Press Officer Seeks Newsworthy Results in Washington, DC

Are you giving a talk or putting up a poster at the 223rd AAS meeting in Washington, DC, in January? If so, have you considered whether your presentation might be of interest to the media? I'm going through all the abstracts (all 2,100+ of them!) looking for results worth featuring in the news briefings I'm organizing, but some are equivocal and don't reveal whether the findings being presented are incremental, paradigm-shifting, or somewhere in-between.

Please have a look at the article "What Makes an Astronomy Story Newsworthy?" If you think your DC presentation should be considered for inclusion in a press conference, discuss your findings with the public-information officer (PIO) at your institution who covers astronomy. If you're not sure who that person is, look on your institution's website under "media relations," "press," or "news."

Presenters and PIOs often ask about the AAS embargo policy. It's online. If your PIO agrees that you have something newsworthy on your hands and that you're free to speak to reporters about it at the January meeting, ask him or her to contact me by email or by phone at +1 202-328-2010 x116 by Monday, 2 December 2013. Thanks for your help!