Wrapping Up: Online Newsrooms
As my research of online newsrooms comes to a close, I wish to wrap up what it is I have learned – and what I hope readers have learned as well.
First and foremost, an online newsroom is a 24/7 resource that gives up-to-date information about an organization. They should contain press releases, background information about the company and CEOs, contact information and where the company has been featured in the media. The use of social media and multimedia – videos, blogs, RSS feeds – is essential for involving constituents and the media. All of these elements should be organized in a manner that is easy to navigate and in a way that makes logical sense.
Secondly, journalists and reporters are the main source of traffic to online newsrooms. Many say they don’t know of a lot of companies that have resourceful newsrooms, but including the elements I have listed above as well as searchable archives, financial information, financial information and high quality multimedia should be satisfactory. In addition, the press should not be asked to register to enter an online newsroom or be required to download a lot of PDFs; the simpler the better. Also, the company should be dedicated to updating the newsroom very frequently. If the page is updated monthly, journalists are not going to check the site every day or every few days for updates, which will slow down traffic.
Lastly, using the newsroom is to your advantage in crisis situations. The quicker you put up accurate information on your site the better. It is useful to have a backup “dark blog” on hand to drive traffic to in the event of a mega crisis. This will be able to handle a lot of traffic and will deal specifically with the situation at hand.
While I thought many of the things I learned about handling an online newsroom seemed common sense, I was surprised at the low quality of some of the newsrooms I had seen. I found this information useful as an aspiring corporate communications specialist because now I feel better equipped at handling the online resources associated with my field.
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Tags: Blog, crisis communication, journalists, online newsrooms, online traffic, RSS Feed, Videos
In my previous posts, I’ve cited the NewsCactus blog. NewsCactus is a subsidy of Codella Marketing in Salt Lake City which builds online newsrooms for companies. I thought it might be helpful to share what they keep in mind when designing online newsrooms.
NewsCactus separates content of a company’s newsroom into several categories: home page, news releases, in the news, news highlights, company overview, press kits, multimedia, photo-with caption module, and email subscriptions. I think it’s a good idea to have separate categories for “news releases”, which the company produces, and “in the news”, which is what the media is saying about the company. It’s good to list what outside sources are saying about your company because then it is not completely one-sided. I would suggest even posting criticisms the media is saying about your company and then responding to them.
NewsCactus says that an online newsroom is a good way to brand your company online. They suggest using keywords throughout the newsroom to help with search engine optimization. They claim they can get search engines to pay attention to the newsrooms they create and appear as one of the first search results when searching for a company.
Their own newsroom is categorized exactly as they would set up another company’s and it is incredibly easy to navigate. So is one of their clients, Aztec Communication, a Las Vegas Public Relations firm. It is almost identical to NewsCactus’ with “Latest News Releases” listed down the center and “News Highlights” directly underneath it.
While NewsCactus provides a great service to produce online newsrooms, I would have to suggest they branch out to design each one a bit differently. All of the ones I have looked at are fashioned exactly the same.
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Tags: keywords, newsroom categories, online newsrooms
Welcome to the Dark Site
In the event of a crisis situation, a company must respond in great speed and accuracy. In my previous post I talked about updating the online newsroom immediately in the form of press releases or on the main page of the newsroom. This post focuses on another option connected to the newsroom: the dark site. Bloggingmebloggingyou defines a dark site as a pre-developed page of the company Web site that can be published when a breaking event happens. It is designed ahead of time by the crisis communication team so that if a situation occurs the page can be updated with relevant information on the issue and posted immediately.
Besides the advantages of immediately addressing the crisis – as I blogged about in my last post – a dark site can also relieve some of the traffic from the main Web site. When a situation occurs, constituents flood the corporate Web site and sometimes newsroom. Mediaman suggests that the tone of a crisis website may better reflect the seriousness of a crisis and devote the entire dark site to the issue at hand. It may also help the company’s image to host a dark site as it shows how devoted it is to informing others of the crisis.
As noted on Cision Blog, Turkish Airlines immediately utilized its dark site when one of its planes crashed near Amsterdam. The dark site posted information about the flight and crash, a hotline and passenger information quickly. Because of this, Turkish Airlines was able to salvage its image by controlling its messaging to people searching for information.
This is what Virginia Tech’s dark site looked like on the day of the shootings in 2007:
I think it’s smart for companies to have a standby crisis Web site to implement in addition to updating information on the online newsroom. What do you think? Are dark sites worth the effort?
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Tags: crisis communication, online newsrooms, online traffic
No company is perfect. Bad things happen and the only thing to do is to deal with it – quickly and effectively. Crisis communication is something all companies must plan in advance and an online newsroom is a good tool to use. Dee Rambeau of International Association of Business Communicators notes that an online newsroom is a crucial media relations tool for many reasons, one being that the company website is the first point of contact when a crisis occurs. Similarly, a PRWeek CEO survey found that 70.5 percent of CEOs said their website was the most effective means of communication during a crisis.
