Most companies depend on good public relations to get their message across. This is particularly true with high tech businesses that must make sure that their products and services are understood. Lonn Johnston, founder of Page One PR, has a great deal of experience working with companies as both a journalist and a public relations expert. He joins Phil, Matt, and Scott to discuss how high tech firms get noticed.
Lonn first reviews his background as both a journalist and an officer in a number of technology firms. This gave him a unique view of both sides of public relations. He eventually formed Page One PR, using his knowledge to help new technology companies.
He then discusses how he pitches reporters and bloggers to write about products and companies. He also reviews how he handles public relations for start-ups. In addition, he talks about the special issues that affect companies that work within the open source community. He does a great job of explaining the importance of public relations to the success of a business.
Lonn Johnston is the founder and managing partner of Page One PR, a boutique high-tech PR firm based in Palo Alto and San Francisco. Our clients include Alfresco, the Linux Foundation, SugarCRM, Synopsys, and 15 other cool companies.
Lonn began his career as a journalist, writing for magazines from California Magazine to Sterne in Germany. He later was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. Then for five years he taught at UC Berkeley, serving as assistant dean in the graduate school of journalism. Married with kids, he finally took on real jobs with real pay. For several years he was chief operating officer for HP's largest systems integrator in Australia and later was on the executive team that launched TurboLinux into North America, helping the firm raise $95 million in venture funding. After a stint running global communications for a publicly-traded software firm that exploded in the dot-com era, he founded Page One PR at the end of 2002.
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