Scot Wingo, the CEO of Get Spiffy in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, writes about longtime technology journalist Allan Maurer for WRAL TechWire.
Wingo writes, “Then a couple months later, one of the folks that sat near the door said: ‘Scot that reporter guy is here to see you’? Huh? I went to the door and there was Allan, still in his reporter hat, of course. He came in and gave me 10 copies of the magazine. The cover came out great and he so completely nailed our business. I was amazed not only that he understood the nuances of what we were building, but he also did it with a ‘pluckiness’ that only Allan can do.
“He captured the wackiness of our office, the culture, and how that tied into what we were building plus weaved it into the story in a way that was completely positive and complimentary vs. a knock on us. Trust me, it would have been very very easy to write a ‘these crazy kids are pretending to be adults and building some kind of search thing for auction sites that don’t even have anyone really using them yet, plus they have a dog and star wars toys.’ But, nope, he didn’t go there.
“I was still scanning the article in disbelief at it’s awesomeness when he said, ‘Oh, hey I know you are a star wars fans and wanted to give these to you as I don’t need them anymore.’ He then gave me a stack of 30-40 vintage, gently read Marvel Star Wars comic books. I was stunned. I know there are rules around giving reporters gifts, but what do you do when a reporter gives you something? I fell back on my southern up-bringing and thanked Allan profusely.”
Read more here.
