PR 2.0: Managing News in a Digital World

PR 2.0:

Managing News in a

Digital World

A report prepared for the Chartered Institute of Public

Relations (CIPR) Education and Skills Sector Group

November 2009

2 PR 2.0: Managing News in a Digital World

CIPR Education and Skills Sector Group, November 2009

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Executive Summary

Methodology

Current practice in Further and Higher Education

Journalist use of digital media for news gathering

Reviewing the press release

Recommendations for education PR practitioners

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PR 2.0: Managing News in a Digital World

CIPR Education and Skills Sector Group, November 2009 3

Acknowledgements

Our thanks must go to the following people who have contributed to this

research report:

All 153 individuals who completed the online survey

All journalists who agreed to give us their time to participate in

telephone interviews

The CIPR, HEERA, AoC and www.he-comms.co.uk for helping to distribute

the survey and raise awareness of this piece of research

Emma Leech, Marc Reeves, Robin Hamman, David Wooding, Dr Tom Watson,

Drew Davies and Eddie Hammerman for speaking at our May 2009 conference

and helping to inform this research

Andy Merchant for providing information on social media news releases

and Pressitt.com

Linda Doyle and Adam Edworthy for help with conducting telephone

interviews

CIPR Education and Skills Sector Group for commissioning and supporting

this work.



Introduction

Social and digital media is revolutionising the way in which we communicate. It

has achieved a scale of adoption unmatched by any other form of new media

developed in history. Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users, yet

Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 monthsi.

The components of social and digital media – blogs, podcasts, micro-blogging,

online video, social networks, wikis – are fundamentally changing the way in

which we communicate, giving anyone a voice and a platform on which they can

make their views or opinions heard, or share their own news. Thanks to the

development of mobile technologies and continued commitments in the UK to

universal connectivityii, now people can communicate anytime, anyhow, and

anywhere.

Public Relations (PR) and marketing professionals across the education sector

are identifying new ways of communicating with key audiences through the use of

social and digital media. For the PR professional, such platforms provide a

means to communicate directly with their target audience, and to generate their

own news, allowing them to bypass the journalist and assume the role of news

provider for themselves.

And yet traditional journalism and news channels remain an important means by

which individuals consume information. People haven‟t stopped buying

newspapers, or watching the evening news. And rightly so, organisations still

aim to channel messages and stories through traditional media.

This report therefore addresses the role that social and digital media can play

in news gathering, and considers how PR professionals in education

organisations are already, or can, use new media tools and platforms to enhance

their relationship with the media. We question the role and value of the

traditional press release in all of this, and consider whether a new approach

is needed now that we live in a digital world.

The research for this report has taken place over a 6 month period in 2009, and

is led by Pickle Jar Communications Ltd on behalf of the Chartered Institute of

Public Relations (CIPR) Education and Skills Sector Group.



Executive Summary

The Further and Higher Education sector is currently beginning to use online

and digital media to enhance their PR activities. The vast majority of

organisations currently put press releases online, and many enhance this with

the use of social media platforms to help build and maintain relationships with

journalists.

However, technical know-how or capability, lack of time, uncertainty and a lack

of confidence in using social media, coupled with at times restrictive

management structures and risk adverse management, are considered to be

barriers that are currently preventing PR professionals in HE and FE progress

their use of social and digital media further.

At the same time, while many journalists are sceptical about the value and

reliability of information gathered for news stories through social media

platforms, our research reveals that many of them are relying increasingly on

such channels to source new stories, source expert comment, and find additional

resources to enhance stories such as photographs or video content.

Journalists have also told us that as a whole, they place little value or

emphasis on using press releases in their approach to producing news stories,

and some have called for a new approach to providing such information.

We consider the evolution of the Social Media News Release as a possible

alternative to traditional press releases.



Methodology

Our research began early in 2009. For this piece of research we have

specifically targeted Further Education (FE) Colleges and Higher Education (HE)

Institutions.

Our research included:

A online survey of a range of PR, marketing and communications

professionals, to better understand:

o Current use of social and digital media for all activities

o Use of online presence for disseminating press releases

o Target audience of press releases when put online

o Management structures governing PR activities and web management.

In-depth telephone interviews with a cross-section of PR professionals to

gain greater insight into their use of digital media and, where relevant,

barriers to use.

In-depth telephone interviews with a range of journalists and news

producers to understand how they use social and digital media for news

gathering, and to understand how they would prefer to receive „press

release‟ information from organisations.

A conference in May 2009 bringing together PR professionals and

journalists to explore and discuss use of social media in press and media

relations.



