Articles
Building a 'smart' Web newsroom
Posted Sunday, December 22, 2002
A Web Newsroom is an area on the Web site where news about the
company is available online or for download or distributed automatically.
A smart Web newsroom can significantly enhance the overall communications
program without requiring additional manpower or web team support.
Web Newsrooms vary significantly in what information is made available
or distributed via the Web site. A simple newsroom may contain only
a company brochure and a news area. Major corporate Web newsrooms
may contain hundreds of pages with newswires, case studies, newsletters,
annual reports, investor information, executive bios, product data
sheets and company PR contacts. Rational Software, heavily in the
news with the IBM acquisition, has a excellent Web newsroom at http://www.rational.com/news/index.jsp
offering not only press releases but press coverage.
So why a newsroom and what should it contain. A newsroom is where
a company or organization prepares its news and aims specifically
at news media that cover the company. Many Web newsroom focus on
providing everything news and often fail to meet the urgent needs
of the news media. News media need contact names and phone numbers,
fact sheets, news releases and photographs as a minimum.
A basic newsroom offers the up-to-date elements of the company
press kit: Company brochure or fact sheet, leadership bios and photographs,
current news releases, and media contact page with names, email
and contact phone numbers for both day and after office hours support.
More items may be added to support news media needs, but avoid making
the newsroom into a communication center for all. Investors, employees,
developer groups, and customers deserve sections specifically designed
for their needs. A major complaint of news media trying to gather
story information is that company Web sites are often cluttered
with marketing materials offering few facts or attributed information.
Two features of top quality newsrooms are email news release services
and subject matter experts. Many companies distribute news releases
to news services such as Businesswire or PRNewswire, but few offer
direct email services to news media unless they want to signup for
the marketing department's email blasts. Another excellent feature
is a Web page that offers support for subject matter experts within
the company to address industry issues. An example is the Sun Press
Room where they provide comments on news events and provide email
contacts for follow up questions.
Public companies often include investor relations information,
annual reports, quarterly filings, and stock and analysts reports
in their newsrooms.
A comprehensive Web site newsroom will include a content management
or news system to assist corporate PR staff in maintaining and updating
the Web site newsroom. This system should allow the staff to schedule
releases, automatically archive releases and quickly update current
newsroom information. Several automated newsroom scripts or programs
are used by Compton Communications to make the news releases, articles
and factsheets easy to update or add.
A quality newsroom program specifically focused on meeting news
media needs can provide added value to the Web site system.
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