Hi All,

As you will probably be aware, Australian Macworld (AMW) has been undergoing some changes in recent months, starting with a new Editor, Chris Oaten.

Australian Apple User Groups have had a great relationship with Australian Macworld over the last few years and Chris plans to continue developing that relationship, which is great to hear.

MUG Promotion

Each month, AMW publishes a list of Apple User Group meetings that I compile and submit for inclusion in the printed magazine and this listing will continue to be published in the same format as it has for the last year or so – “Meeting Date: MUG Name [State]” on one line and your club’s website on the next.

When the AMW website was launched, an online Events Calendar was included and MUGs had their meeting dates and details of the meeting location and times, plus a link back to the MUG website included. There was also a monthly blog column I wrote called “MUG Shots” that was dedicated to highlighting one or two User Groups per article.

After a year’s experience, it has been decided to retire the online Events Calendar and focus on more effective avenues to promote MUG events and meetings.

First of all, all MUGs are encouraged to post details and notices of your regular monthly meetings in the User Groups forum. Here each MUG can be in charge of posting their own notices, within their own time frame. Although, for your regular meetings, we recommend these announcements be posted no early than 14 days before the meeting, but no later than 5-7 days before the date, to achieve maximum coverage and effect.

Next, if you have a special event planned, let’s say you have a major company or personality presenting to your group or you have a very special event planned (major anniversaries – 1 year, 5, 10, 20, 30 etc; an ‘excursion’ to an Apple Retail Store; a special hands-on workshop) then email Chris at amweditor–at–niche.com.au with your press release and he’ll see what can be done. The more unique and interesting your event is, the greater chance of it getting a run as a news item, which may be online or in print, as deemed fitting.

If you want your announcement to be considered for inclusion in the printed magazine, Chris needs the press release at least SIX weeks prior to the MONTH the event is to be held – ie if the event is in May, then you’d need have the press release submitted by mid-March, but remember there is no guarantee your announcement will be included in the print edition.

For a Blog entry on the AMW website, there is far more leniency with submission times, but obviously the more notice the better, as this will allow great flexibility in planning exactly when to post the blog so your announcement isn’t swamped by other breaking news. Again, there is no guarantee your announcement can be included online, but there is more latitude with online postings compared to the print edition

Disc of the Month

The Disc of the Month Disc Image and support files (Promotional Flyer; Disc Label and Promotional Movie) are hosted on Australian Macworld’s publishers FTP site, ftp.niche.com.au and they are prepared to continue to provide this service to Australian User Groups.

Likewise, the monthly ‘Off the Net’ column detailing the contents of the Disc will continue to published each month, along with a list of the MUGs actually participating in the DotM project.

Commencing with the April issue of Australian Macworld (out now), there is a new aspect to the Disc of the Month listing – A Blog entry covering the DotM will be posted to the AWM website as well.

The Blog will contain basically the same descriptions as the print version but the major feature of the Blog will be the inclusion of a hyperlink for each application back to the product page on the original vendors’ website.

In some months, due to space constraints in the print magazine, there may be ‘extra’ applications listed in the online blog that aren’t in the print magazine, but these ‘extra’ applications will be on the actual Discs you sell to your members.

Also, at the bottom of each blog, a list of those groups participating in the DotM project will be listed, with hyperlinks back to their website.

You can see the first Blog Entry at .

[IMPORTANT REMINDER: These “Software Collections” listings published in the AWM magazine and on the AWM website are copyrighted exclusively to Australian Macworld and MUGs are NOT to use them in their own newsletters or on their website – You should use the actual Promo Flyer text – see https://www.appleusers.org/news/dotm/promoting-the-discs-of-the-month for more details]

Queries

So all up, whilst there are changes happening, there are plenty of possibilities for Australian Apple User Groups to promote themselves via Australian Macworld, and we hope there will be even more opportunities in the future.

If you have any queries about these changes, please do not hesitate to contact either Chris or myself.