Building a Web Newsroom
H O P P E R P E D I A
-Brian Hammons
June 14, 2010: 3,974 hits
A Web Newsroom is an area on the Web site where news about the company is available online 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.
