IDG’s media restrictions for MWSF are gonna hurt (me and you)
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 17, 2005 at 2:16am
Forgive me if today’s tirade seems like a petty, personal problem. On one hand, it is. On the other hand, however, it will affect all readers of Macsimum News—at least in regards to this site’s coverage of January’s Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. You see the show’s organizers at IDG are only allowing one press pass per publication this year. And that’s ridiculous.
I’ve been covering the San Francisco show for a decade or so. It’s my busiest week of the year, no doubt. Between press conferences, appointments, interviews, writing and posting articles, I work 12-18 hour days. Some days I literally have interviews lined up every 30 minutes so I can offer the most through press coverage possible.
For the past couple of years my wife Laura has accompanied and helped me, taking photos and making interviews/press conferences when I was running late or overbooked (which is pretty much every day at MWSF). This year she’ll be able to help me from the exhibit hall only—Laura won’t be attending any events with a press pass because only Yours Truly will have one.
Macsimum News will still bring you the best coverage, but it will be extra hard on Ye Publisher/Editor, no thanks to the folks at IDG. I realize that press passes (which are given to media reps free) are in high demand. But one per publication? Macworld Boston is dead, folks, and the company behind the San Francisco event aren’t doing the San Francisco event any favors by crippling press coverage. Two folks can’t cover all the aspects of the show without exhausting themselves. For one, it’s near impossible (but, hey, sleep is for sissies). And am I to believe that all publications will be limited to one pass? Yeah, right.
My friend and compadre, Tim Robertson of MyMac also has some excellent points on the decision in his must-read editorial. He says that the media restrictive policy is a result of the resurgence of the popularity of both the Mac and iPod brands, as well as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) moving up a week. More news organizations want to cover the event this year than ever before, and that’s the problem, Tim says.
“From the standpoint of IDG, Mac and iPod buyers, and the vendors who display and market their new products at Macworld Expo, I believe the answer is no, this is not a good solution any way you look at it,” he writes. “Some of the problems are self-inflicted on IDG’s part. As IDG PR Manager Mike Sponseller admitted, last year they gave out many press passes to those who, really, are not deserving of the name or title. Just because Joe Macuser has a website where he posts tidbits about Apple, that does not make him a qualified journalist or news organization. Much more stringent controls need to be in place at IDG to limit who is legitimate news sources. This should be done without too heavy a hand, however, but it needs to be done nonetheless.”
To which I can only add “Amen!”
MWSF 2006 will be held Jan. 9-13, 2006 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. I’m lining up interviews now, so contact me if you’d like to meet. And for those companies (and you know who you are) that wait until Jan. 8 to say, “Have you got time to meet with us?,” the answer this year, especially, is “no.” It’s going to be first-come, first-served.
Thoughts? Write me at dsellers@macsimumnews.com
Franklin Delano Roseycheeks Says:
“Meanwhile, MacWorld and MacCentral will have a dozen people covering events.”
Well, the difference is that Macworld’s name is on the conference. It’s not exactly unfair that they should have the upper hand when it comes to coverage. It’s like complaining because the guest of honor gets all the presents at the birthday party.
Posted on November 17, 2005
Cats Says:
MacWorld does a poor job reporting real news all year online. Half of what they write, they get from the sweat of the little guy and take it as their own. It would be great if Apple were to find another sponsor some day.
Dennis brings up a great point about part time kids reporting in contrast to real accredited journalists. Touchy subject or not, we should be raising the bar, not lowering it. Why do you think the likes of cnet uses the common phrase a “mac enthusiast site” when referring to a mac site? Are they a PC enthusiast site? Sadly, 90% of Mac news sites are just that: enthusiast sites. Teen clubs that yak and hack.
The culture of teen sites is championed by MacSurfer who has no interest in raising the bar for the sake of traffic. The Mac news community in general is a joke. There’s only a handful of real news sites run by adults and they get lost in a sea of stupidy in the Mac community.
Until we have leadership to change this equation, we’re always going to be labelled enthusiasts, which is a crying shame!
Posted on November 17, 2005
Carl Laughnan Says:
After going to the site and reading the editorial, there is an update at the bottom that says IDG had rescinded the policy as of Wednesday, 11/16. At least some companies listen to their constituents.
Posted on November 17, 2005
Dan Pourhadi Says:
My experience with IDG is that they’ll tell you the policy they want to enforce, then after you pressure them they’ll act on the policy they have to enforce lest they be smitten by lots of angry notebook-weilding blogophiles.
Pressure Sponseller to give you more passes—tell him how many visitors this site gets and you’re dedication to the show in the past—and there’s a good chance he’ll toss a few more your way.
Posted on November 17, 2005
Kristie Masuda Says:
When I was at Macworld Boston in 2004 I noticed several 14-17 year olds who received press passes because of their small Apple-related websites. I’m not saying that these people weren’t worthy of a pass, but the guidelines didn’t seem too strict. I completely agree with you and Tim: “Much more stringent controls need to be in place at IDG to limit who is legitimate news sources,” without places like MN losing out.
Posted on November 17, 2005
ken2 Says:
I agree that you need to push IDG for an additional pass, but contacting Apple might also be effective. They have an interest in you being able to report effectively and can also put pressure on IDG.
Then, of course, there is always the opportunity for Apple to put on a major show themselves - call it “Apple Fair” and maybe even hold it in SF in January . . .
Posted on November 17, 2005
Tim Rosencrans Says:
I could see only one free pass but only one pass period is silly. If there worried about non-journalists getting passes limiting the free passes would work as getting it free is really the only reason to go as press if your not. The places the press pass gets you into aren’t even that interesting to most of the press (show up at any non-apple press conference and thats obvious)(oh and you can get better seats for the keynote by waiting in line out front).
I went in the 90’s to Boston and New York as press with a Video crew and most of the time on the floor I would switch out my press badge for a standard badge so the marketing reps would leave me alone (they can spot those press badges from 100 yards away). The only real good thing about the press badge is going into the press room and finding a chair to pass out in for 20 minutes before going back into the Chaos.
Posted on November 17, 2005
Shawn King Says:
“It will be interesting seeing organizations like Your Mac Life cover this with one person!”
LOL I don’t know how we got dragged into this but Your Mac Life will have 8 people covering the Expo in various capacities - a Press Badge is not required to “cover” a Macworld Expo.
Posted on December 13, 2005
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Jason Says:
Beyond the knee-jerk reactions of last year, this is also what happens when IDG has strong ties to its own media outlets. Meanwhile, MacWorld and MacCentral will have a dozen people covering events. It will be interesting seeing organizations like Your Mac Life cover this with one person!
Best bets for next year… IDG has its own staff for press and then sells it to the real press. ;-)
Some will probably wonder why organizations do not just purchase full passes because of this, but those passes do not get you into all of the places an organization needs to be to provide good coverage.
Posted on November 17, 2005