Top elements to include in your online news room

TEKgroup International, Inc., an organization that helps companies create online news rooms, offers a list of the top 20 elements to include. A large corporation should consider including all of them; a small business can get away with incorporating about half of them. Here's TEKgroup's list followed by my recommendations for smaller operations in order of importance.

TEKgroup's top 20 elements in their order of importance:

1. Searchable archives
2. PR contacts
3. News releases
4. Background information
5. Product info/press kits
6. Photographs
7. Help/FAQ
8. Crisis communications
9. Events calendar
10. Executive biographies
11. Media credentials registration
12. Financial information
13. Info/interview request form
14. News coverage
15. Video
16. Social media page
17. RSS feeds
18. Audio
19. Blog
20. Twitter feed

Here are mine for smaller organizations, including nonprofits, in order of importance, based on the information I look for when looking for article and interview sources: 

1. PR contacts
2. News releases
3. Background information
4. Product info/press kits
5. Photographs
6. Searchable archives
7. Executive biographies
8. Social media links (not page)
9. Blog
10. News coverage

Why did I select "PR contacts" as the top item? Because more often than not, I'm at a company's online  news room because I need to schedule an interview and I'm looking for somebody to help make that happen. And yet, surprisingly enough, this information can be hard to find (and some companies make it impossible to find by not offering it at all). If it takes too long to find a media contact, I'll move on to your competitor.

 

TEKgroup also recently released results of its survey on how journalists are using digital media, online newsrooms, and social media to write, researchn and report on news stories. Not surprisingly, the 1,500 journalists surveyed want access to helpful information at a company's website. Download the report here.