Austin touted
We’re not the same as NYC or LA or other really big cities that make national print appearances every day. We’re still small-town enough to be interested in what others say about Austin doings. In addition to noting Austin’s appearance by proxy in the form of Stubb’s Bar-B-Q sauce as the first in a list of “five great jarred sauces” in Family Circle magazine (the June best summer recipes issue), we’ve lately seen two non-culinary Austin enterprises in the spotlight. In “No Bush Left Behind,” subtitled “The President’s brother Neil is making hay from school reform,” Business Week takes an updated look at Austin-based Ignite! Inc. (10/16; byline Keith Epstein). I was surprised to see that memorization of our state’s 22 rivers is described as “essential knowledge.” The reporter takes a look at financial backing and success thus far. More than the usual amount of on-line reader commentary has been elicited (scroll down). In the fat Best B-School issue, Business Week (10/23; byline Amy Barrett) devotes two columns to the Acton School for Business, “By Entrepreneurs For Entrepreneurs,” with this call-out: “Big Bet: Acton offers what amounts to a money-back guarantee.” All the various business programs at UT spend big bucks for print ads in the local daily. The only local promotion I’ve noticed for Acton is that recently it has sponsored at least a portion of Paul Ray’s Twine Time on KUT radio. Acton’s site calls Austin the “City of Ideas.” Has the Chamber of Commerce used that one yet?
We’re not the same as NYC or LA or other really big cities that make national print appearances every day.
Stop with the inferiority complex already!
Counting the number of mentions and references to Austin in the national media is always going to be a losing game. they simply will never pay enough attention. Just be yourselves.
I dont know if I want them to mention Austin any more than they do. It seems that we get enough press that people looking for a cool unique city to move to will hear about Austin. But at the same time we don’t get mentioned so much that Austin is a default city to move to. I have no desire to be Dallas or Houston.
I like to see what others are saying. Sometimes the local daily picks up press mention from the outside world, but often not. I thought it was funny that in a recent New York magazine piece about getaways from the Big City, there was a very favorable mention of Lake Austin Spa and (here I paraphrase from memory) its sunny Southern hospitality” and a supposed quote from a member of the staff there, along the lines of “Honey, it’s all about YEW.” In the wake of the BW coverage of Ignite! there’s been additional and even more in-depth reporting around the nation as to business practices and investors.
Didn’t I see recently that Austin made a top singles ranking lately? That ought to kill some of the better phrases like “City of ideas” . . . unfortunately.