Thought of the Day: Are PR agencies our enemies? We love some of you!

 Contributed by: Juergen Steinmetz, CEO & Publisher, TravelNewsGroup

This morning I received a forwarded message. The content "spoke to me" as I am finding myself in a similar situation. I thought this is a good message that needs to be pushed. The following represents the opinion of the owner. 

Dear Friends of eTurboNews,

I need your cooperation!

For 25 years, eTurboNews has been proud to serve the travel and tourism industry with time-sensitive, relevant news and reports you can only find here. But enough is enough!

eTurboNews content is drastically changing!

This is good news for our readers and bad news for those who push "earned media" to us in the expectation of tricking our hard-working team into publishing free promotional news without us having a chance of being on the earning side.

It's bad news for those pushing mass news items to us, calling our hard-working team "Dear All,"

My promise! We will ignore those sending press releases to us that are already searchable on Google because they are circulated by mass distribution networks such as PR Newswire and other wire services.

Such services are in business to push thousands of news items on the back pages of AP, Yahoo Finance, and other name-brand news publications. Inflated distribution reports for articles they claim were "picked up", will justify the high amount such services charge.

The truth is that most pick-ups are often restricted to non-indexed back pages of news publications no real reader will ever see. We will not have a part in this.

What makes us different?

Our independent state-of-the-art news portals are published in 102 languages and reach more than 2 million followers worldwide, including email updates as news is posted to 180,000 travel and tourism industry professionals and close to 7,000 journalists and bloggers. Social media and push notifications to more than 100,000 web users who are alerted to our articles will increase the expected visibility a million or more times a day. Many articles are included on our vast social media network and chat groups.

What is changing at eTurboNews?

We invite regular readers to contribute unique news tips and trend stories you won't find on wire services or competing publications.

We invite PR Agencies and PR representatives to play ball and cooperate with us!

Please stop pushing "earned media" on us, unless you're prepared to make us part of this earning process.

eTurboNews and our hard-working global team are ready to work with you, promote your services, and treat you and your clients as our partners and friends once you are prepared to do the same and show respect. We will always honor PR agencies' important roles before contacting their clients directly.

PR Agencies and PR representatives: How to partner with us?

·        Sign up for our PR trial subscription before pushing press releases to us - there is a free trial!

·        Utilize our commercial options

·        Become an advertiser

·        Contact us to discuss other options

We love you - but let's become a team here.

Someplace Dark

Some places boast with their 400+ bottles of Whisky. The good folks at DARK specialise in independent bottlings, rare and old Whisky. Although not the biggest range, there is plenty to choose from. One would have to be willing to try and experiment as there is hardly any "regular" bottle on offer. I did not manage to find any of my favorite: Glenfiddich!

Especially liked the "Flight of the Night", a selection of 3 Whiskies to try at a reasonably low price. Considering the nature of the offering, the prices per dram are not surprising, but can be north of 50 EURO. However, there are also a lot of fantastic Whiskies on offer for a much lower price. 

Very knowledgeable staff is on hand to assist in the selection. Highlight of the night:

Being a Prop

Qingdao is a popular destination for Chinese too. I could not help but insert myself into this group of "aunties" on their day out, taking pictures at the promenade. They played along. I am sure they have a story to tell when they come back home about the foreigner that just sat there with them. 

Movies to Avoid

Madam Web
What a mess! Ok, it is fiction, but nothing makes sense, it is just a mess. The script is a total disaster and one could not care less for any of the characters. Nothing gets explained. If you asked me why I stay away from Comic adaptations, well, this waste of natural resources is the reason. When they make good stuff like "Blade" or "Spawn" again, holler.  

Extraction 2
Normally, I finish books and movies, no matter how bad they are. This, however, DNF.
The first one was already a bit questionable as I don't think many of the ideas made sense (Like just one guy going to get the kid, how did the baddies know the extraction team is on that boat?), but it was watchable with the help of a few beers. 

Under Paris
Groan. This movie is an example of why some ideas should not be made into movies. 

The Netflix Feature we NEED

House, The Pacific, Mindhunter, Law and Order (In particular) etc all comprise of a bunch of episodes. Once you have seen the intro, you HAVE seen the intro. And it is not adding anything to the next episode if you watch the intro again. The "SKIP INTRO" button is my favorite function.

Should there not be an algorithm that detects that out of 20 seasons with 15 episodes you have now skipped the intro 17 times and it is likely will you do so for the rest of the entire thing? And then just auto-skip them intros? Alternatively, I settle for a setting "When watching a series, only show the intro 2 times".

I Know a Guy

Ok, so I put down on my profile that a skill I have is "Photography". Sure, I take a lot of pictures for our magazine. Not sure why that makes me an Expert. And why I would want to comment on camera bags, seeing how I am using my phone for all the photography. Something to ponder. 

FINALLY get to do this:

 

She sells sea shells by the sea shore. The shells she sells are surely sea shells. So if she sells shells on the sea shore, I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

Just a snap of a vendor in Qingdao at the pier.