In a 2009 survey of thousands of journalists conducted by TEKgroup International, 43% said it was difficult to find a company’s newsroom, and more than half said it was difficult to find the name of a company’s media contact and how to locate it. That is a depressing level to meet the needs of those who are in a position to give their organization invaluable exposure and credibility.
To avoid frustrating people in the media who visit your site thinking they might want to highlight your business in a story, follow these eight best practices.
1. Navigation. Use obvious signage in your website structure for your online newsroom location. By far the best option is an important navigation link simply called “News,” “Press,” or “Media.” The second best option is to provide the information the media needs in the “About the company” section of the site.
2. Press releases. Provide a searchable gallery of your organization’s releases, with the most recent first. Never provide this material as PDF, just normal HTML pages. Since names and citations cannot be cut and pasted from PDF files, companies that offer collateral in this way are viewed by the media as terribly disoriented.
3. Contacts with the media. Journalists are within the deadline and will not submit a web form to contact someone who may or may not reach them immediately. They want the name, email address, and phone number of the person who is in a position to help them right away. If there are different media contacts for different divisions of the organization, please list them and their areas of responsibility in your online newsroom.
4. News clips. The media likes to scan past coverage of your company. Always clearly state the difference between your releases and third party coverage.
5. Executive biographies and company history. Make these factual, legible, and attractive with style. Don’t fill them in with “marketing language”.
6. Photographs. Recognize that print publications need high resolution photos (300 DPI), while online media requires low resolution photos (72 DPI). Provide both types of photos for instant download.
7. Video and audio. Journalists like the way they complete the portrait of their organization. Shorter works better than longer here. If you have videos or audios that are longer than 10 minutes, please provide a transcript and clips.
8. Social networks. Indicate how reporters can sign up for your Twitter account, visit your Facebook page, read your blog, etc.
How can you be sure that your online newsroom meets the needs of the media people? Corner some of them who have never visited your website and put them in front of a computer. Give them various journalism-related tasks to perform without your hints, such as finding the name and phone number of the media contact, information about their social responsibility activities, and the correct spelling of the name of the senior vice president of operations. in South America.
If users can accomplish those tasks with at least 90% success, great. If not, please check your site to be more media friendly and try it again. Running an effective online newsroom costs little, and the payoff (a higher public profile) can be quite large.