For this reason, the newsroom should be updated immediately so that the company’s position on the occurrence is made public as soon as possible. Deadlines are now as soon as possible after a situation occurs. The more current the information on your website the better. Reporters are going to try to dig up whatever they can as soon as they can. If you can supply information straight from the source, it will consistently show that your company is acknowledging the situation and wants to supply all of the information to its constituents and the media as soon as it can.
Shel Holtz, social media guru, recommends that when dealing with a crisis situation, besides updating the newsroom immediately, the updates should be consistent, try to put your company in a good light, and maintain support from your audiences. While these are very broad suggestions, they can be tailored according to your business and the concepts should be employed into your company’s messages posted on the online newsroom.
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Tags: crisis communication, online newsrooms
Now that I’ve discussed what things to include in an online newsroom to help journalists, I’m going to talk about a few things NOT to do.
What not to do:
- Bad organization. When a newsroom is not organized and easy to navigate, a journalist will quickly lose interest and become frustrated. As noted in an earlier post, journalists work on tight deadlines and need to be able to find information fast. Putting all press releases in one area and organized by date is a good start. In addition, make sure you supply press releases and new information often, says David Henderson, a communications strategist.
- PDFs. Downloading things takes time. While many companies may publish their press releases via PDF, some reporters don’t want to have to download things onto their computers. Also, some reporters don’t have applications to run programs or the capabilities to download some PDFs or other downloads. Post things right on the site so journalists aren’t tempted to navigate away.
- Registration: if a journalist has to register or pay a fee to be able to enter your newsroom, they may brush it off and just search elsewhere on the internet. Make it as easy as possible for journalists – and the public – to access information. If you want to offer an e-mail signup for an e-newsletter, though, go for it!
- No categories: besides organizing your press releases or other posts by dates, make categories for specific topics. By making topical categories, journalists can look at previous press releases and see the history of the topic in the company.
Ragan CEO Mark Ragan discusses some of these aspects and others in this video “Eight tips for a better online newsroom.”
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Tags: journalists, keywords, newsroom categories, online newsrooms
In my previous posts I’ve talked about ways and reasons for companies to use online newsrooms. Now I’m going to discuss who visits these newsrooms the most: journalists.
Journalists work under stressful and timely deadlines. They need to be able to get good information as quickly as they can. When they enter an online newsroom, they want to be able to find facts, information and contacts easily so they don’t have to waste time navigating the company’s entire website. In Alertbox’s article about press area usability, Jakob Nielsen discusses what journalists need and want to see in an online newsroom.
The Internet is clearly a journalist’s best friend when it comes to gathering information. While a company website may be where a journalist begins research, he/she will not just take the company’s word on an event or situation; they will look to outside sources. Nielsen suggests providing other sources that provide press coverage or information about the company in the online newsroom. Also make sure facts are clear and easy to find. Journalists use these to provide background or supplement information in stories, so it is a good idea to provide a fact sheet about the company.
Your PR Guy also provides some good tips about what to include in an online newsroom. He lists the top ten things journalists want in an online newsroom. The one that struck me the most was number 10, “Financial information.” I guess it struck me as odd to be discussing money issues, but it is public information. A company might as well put it up on the newsroom so journalists can get the numbers right.
Keep reading for more about journalists’ expectations of online newsrooms.
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Tags: crisis communication, journalists, online newsrooms
In the previous post, I discussed a case study done on a corporate newsroom. Now, I will use the knowledge I have acquired to analyze three very prominent businesses’ newsrooms: Target, Starbucks, and ExxonMobil.
Target’s newsroom was the easiest of the three to navigate. Press releases were organized down the center of the page, media contacts and online alerts systems on the right side, and a list of categories on the left side. It was clear that whatever information users needed to find, they could do so in any of these sectioned areas. If not, a handy search box was nicely situated at the top-right corner. I found this newsroom incredibly professional and easy to navigate. Right on target (cheesey, I know).
Starbucks‘ newsroom was organized a bit differently. A main story was featured in the center of the page and recent stories and all other articles were fashioned in two columns on the right side of the page. Categories such as news, multimedia (which did not contain many videos or audio), executive biographies, and media contacts were listed along the top navigation bar, and at the bottom of the page were links and media requests. I found Starbucks’ page harder to navigate than Target’s, as the organization of key categories were scattered about the space.
