Firefox NYT ad campaign covered in local paper (and I’m in there too)

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Firefox NYT ad campaign covered in local paper (and I’m in there too)

November 1, 2004

Well, Streats isn’t exactly a high-profile paper (its parent company, Singapore Press Holdings, publishes The Straits Times which is in much greater circulation), but it does get around (and its website does validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional, FWIW).

Anyway, here’s the article: S’poreans back free browser. I’m quoted in there saying (pessimistically):

A few Singaporeans, myself included, have actually thought of doing the same (advertise) with a local paper, but prices are high and it would be a challenge considering the penetration of Firefox in Singapore.

Of the (relatively) long reply I sent to Chris (the journalist) for the email interview, I can’t say I wasn’t a tad disappointed that that bit was published. But oh well, at least it got the word on Firefox out. Interestingly, someone from Singapore (I can tell from the IP) wrote a comment saying my blog “sucks shit”. Thanks Kathy I bet it does. And good day to you too m’am. Another guy wrote me an email coming in from the Streats article asking me to point out the influential bloggers in Singapore and South East Asia. (Yes we do exist!)

Christopher Lim (the journalist who interviewed me via email, and get this: via SMS) wrote us Singapore donors an email asking our thoughts on the campaign and why we made our donations.

I am writing from Streats, the newspaper. Blake Ross from www.spreadfirefox.com passed me your emails after I explained that I’d like to run a story this coming Monday on Firefox’s New York Times advertisement campaign, and am interested in interviewing donors from Singapore.

The To: header of that email tells me there were 14 Singaporeans who donated to the cause. Not bad I’d think, considering our small population and tighter fists. Chris Henry, another Singaporean donor, wrote about the article too in his sfx blog. Well, if any of you donors want to discuss more on “spreading Firefox” in Singapore, do join up at http://sg.firefoxsupport.com/ (it’s not my site, in case you were wondering).

Posted by Chu Yeow at November 1, 2004 SGT |

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| Category: Mozilla, Personal

7 Comments & TrackBacks ()

Nice one on the recognition, and getting the word out! Redemption is one of the top three technical blogs I read, keep up the good work.

Posted by: Bay on November 2, 2004 1am

That’s less donors then I expected..

but ah wellz..

I didn’t donate either. broke dude am i.

Posted by: TedFox on November 2, 2004 8pm

I think the article could have been written better but he had to squeeze quite abit in the article so that would explain the writing. Pity it was such a short article.

Posted by: zul on November 3, 2004 1am

Indeed, i saw the article in the above mentioned newspaper. Though it was not extensive, haha, the logo was extremely big.

That logo really does stand out among the rest sucessfully in that page. :)

Posted by: ranvier on November 4, 2004 8pm

I’m Chris Lim, the guy from Streats who wrote the article. I really wish I could have written more, but that’s all the space I was allocated so I had to take it or leave it. It’s very hard to get long tech articles published in the papers. I wrote a full page feature on Firefox’s RSS bookmarks only to have it canned, and if the article on the NYT campaign had been any longer it would have been scrapped too. When Firefox hits 10%, then us journalists may finally get some leeway to give it some real coverage.

Posted by: Chris Lim on November 7, 2004 3pm