A website is a wonderful thing for fleets, because it gives them a way of staying in constant contact with the fleet members and to post results and photos right after an event.

But their websites are of little use to media people.

From the perspective of a print media person (publisher of "Catamaran Sailor" magazine), I think the internet has in some ways actually hurt fleets as far as publicity.

Fleets used to put out print newsletters. Various media outlets, including mine, were on their mailing list. And, because they had to fill up their newsletters, they aggressively solicited stories from their members. I, then, was able to use some of their stories in my magazine, thus giving much wider publicity to that fleet and its activities. And the same would be true for newspapers and other media in the fleet's town and region.

But now that the fleets have websites, many of them no longer put out print newsletters. With no need to fill space any more, less attention is paid to writing stories. They put results and photos on their website, but no stories, no cutlines with pictures, etc.

And since they no longer have a print newsletter to send to media, most just do not send anything any more.

It is not realistic to expect media people to go searching through websites in hopes of finding something interesting, even if they know your website address. Most media people are going to take the easy way. They want to receive a complete story, plus results, plus pictures with cutlines; and they want to receive it preferably by e-mail -- and they want it timely. The easier you make it, the more likely it will get into the publication.