« Trust and the Network Boundary |
Main
| Why Kids Need to Lead »
September 27, 2005
No News May Be News
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a reporter is to become dependent on press releases.
When you do that, you're telling the story the vendors want you to tell. And you're ignoring the story the vendors want ignored.
Here's an example.
Fuel cells.
A few years ago the folks at NEC were very excited about fuel cells as a power source for laptops. They released a model that ran for five hours on a half-pint of methane, and predicted that in two years they would have one that ran 20 hours on that charge.
Did anyone follow up? I didn't until a reader at another blog I work for asked about it.
What I found was NEC was pushing an entirely-different system, the Organic Radical Battery (ORB) and for a completely different application, desktop battery back-up. Analysts admitted the fuel cell is "not ready for prime time" as a battery replacement.
With high fuel prices now a worldwide reality, the search for alternate technology takes on new urgency. The failure of fuel cells in this application should be a major story, a cautionary tale. But since no one was looking for it, the story was easy to bury.
Lesson learned.
Comments (2)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Consumer Electronics | Economics | Futurism | Science | energy
POST A COMMENT
- RELATED ENTRIES
- › The Legend of Dennis Hayes
- › Evolution Changes Its Mind (Again)
- › Welcome to 1966
- › What Must Craigslist Do?
- › No Such Thing as Free WiFi
- › The Internet As A Political Issue
- › Google Images Ruled Illegal
- › Fall of Radio Shack
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Monica Nilsson on September 28, 2005 08:07 AM writes...
I totally agree Dana! It's what they don't want to say that's interesting, but it's often worthwhile reading the press releases anyway. You don't have to write what the company wants you to write, but the press release can often give you other ideas what to write about.
Permalink to CommentIf you as a reporter only take your news from the press releases, you'd better change jobs and start as a press officer...
2. Jim on September 28, 2005 05:32 PM writes...
I couldn't figure out why "analysts would be admitting it wasn't ready for prime time", since in this case it would seem more likely to be coming from the engineering department. From the link you provided, it says the comment came from an HP tech manager, which makes makes more sense...not "Analysts admitted the fuel cell is "not ready for prime time" as a battery replacement"
Permalink to Comment