Find it Online!!!

Journalists are really busy people. Everyday they receive hundreds of press releases and they chose for which of them they will write a story about. Apart from the quality of the press release, that will catch the attention of the journalists, it is as much important how easily Journalists find information.

Journalists are looking for variety of information and they work in deadlines. They are always in a hurry to find it. If they don’t have easy access to what they are looking for in a website, they easily move to the next one. They need Online Media Rooms, where all the data is easily accessible.

An online Media Room according to Gina Seamans APR Accent Relations LLC “An online Media Room is a “mini-site” that resides at a separate secure domain, but with seamless access to and from the main site. The Media Room is primarily dedicated to communicating media-specific information to reporters and journalists. But, it is available to the public as a resource for basic company information.

How Journalists Receive and Prefer Information

Marshall Krantz, senior editor for Meeting News and PRSA teleconference presenter setting the basic elements of an Online Media Room points out that
“Journalists are not interested in hype – all we want is a quick, simple message that gets the point across.”

Basic Elements of an online Media Room (according to Marshall Krantz)
1) Quick and Easy
2) Link from Homepage
3) List Staff Contacts
4) List News Releases
5) Post breaking news immediately
6) Provide Fact Sheet, Bios
7) Post Print-Quality Images
8) Offer E-Mail Media List Sign-Up
9) Use Copy-Friendly Formats

The advantages of online media rooms are many, although there are also some disadvantages. Online Media Rooms can sometime be complicated causing the frustration of journalists and failure to find the right information. Other problems are: photographs that sometimes lack of quality, or even out of date contact information, unsearchable press archive and last but not least the need to register before viewing some information.

Public Relations are very connected or even depended by the Media. Media relations is the unique selling point of the industry, therefore any changes happening in the media affects public relations as a profession and as a discipline. Technology is in the root of many current trends in the Media sector, therefore which influence automatically Public Relations industry.