Anatomy of a Feature Story

Sometimes it all comes together.

This morning, The San Jose Mercury News ran a page 1 story about Silicon Valley tech companies that sell their products overseas at http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_11765129. Why do I mention this? Because, naturally, one of our clients was featured!

We recently began work with Sunnyvale-based, mobile TV chip company, Telegent Systems. Telegent is literally the first (and only) company to successfully engineer a chip for the reception of free, over-the-air analog TV. Think “bunny ears” on your mobile phone. As we recently learned, there are over 20 million mobile TV phones – all used outside the U.S. – that have shipped with Telegent’s TV receiver. However, because these chips aren’t available yet in devices sold here, we’ve worked with Telegent to uncover potential stories that go beyond just the wonders of the product itself.

Interestingly, though a local paper, the San Jose Merc has devoted some of its best resources to reporting technology developments outside the U.S. that directly affect Silicon Valley. (The Merc also produces online-video documentary on this subject, which, as with its writing, competes favorably with anything produced by the national business press.)

With that in mind, we made sure to let the Merc know about some of the novel things that Telegent has done to penetrate markets outside the U.S. As the paper noted “Telegent Systems, which began shipping its power-sipping chips in April 2007, has so far supplied more than 20 million mobile phones worldwide - including 5 million in China - with its technology. CEO Yun claimed that while other companies battle over digital standards, his company is the first to provide the technological backbone for mobile analog TV, which snatches free programming off the airwaves. He first looked to Asia because that region is the world's trendsetter when it comes to cell phones.”

While it may sound obvious, one of our principal roles as PR practitioners is to help unearth both our clients’ “untold stories” as well identify the journalists for whom these narratives have the most resonance.