thing to do.

The address to go to is:
http://www.netguide.co.nz/awards/2002/votenow/

The “Best News Site” Award is a fair way down the voting page – and in case you are wondering you do not have to enter a vote in all the other categories! Phew!

Finally a tip. In the small print it says…

Q. Is the voting fair for the smaller sites?
A. Yes. We have developed a methodology (with outside expert help) that gives everyone a fair chance. The way the awards work is that the winner of a category is the one with the highest overall rating. The overall rating is made up of:
a. The number of votes received (this accounts for 50%of the overall rating) Plus
b. The averaged rating out of 10 that users give that site (this is the other 50%) So, sites that get the most number of votes do not necessarily win.

Therefore make sure you rate Scoop as highly as you think it deserves before you submit your vote.

Way To Love Scoop No. 2
Are You Angelic? Why Not At Least Become A Scoop Sustaining Subscriber

We know many of you love Scoop. You tell us so. And you keep coming back.

But Scoop cannot live on your love alone. Scoop needs sustenance. Scoop needs SUSTAINING SUBSCRIBERS.

Presumably if you have read this far then you like that we are a free press. You like that Scoop is free to read, free to search and (perhaps most important of all) free to express ideas that other - mostly foreign and corporate owned - media shy away from.

Meanwhile those among you who are inclined to express yourselves on occasion will have also observed that Scoop provides an open AND FREE forum for the discussion and expression of YOUR ideas, innovations and occasions.

But there is a price paid for being free. Because we do not attempt to coerce you into paying us, many probably believe that they shouldn’t do so. Not so. Presently the price of your service is being carried by the Scoop team and their families.

So, if you love what Scoop does for you, what Scoop does for the system, the country, the world, the media or perhaps just the Internet - then roll up – pull out your plastic and prepare to polish that halo.

The gateway to our credit card payment facility (with instructions on the pricing and availability of different halo designs) can be found here…

THE SCOOP GREAT BIG PAGE OF THANKYOUS
http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=thankyou

If you are plastically handicapped then we also accept paper money. So please post a sum of your choice to:

Scoop Media
P.O. Box 11501
Wellington
New Zealand

P.S. Some of you may also be aware that a certain other website (whose name must not be mentioned) has recently decided to charge its readers $168.75 a month for the privilege of reading pretty much the same material - just much less - that Scoop provides for free! We expect that many of our readers in fact were formally readers of this other website – since we have noticed your numbers increasing very rapidly over the last few months – if so then welcome.

Way To Love Scoop No. 3
Do You Know Any Advertisers? We Want Them To Know Scoop

Finally if you have any affection left (phew!) then Scoop has one final favour to ask.

While asking you our readers for money is one option for Scoop’s sustenance we have always assumed that ultimately our services to you will be paid for out of advertising revenues – and paying subscribers.

Unfortunately - and if you have met many advertising agency people you may understand why - thus far we have not been spectacularly successful in this endeavour.

What advertising that we have been running for organisations like Trade Aid, Amnesty, Greenpeace, Indymedia etc. has been predominantly pro-bono.

Now we believe there is no need for this to be the case. We have a great story to tell those who are willing to listen.We have a huge audience 10,000 visitors a day and climbing – 1 million pages a month + delivered. But we need your help to get the word out to potential advertisers.

So:

If you are someone, or know anyone in the advertising, marketing/media business then we urge you to put in a plug for us. Perhaps send them an extract from this email and the following link (a page with the sort of blurb that they are used to reading.)

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0210/S00056.htm

If you don’t know anyone in the media biz, but still want to help out, then good on you!

Do the same, but just pick on a marketing manager for a corporate that you reckon might suit a presence on Scoop. Write to them. Ring them up. Send them flowers. We know you have imagination and flair. After all you love Scoop!

With kind regards to all our readers

Alastair Thompson
For the Scoop Team

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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