Current practice in Further and Higher Education

Our online survey aimed to gain a picture of current practice in the use of

social and digital media for press and media relations in the FE and HE

sectors. Following up the survey with some in-depth telephone interviews shed

further light on current practice, concerns and barriers to effective practice.

Who completed the survey?

153 individuals completed the survey, with 46.1 per cent from FE and 53.9 per

cent from HE, representing a range of roles:

How would you describe your role?

We specifically targeted a range of roles, though the nature of our circulation

lists for distributing the survey, and the subject of the survey, would

automatically make it more appealing to press and media relations

professionals.



Putting press releases online

The survey asked respondents whether they write press releases (73.7 per cent

did) and whether they publish press releases online themselves or whether

someone else does it for them. Of those who do write press releases, 79.1 per

cent were able to publish them to their organisation‟s website themselves.

The survey then questioned the motive for putting press releases online by

looking at who individual participants perceived to be their target audience

for their release. The results revealed that even though they were press

releases, the primary target audience for reading these online is prospective

students:

When you publish your press releases online, which of the following audience groups are your highest

priority (please tick a maximum of three)?

When we drill down deeper into these findings, we find a different picture

depending on whether the respondents are from HE or FE:



Target audience for press releases online in FE:

Target audience for press releases online in HE:



Tailoring releases to different audience groups

59.8 per cent of respondents claim that they adapt their press releases for

online use, but this means that there is still over 40 per cent of

organisations in the FE and HE sector who are not adapting their press releases

for use online.

Current use of online media for press and media relations

We asked participants which online media tools they are currently using for

press and media relations.

Which of the following online tools does your organisation use to communicate with journalists?

Results in the „other‟ category included several people saying they use the

telephone, some outlining press release distribution sites, and one mention of

RSS. No organisations were offering an online instant messaging system for

journalists to contact them.



Despite 77.8 per cent of respondents claiming that they use their website to

communicate with journalists, only 47.9 per cent of respondents claim that

their organisation has a dedicated online press centre or newsroom, suggesting

that in many cases press releases are put online as news items, but not in a

dedicated space where journalists can gather enhanced materials to go with the

release.

What does an online press centre or newsroom contain?

Those participants who do have an online press centre for their organisation

were asked about the features that their press centre contains.

Which of the following does your online news room/press centre have (please tick all that apply)?

Although the majority to provide contact details for a press officer or

equivalent, it is interesting to note that some online press centres in the HE

and FE sectors still do not provide contact details for journalists to follow-

up for more information.



Line management of PR and web

The survey explored the question of line management of PR and web functions to

determine whether internal management structures are a barrier or enabler for

some organisations using online media for press and media relations. The

results, while purely based on personal perception, are nevertheless quite

telling.

79.3 per cent of respondents claimed that their websites and PR functions were

all managed as part of the same directorate (in FE this figure was 73.4 per

cent, and 84 per cent in HE).

Participants were then asked how they felt management structures for web and PR

impacted on the ability to use online media for press and media relations.

How do you feel the difference in line management of press/PR and web functions impacts on your

organisation's PR activities?

Impact on PR when web and press relations are not part of same directorate



Impact on PR when web and press relations are not part of same directorate

Participants who worked in departments where web and PR were managed as part of

the same line management structure clearly perceived this to be a good thing

and an enabler in helping them to enhance press and media relations through

online tools and activities. In contrast, those who were in different

departments, albeit a smaller portion of the sample, perceived this to have a

negative impact on the ability to enhance press and media relations through

online tools and activities.



In-depth: thoughts, views and barriers

Our research then turned to conducting in-depth telephone interviews with 20

participants. A common theme emerging throughout those interviews was that the

more likely an individual was to use online media and social media tools in

their personal lives, the more value and emphasis they placed on those tools in

their professional lives.

A summary of key comments from the telephone interviews is outlined below:

General sweeping statements about an organisation’s use of online media:

We‟ve signed up to Twitter but we have now got stuck and are not sure how

to use it

We have ambitions to use online broadcast media tools and channels but

our website currently cannot host videos and podcasts so we‟re waiting

for it to be updated

We don‟t yet use online media tools but we do have ambitions to use them.

How do you think your institution should be using online and social media to

communicate with journalists? (NB the responses in bold were repeated by

several interviewees)

We’re not sure, we need to look into it

We won’t change our current methods of working: journalists prefer

telephone and email communication

We should use it in addition to email and telephone

It needs to be used carefully

We‟ll use Twitter to watch journalists‟ conversations

We are using Twitter to supplement traditional methods of communicating

with journalists

We should be using social media

We don‟t think it adds value when you already have a one-to-one

relationship with a journalist

We should use it to establish open, two-way communications

How do you think social media is changing the way we work and how we should be

working? (NB the responses in bold were repeated by several interviewees)

We need to feel comfortable with it

We need to be open-minded about it

We can get an awful lot of feedback from social media sites, and that can

be quite alarming – some will be good, some will be bad. We need to be

realistic.