ExxonMobil’s newsroom looked a bit bland, but it clearly contained a LOT of information. The sidebar contains categories such as new releases, speeches, features, downloads, newsfeeds, and e-mail alerts – clearly if you want information about the company, you can get it. It also contained links to other pages on the main website. On the main part of the newsroom page, there were categories for some of the sidebar items as well as media contacts and updates. I found this newsroom to be the most professional, though it was hard to gauge who the company was trying to target; I didn’t feel like it was the general public based on some of the information it provided. Here’s a really cool video where the CEO and other executives discuss the technology of energy:
Well, that’s just my take. Look up these newsrooms for yourself and let me know what you think!
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Tags: newsroom categories, online newsrooms
Trying Out the Online Newsroom
One company’s implementation of an online newsroom
Varian Medical Systems is an international company dedicated to creating equipment and software to treat cancer patients. Their website is visited mainly by product managers, hospital administrators and oncologists. However, when patients or visitors went on the website they had a hard time understanding the jargon used by these health professionals, according to PR Newswire. Varian needed a way to communicate what it did to customers and provide information to patients in understandable terms. Their solution? An online media room.
They set up a newsroom using PR Newswire’s Media Room Service, which created a newsroom that looks like Varian’s homepage. It contains information like current and old news releases, management bios, photos and contact information, as well as interactive elements like surveys and sign-ups for news releases.
To integrate their employees with their newsroom and to keep them informed, the public relations manager will send a company-wide email to employees with a link to the newsroom when a new press release is posted. It unifies the company and allows the employees to know what is going on in other areas of the company. For customers, links to stories about Varian in major news outlets are posted so they can see where else Varian is being talked about. They also send out links to their news releases to a list of contacts and send an e-newsletter to customers. Journalists are emailed with links to news releases and links to old news or background materials for stories journalists may be working on.
The effects of implementing this newsroom have been very positive. More and more people have used it since it’s creation in 2005 and respondents found it very easy to use. Varian is very proud of their newsroom’s features and information and found it worked to their advantage.
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Tags: case studies, journalists, online newsrooms
I touched on this in the previous posting, but I felt it necessary to explain the reasoning behind including certain features and information in an online newsroom.
The Blog. While a blog can be completely separate from the newsroom it could at least be linked. There could be several blogs by the CEO, marketing director or an employee from each department. It is also a good way to provide information that may not be “groundbreaking” or immediate. Blogs can be a great way for the public to connect with an executive and hear news about the company according to him/her.
RSS Feed. There should also be an RSS feed. Companies want stakeholders and frequent viewers of their site to be updated as soon as their site is, which is exactly what the RSS will do. It will send stories recently published on the newsroom to whoever subscribes to it.
Other forms of multimedia: videos, podcasts, and pictures should never be absent from a newsroom. The social media can not just consist of the written news in the online newsroom; in order to be a true social medium, it must provide interactive multimedia such as those listed to get viewers engaged by other outlets. A great example of a newsroom that adequately uses other forms of social media (as well as blogs and RSS) is the Toyota Newsroom. It contains images, videos and speeches on top of the regular newsfeed.
You want to make your online newsroom interactive in order to connect the constituent to the company, so use some of these suggestions for online newsroom components. What do you think? What else do you think should be included?
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Tags: Blog, podcasts, RSS Feed, Videos
As I begin my journey of discovering how useful corporate newsrooms are for both reporters and others, I figured a good way to start off would be to discuss the mechanics and basics of an online newsroom.
An online newsroom is a 24/7 resource that gives up-to-date information about an organization, according to the International Association of Business Communicators. Businesses can post reliable information and breaking news about their company straight from the source. It should be completely accurate since this is the place where most reporters will come for the exact information.
Online newsrooms are essential to companies for a multitude of reasons. One of the most important things about a newsroom is to not only provide information for retrieval from reporters, but to be able to put up information before a reporter gets hold of the news. This is especially true for crisis situations; when bad things happen, they need to be explained quickly. The newsroom is also likely to be the first place someone will go when breaking news occurs, so it must be accurate and updated immediately.
Coming across articles about online newsrooms for businesses, they generally consist of these things: press releases, biographies of CEO and other executives, coverage in th media, the business’s public relations contact information, and any news concerning the business. It is also a chance to add audio and video clips, perhaps like we saw in the Dell video clip of the CEO talking directly to the viewer. Anything interactive or interesting, maybe a link to the company blog, will help secure audiences.
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Recent Entries
- Wrapping Up: Online Newsrooms
- NewsCactus: Generating Online Newsrooms
- Welcome to the Dark Site
- Using the Newsroom to Save Your Company’s Image
- What Journalists Expect from an Online Newsroom, pt. 2
- What Journalists Expect from an Online Newsroom, pt. 1
- Analyzing Online Newsrooms: Target, Starbucks, ExxonMobil
- Trying Out the Online Newsroom
- What Should Be in Your Online Newsroom?
- What is a Corporate Online Newsroom?
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