High-tech tools such as e-mail and CD-ROM offer the PR executive
exciting and effective new ways to communicate with and deliver
information to the media. They also lead to the risk of high-tech
glitches, as one technology company recently learned.
Our sister newsletter, Interactive PR, reported that multimedia
developer Mindscape was horrified to find out a couple of days after
last month's E3 show (Electronic Entertainment Expo) that the CD-ROM
press kit distributed at the Los Angeles show contained a virus.
The Novato, Calif.-based company quickly e-mailed instructions to
the approximately 700 reporters who attended the show, warning them of
the virus and telling them how to obtain a software "patch." "We
wanted to be proactive," said Adrienne Henkin, public relations
manager told PR NEWS.
The virus, "Winwrd.concept," apparently entered Mindscape's
computers via an e-mail. Virus scans of the CD-ROM press kit failed
to detect the virus before the show, said Henkin. Upon entering
files, the virus converts documents in Microsoft Word to templates,"
she said. Fortunately, it's "not a devastating" virus. (Mindscape,
415/897-9900)