Create an Online Newsroom

So you want publicity and think you need to create a printed press kit for the media? You may be surprised to learn that few media outlets use hard-copy press kits anymore. What's really important is making your company’s information available online.

A relatively inexpensive and effective way to do that is through an online newsroom containing information about your company that can be easily accessed. According to a 2007 survey by TEKGroup International, 93 percent of journalists consider it important or very important for companies to have online newsrooms.

Generally, an online newsroom includes:

• A press kit
• Press releases
• A biography of executives, including photographs
• Clips of the publicity coverage you've already received, which can be scanned as pdf documents
• Your PR contact's information
• Audio and video about your company, if you have them

Now that you know what you need to include, follow these four steps for getting everything together.

1. Create a press kit.
At a minimum, you should have: a company fact sheet, a backgrounder, a biography and press releases about your company. Use this checklist to keep track of all the information you’ll need for each document:

Company Fact Sheet

• Description of company, when you were founded, company history
• Description of key products and services
• List of special achievements and awards
• List of key personnel with contact information
• Address of company headquarters and other contact information
• List of financial information, including revenue
• Number of employees and list of all locations

Backgrounder

• Information on your industry
• In-depth information about your company and its founder

Biography

• Name, title, list of responsibilities
• Previous experience
• Education and awards
• Professional affiliations
• Community involvement
• Personal information, including hobbies, family members and where you live (this one's optional)

Press Releases

• Information on a new product or service, and/or stories of interest to the media
• Information on the company

2. Get professional headshots.
News stories with photos always draw more attention than those without them, so it's important to have a photo that can be used at a moment's notice. You’ll need to get digital versions of your headshots in several resolutions to include in your newsroom. I recommend 200 dpi and 300 dpi. The higher the dpi, the higher the resolution. Print publications almost always want 300 dpi, and electronic publications are usually fine with 200 dpi.

3. Decide where to put your online newsroom.
Do you want your online newsroom on your website, or do you want it located somewhere else? Most business owners decide to keep their newsrooms on their own sites, but a new trend is to work with online newsroom companies that'll host your newsroom for you. This is a good idea if you don't want to share all your information with every site visitor. Plus, you can target tracking information, such as if a reporter clicked on a page of your press kit, and change your newsroom information at a moment’s notice yourself.

4. Upload everything.
If you've followed the previous three steps, you should be ready to upload your information and launch your online newsroom. If it'll be on your site, create a link on your home and about pages called "Newsroom," "Press" or "Media."

An online newsroom is the best way to make sure the media always has all the necessary information about your company whenever they need it. This gives you a jump on your competition--and makes you a very valuable media source.