If used in a structured way it can free up communications across the

organisation. However it can also cause a distraction to staff less

focussed or less motivated.

Use of social media needs to run alongside a social media policy

It has made everything more instant – we now have less turnaround time



It has changed the type of information we need to release into the public

domain

It has forced us to be more open

It is now the key to managing reputation so we need to be proactive

It is destroying newspapers and reducing need for journalists

It has made feedback less bias – anyone can comment now

It has increased the volume of information available and media outlets

available – we now work in a multimedia environment

It allows me to keep as up to date as possible by checking chat rooms and

blogs, not company websites

More informality is creeping in

We feel that social media creates much duplication when it should be

doing the opposite

It hasn‟t changed how I work – yet

It is time consuming and needs additional resource

It is very useful to my role

What do you feel are the key barriers, if any, to changing PR practice at your

institution regarding the use of social and digital media?

The main barriers across the board were time and staffing and attitudes towards

social media. Many respondents, however, didn‟t perceive any barriers. Other

interesting comments included:

It‟s hard to keep on top of all the new technologies

There are no guidelines in place - we need rules

Social media sites are blocked at our institution which causes problems

What do you think are the key barriers to developing more interactive,

multimedia online newsrooms?

The main barriers across the board were once again time, staffing and a

knowledge or skills gap was evident. There was also a requirement to understand

the needs of journalists and many interviewees were not convinced that the

journalists would want an online multimedia newsroom. Other barriers included

IT-based security, requirement to develop best practice, keeping up with the

latest trends in social media and building staff confidence in the use of such

sites. Other interesting comments included:

Management can be problematic – they want us to use social media but at

the first negative comment they question why we are using it

We haven‟t developed an online newsroom – we don‟t believe there is a

market for it at our institution

In my role I am expected to deal with press and events amongst other

things – I just don‟t have time

We are still expected to maintain traditional methods of communication

and it duplicates our workload



Do management structures or press and web functions at your institution impact

on your ability to evolve in this area?

Amongst respondents from HE institutions management structures were perceived

to be an issue. Interesting comments included:

Management structures are changing all the time and our focus changes to

meet their agenda

We need technical support or a social media expert in order to evolve

The key players just aren‟t on board

Our departments work to a different set of priorities

We can‟t get the service we need from other departments

Management is willing to embrace the idea but there is a lack of

understanding. Social media needs to be represented at the highest level

The IT department shapes how and what we can do in the communications

team. Until that changes, we are stuck.

What type of training do you think you and the wider sector needs in order to

progress your use of online media?

Writing for the web

Basic „how to use‟ and „how to make the best use of‟ social media

Practical tips for using social media

Something not student-recruitment focussed

How to use to social media to engage wider stakeholders



Journalist use of digital media for news gathering

Through a series of telephone interviews and panel discussion with journalists

we have attempted to gain an insight into how they are using online tools and

social media for their work and for news gathering. This section summarises the

key points and trends that have emerged through our discussions, including

attitudes towards current practices of PR officers (PROs) and thoughts and

reflections on the future role of PROs and press releases.

Attitudes towards ‘traditional’ press releases

Across the board journalists expressed a dislike towards traditional press

releases. One journalists even commented that at his newspaper many journalists

have their email inboxes set up to automatically delete any emails that appear

with the words „press release‟ in them.

One journalist commented that “most press releases are crap and badly

targeted”.

The timeliness of press releases was also questioned by one journalist, who

suggested that news travels faster on the grapevine and that press releases are

often 2-3 days behind the news. Therefore press releases are rarely their first

port of call for new stories, instead only occasionally providing additional

information for a story they are already working on. The same journalist also

complained that many press releases are often so buried in organisations‟

websites that they are not easy to find.

Information overload

The biggest concerns that journalists had around use of social media for news

gathering were to do with information overload and reliability of sources. They

felt that even if they did source a quote or a piece of information on a blog,

for example, the reliability of that information would still require further

investigation. However, it was acknowledged that while some journalists are

ignoring social media comments on particular issues or stories because of

concerns about reliability, ultimately those who choose to ignore such „eye

witness‟ accounts are making a mistake and missing an opportunity.

