Contacts in an Online Newsroom

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Are you playing hide-and-seek with journalists?

In our recent online newsroom survey, completed by more than 1,500 journalists, 98% of them said it is somewhat important (8%), important (24%) or very important (66%) to find PR contact information within an online newsroom. What might be more telling is the difficulty with which this impossibly simple task is executed in online newsrooms across the web.

Don’t believe me? Try this. Visit a few of your competitor’s online newsrooms or corporate web sites. When you get to the home page, take a look at your watch. See how long it takes for you to find the phone number, e-mail address, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn accounts, or Facebook pages for their media relations contact.

No…not the toll-free number or “contact us” form to the company. I mean a direct line to someone who’s responsibility it is to provide service to those seeking corporate information. The answer might surprise you!

After visiting literally hundreds of online newsroom and corporate web site, I can say without hesitation that PR is not doing a good job of providing good contact information online. And, at the end of the day, one could argue that the web is, if nothing more, a big phone book!

Use “ease of contact” as a media relations advantage in your online newsroom. Put full contact information on the home page. Make SURE you have a prominent link from the corporate home page to your online newsroom – not in the page footer! Also include contact information for subject matter experts, R&D personnel, and other key employees that can answer questions quickly and accurately.

Ready or not…here I come!