Time to Streamline Online Newsrooms
For many organizations, the online “newsroom” is generally the least visited section of the whole Web site. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out, and ask the IT people or webmaster how many visitors your online newsroom draws each week.
Online newsrooms were originally conceived to provide the media with news, background and contacts about an organization, but most today fall surprisingly short of that goal.
Speak with journalists, and they will say that the majority of online newsrooms are of little value to them. In most cases, online news information sections neither deliver timely news nor anything else of value to the media, like ready access to the right contacts. Rather, they are akin to dusty archives.
Why even bother, I ask? It is amazing to see the sections referred to by even some of the largest corporations and even PR agencies, which should know better, as “Pressrooms.” A pressroom is where the machinery is located at a newspaper to physically print a newspaper, certainly the antithesis of the image of today’s online media information site.
Here are some ideas—based on input from many journalists—for creating a contemporary and useful online news info capability:
- Use correct terminology. It is neither a “Pressroom” nor a “Newsroom.” Leave those terms to the media. It is “News Info” you are delivering about your organization.
- Use dynamic content management platforms and RSS feed technology to drive your online news information site, so that the media and others who follow your organization can track new developments online with instantaneous newsfeed syndication and social media services.
- Deliver timely and relevant material of meaningful use to the media about your organization, not ads or marketing pieces.
- Be accessible … if for no other purpose than it’s the job of a communicator. Provide contact details, including names, telephone numbers and emails. No forms. If you’re a communicator and don’t want your contact information listed for the media, consider changing careers.
- Update regularly. Dynamic RSS site technology allows quick updates for timely issues from any computer, and without encountering the bottleneck of going through a web team.
What kind of signal is your communications department sending online about your organization? Savvy, timely, accessible … or tired, boring and an approach that makes the media jump through hoops to get what they need? Unfortunately, the latter is more the case than the exception for most. Isn’t it time for a change?
Filed Under: Featured • Media Relations
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in the Washington, D. C., area, and works worldwide.
I interviewed usability expert Jakob Nielsen about best practices for online newsrooms almost three years ago, and while he disagrees with about what you should call your online pressroom, he supports your more important assertions.
I travel frequently teaching New Media PR Boot Camps to PR, marketing and corporate communications professionals looking to come up to speed on online communications and always remind my attendees that while blogs, podcasts, RSS, Twitter and social networks get all the attention, it’s your online newsroom — or “news and info” area, as you prefer — that is the center point of organizational communications, online or off. Next is email, then SEO.
At iPressroom, which specializes in building online newsrooms that can be managed by nontechnical personnel, we’ve built a number of newsrooms like this one, this one, and this one that are not only effective media relations resources, but which go a step further by showcasing organizational news and info in a way that works for the public as well, with photos, video, easy email and RSS subscription options. Our CMS is designed specifically for hosting online newsrooms.
Let’s face it, the print news media business is fighting for survival, Apple has already check mated the music business with access and ease-of-use, and with more than 12 billion videos being viewed monthly online, TV news is probably next.
Organizations can no longer rely on the news media to tell their stories for them. As the influence fourth estate wanes, forward thinking organizations are realizing that they need to tell their own stories in way that is not just factual and informative, but interesting and entertainment as well.
If you’re interested in discussing online newsrooms in real time, tweet me @ericschwartzman.
So many corporate online newsrooms are so bad that I have literally started sidestepping them and creating online pitch pages for clients using Delicious.com. It works well and the media seem to really appreciate a streamlined, customized site with links targeted precisely to their area of interest.
[...] forms of new social media it must be handled correctly. David Henderson’s blog post titled Time to Streamline Online Newsrooms says that he believes the online newsroom is the least visited section of a corporate Web site. [...]