New sources for information gathering

Throughout our research the following online sources were mentioned by

journalists as sources of information gathering:

Google

Wikipedia

MySpace

Facebook



Twitter

Flickr

YouTube

Online press rooms from organisations

Using „embed‟ code from video or audio sharing sites

One journalist shared their approach to gathering information to enhance a

story:

When writing stories, if we need background info about companies we

will normally first check our own archives, which are pretty

comprehensive when it comes to anything since 2002. Next we would

check relevant Wikipedia entries, being wary of the accuracy of such

things, though I'd say 90 per cent of the time they are right, and

they are helpful because a lot of the information we actually need is

already in our heads and we're only really looking for something to

back up our existing hunch. If neither of those things provides the

background we need, then we'll do a wider Google search or maybe call

a relevant press officer.

Our own research of recent news articles also revealed several instances of

social media sites, particularly blogs and micro-blogs (Twitter) being used for

journalists to directly take quotes from individuals. We also found instances

of photographs on Flickr directly inspiring articles, or being used to

illustrate articles. The journalists involved in our panel discussion at our

May conference echoed this practice, particularly for picking up opinion and

comments from politicians from sources such as Twitter and Facebook. One

panellist even suggested that when big news stories break, some journalists are

now heading straight for social media sites. Another commented that “online

media means that people can no longer hide. Even if they turn off their phones,

there will still be information available online.”

In our telephone interviews another journalist also claimed that he regularly

uses Twitter to „test the waters‟ and gather a sense for popular opinion on

particular events or activities, citing in particular the G8 protestors on

Twitter, and claiming that fellow journalists had used Twitter to find

individuals to be interviewed on live programmes.

Finding stories any time, any where

During our conference held in May one journalist on the panel revealed that

while travelling into London that day on the train, Twitter had revealed two

new story leads to him that his colleagues were now following up. He commented

that social media is changing the role of the journalist and enabling them to

do much more while on the move.

Another journalist also commented that with the decline in number of

journalists working for papers these days, social media is enabling those that

remain to do their jobs quicker.



Another interviewee also commented that Twitter is widening the horizons of

journalists and inspiring them to write stories on subjects that they wouldn‟t

previously have writer, commenting “things will come to you that never came

before."

The ability for new technologies to provide materials and insight anytime

anywhere was also considered to be valuable to the role of the journalist. One

commented:

We journalists can't be everywhere at once, but people are where they

are and they can do just as much to report what they see around them

as we can. Sure, they may not be trained reporters, but there were

some lively discussions about the validity of certain pieces of

information posted to the network. People aren't as stupid as we

sometimes think, especially when the information they seek is in close

proximity to their daily lives.

Personal contact still most effective

Despite all the favourable comments of journalists towards social media for

newsgathering and evolving the way in which PROs work and how stories are

presented to them, the role of personal contact and telephone conversations was

still considered one of the most effective means of engaging journalists.

During the conference in May one journalist panellist mentioned that at his

newspaper all journalists have two email addresses: one that is published in

the paper and filtered by secretaries, and their own personal email address

that they will only ever give out to people whom they know and trust.

Developing a relationship of trust with that journalist is key to getting hold

of that information.

Journalists also warned that social media shouldn‟t be used as simply another

way of „spamming‟ them with press releases. Using Twitter to send links to

press releases to journalists was frowned about and considered to „wind them

up‟. Personal engagement was considered to be a more preferable route, and

social media considered to be one way to help maintain those relationships.

Ultimately, however, face-to-face contact or a telephone conversation was still

deemed the best way to approach a journalist with a story.

Future directions: evolving the press release and the role of PR professionals

Some of our interviewees highlighted concerns that social media just provides

new platforms for PROs to use their same age-old approach. They outlined the

need for PROs to use new approaches when using new tools to engage with

journalists. One interviewee commented:

The last few weeks I’ve started noticing some PR people I follow on

Twitter give a heads up to twittering journalists about a press

release they’ve sent them. It usually goes something like ‘@journalist

just sent you a release. Let me know what you think...’ I’m not saying



that this is bad etiquette. However, it does smack a little of old

school PR tactics.

One journalist commented that the beauty of Twitter is the ability to block

annoying PROs who „spam‟ them.

At our conference in May one panellist questioned whether social media spells

the end of the press office as we know it. They predicted a shift in the role

of the PR office towards monitoring and flagging up with others what the buzz

is, then pushing others out to comment and engage in different spaces. He

commented “your people become your branding tools, instead of the organisation

itself”.

Examples of how some journalists saw PR approaches evolving now and in the

future included replacing the press release with, for example:

Strong images on Flickr to tell the story for you

Links to videos on YouTube (such as was the case with Gordon Brown‟s

comments around MPs expenses – Number 10 press office simply emailed

journalists a link to the video)

Sending embed code to unbranded flash videos or audio files for online

media sites.

