Essence Of Online Newsrooms
Imperial Sugar Newsroom
I recently spoke with David Henderson and Ed Lallo of The News Group Net about how online newsrooms are being applied – or at least how they can be – within today’s digital news landscape. This formed the basis of my May Digital Dialogue column “Online newsrooms in the digital era” for PR Tactics, a publication of the Public Relations Society of America.
My discussion with David and Ed was lively and we enjoyed having a good go at the topic as our allotted time quickly passed. David is author of “Making News in the Digital Era” and analyzes the application of online newsrooms quite a bit in it and his consulting. He and Ed, a photojournalist with People Magazine and national newspaper assignments among his many credentials, provided more insight than I could fit in the confines of a 500 word column.
What follows are some bonus nuggets using Imperial Sugar Company (ISC), a News Group Net client, as an example.
On press releases
Henderson: While researching my book I became curious about newsrooms and started talking to IT people at major corporations. I learned that as a general rule online newsrooms are the least visited part of websites because they are just repositories of old press releases. Yesterday’s press releases are yesterday’s news. It really comes down to writing in a journalistic style. A press release is not news, it is an announcement or an event. You should take releases, or what would comprise them, and re-write this information as news.
Lallo: There are similar nuances in photography and video too. Make the transition from PR and corporate communications writing to news credibility with a news-style delivery of video segments and B-roll.
Henderson: We looked at a company that does 300 press releases a year. They’re spending a lot of money to do it and their ROI is basically zero because nobody is picking up their chest thumping.
Press releases are ok for the financial purposes of public companies but for most other purposes they are counter intuitive. Reporters are under mandate to find fresh new stories their competitors don’t have. If you send a press release to USA Today they’ll throw it away. It’s like saying “we have something today but we’re telling it to everybody.”
The media that really matters to you, your company or client is usually a very small group. For Apple it’s Mossberg and Pogue. Everybody else typically follows what they write. Fashion your news for the small group of media who are critical to your business.
On implementing Imperial Sugar’s newsroom
Henderson: Imperial was coming out of crisis (a 2008 Savannah refinery explosion) and they had two PR agencies doing traditional things that weren’t getting much traction for the company’s image. If you went to Google all the stories were negative, which was no direct fault of the agencies’ efforts. It’s just that a new approach was needed.
Imperial was rebuilding the plant, taking care of its workforce and working diligently with local government. None of this was being reflected in media coverage. Our first objective was to get these stories told online and we determined the ideal method was an online newsroom.
Lallo: To this day we have a great relationship with Imperial’s PR agencies. We synch our newsroom stories with their news releases and press information, rewriting the releases as a news stories for the newsroom or working from material that would have previously been news releases.
Henderson: The main purpose of the newsroom is not to provide stories for media. The core audiences are shareholders, business partners, employees and, then, the media. An online newsroom can present the spectrum of all the good things a company is doing to each of these audiences.
We developed our newsroom model based on our respective journalism and photography experience and we’ve tuned it with where the world is today; what people want to find online.
Lallo: If you go to many corporate online newsrooms you still find you are asked to fill out a form to contact the company’s communications department – and you may not ever get a reply. This just isn’t right. Stakeholders of any kind can no longer wait for a response. We think of our newsrooms as daily digital newspapers that cover an industry and keep everyone up to date on what is trending.
Henderson: In a short time, a wave of media started borrowing stories almost verbatim and photos from Imperial’s newsroom, or using elements from it to expand on a topic in their own stories. The site has become the center of the sugar refining industry. We post stories that are good and not so good about the industry because we want to remain objective. Sugar industry analysts and even thought leaders from other companies now come to us to get their stories covered.
What started out as wanting to improve Imperial’s Google-ability and favorability of online stories has become a position of leadership.
On staffing Imperial’s newsroom
Henderson: You really need to have the support of top management to make a newsroom relevant. Imperial John Sheptor is solidly behind this effort. His is a style of open management and he wants this reflected in the newsroom.
Lallo: It takes an enormous amount of work to manage an online newsroom effectively. We post two or three fresh stories daily and are constantly adding photographs and videos. Five freelancers assist David and I with the newsroom.
We never anticipated it, but the ISC newsroom has become a profit center. We get emails from Sugar traders worldwide who want to be hooked up with ISC to make purchases. Millions of pounds of sugar have been sold via newsroom leads.
On PR’s role managing newsrooms
Lallo: Newsrooms aren’t about taking PR people out of the equation. They are about learning a new skill, or for some going back to their journalism roots. Don’t think in terms of writing press releases with boilerplates and disclaimers. Get rid of that formula and write something people are interested in.
Henderson: We constantly talk with agencies and corporate communications people who agree with this approach but thus far lack the resources or executive support to make it happen.
(And therein lies the challenge that I even see myself while going about my duties. I believe a lot of PR practitioners have the desire to open up their communications, yet also have internal stakeholders and legal advisers to convince and processes to modify. But it isn’t rocket science, it’s just good journalism that people are after regardless of if you pitch or consume it. I’m happily in agreement with most everything David and Ed have shared and – whether by leaps and bounds or merely baby steps – I’ll be seeking to further advance my own communications from static to style.)
Ryan,
I love the idea of an online newsroom!
As a marketing/communications professional in the healthcare field, this is one of the many media platforms I’d like to include in my communications plan. It’s very challenging to keep nearly 2,000 employees and more than 600 physicians focused and engaged on issues that pertain to them. The online newsroom is a great extension to the website, serving as a medium to bring print articles to life with photos and videos, while at the same time, connecting with viewers in the social media realm.
A couple of years ago I was hoping to implement a digital signage system throughout the hospital, similar to what you see in hotels, convention centers and airports. After many visits with an outside vendor and reaching a very reasonable quote, senior management denied the request. If approved, this would have allowed me to manage and display content (news, links, videos, etc.) from my PC to several T.V.s throughout the hospital…sort of our own channel for internal and external audiences.
What is the best way to get buy-in from senior management? Without the necessary communication tools to do my job effectively, I feel trapped and unable to grow professionally. I’m so anxious to incorporate digital media into my daily routine. The organization also has been slow to embrace social media, which is a separate topic for another day.
Frustrated in K.C.
Mike, thanks for commenting. Your organization’s lag integrating social media is unfortunate especially given the planning you put into your digital project, even spec’ing it out at a good price.
It sounds like your senior management has a fear of open communication – the style now enveloping us all via the web that is here to stay. There isn’t a magic formula for buy-in; not that you’re asking for an easy route. Consider showing management – perhaps in bite-sized nuggets initially – real-world success examples from organizations similar to yours in healthcare.
I’m currently immersed in Charlene Li’s new book “Open Leadership,” and suggest you reference it. Case examples surface as early as the introduction. In fact, the first regards Wendy Harmon’s (@wharman) work with the Red Cross. She faced similar management adoption challenges and used an educate and expand approach with much success. http://www.charleneli.com/open-leadership/
Also seek out crisis examples where communicating via social networks occurred, or didn’t in cases of companies reluctant to use them. Seeing how others handled or mishandled situations is evidence management needs to get off the fence.
Btw, glad you see value in the online newsroom concept which I believe, when well applied and faithfully managed, can serve most all of an organization’s audiences (customers, partners, employees, investors, media, analysts etc).