The fundamental issue of appropriate targeting raised its head again when

discussing the role of online news rooms. It was commented that no amount of

additional resources provided online would make a journalist work on a story

that just wasn‟t interesting to them or relevant to their publication or site.

However, it was noted that if the story is relevant and well targeted then

additional multimedia materials, such as unbranded embeddable flash videos,

would be useful particularly for online versions of stories.

Finally, a former Financial Times journalist kindly shared his views with us by

email on the future of PR-journalist engagement, as follows:

Press releases are nearly useless. They typically start with a

tremendous amount of top-spin; they contain pat-on-the-back phrases

and meaningless quotes. Often they will contain quotes from C-level

executives praising their customer focus.

Press releases are created by committees, edited by lawyers, and then

sent out at great expense through Businesswire or PRNewswire to reach

the digital and physical trash bins of tens of thousands of

journalists ... this madness has to end!

His “proposal”:

Deconstruct the press release into special sections and tag the

information so that as a publisher I can pre-assemble some of the news

story and make the information useful.

Provide a brief description of what the announcement is, but

leave the spin to the journalists. The journalists are going



to go with their own spin on the story anyway, so why

bother? Keep it straightforward rather than ‘spintastic’.

Provide a page of quotes from the CEO.

Provide a page of quotes from customers, if applicable.

Provide a page of quotes from analysts, if applicable.

Provide financial information in many different formats.

Provide many links inside the press release copy, and also

provide a whole page of relevant links to other news stories

or reference sources.

Of course, journalists can choose which parts of the press release to

use, and add other material, as they do today. But by using news tags,

a newspaper/news site could pull together larger numbers of news

stories and the PR industry would be helping the news publishers to

gather the facts and present them in a near-publishable format.

[...]

And this way, the PR industry becomes a partner in communicating

truthful and factual information. And we save the millions of person-

years wasted in producing press releases. We should produce new media

communications releases.

In the next section, we explore a new approach to disseminating news through

the „social media news release‟.



Reviewing the press release

In the previous section we saw that while face-

to-face engagement with a journalist, or a

telephone conversation, remains the preferred

method of communication. We also identified

trends to suggest that journalists:

Do not place much value on traditional

press releases

Are turning to social media sites for

news gathering, though some remain

sceptical

Have outlined their thoughts on new

approaches for PR professionals.

Recently some organisations have begun to replace

traditional press releases with the „social media

news release‟ (SMNR). To help with our research,

we turned to the creators of Pressitt.com, a new

(free) SMNR publishing platform.

Using a platform such as Pressitt, organisations

can deconstruct their press announcements, as the

former Financial Times journalist in the previous

section calls for. A release might begin with a

brief summary, present the key facts as a

bulleted list, include a list of quotes as a

separate section, include high-resolution

downloadable photographs, embed video or audio

content, present plenty of useful links and

clearly display contact details for journalists

who wish to follow-up in person.

Each Pressitt SMNR is „tweeted‟ through

Pressitt‟s own Twitter feediii and, of course, can

be linked to from an organisation‟s own online

press centre, website, or email to a journalist.

Each SMNR also includes social bookmarking icons

and an RSS feed for releases from each

organisation. A wide range of public and private

sector organisations are already using this

platform, which launched earlier in 2009.

To the right, you can see an example of how a

SMNR appears on this service.



Recommendations for education PR practitioners

Our research and this report has revealed some changes in the way that press

and media relations can be enhanced thanks to developments in digital media,

and barriers that restrict those changes being speedily adopted within FE and

HE organisations. As such, and by way of conclusion, we make the following

recommendations:

Any form of digital and social media should not replace the opportunity to

develop a strong relationship with journalists via face-to-face contact or

telephone

PROs within HE and FE organisations would benefit from CPD/training

opportunities that specifically focus on using social media and help to

build confidence in understanding the role of such communications channels

Management of web and PR functions should be controlled within the same

organisational directorate and not treated as separate „IT‟ and

„Marketing‟ functions

Organisational leaders in the education sector need greater understanding

of the role of social media for enhancing PR activities and the

implications that this has on organisational culture

PR offices need to include personnel with the technical skills to support

the use of digital technologies to enhance press and media relations

Dedicated time and resource within organisations should be given to social

media to monitor online reputation, identify new opportunities, develop

new relationships or build on existing ones, and develop new ways of

communicating with key stakeholders

Press officers should review their approach to writing and disseminating

press releases, and consider new approaches that make information easy and

accessible to the journalist, and make themselves visible as key contact

Press officers should use social media tools to monitor „buzz‟ and

„trending‟ topics as a means of identifying potential opportunities for

placing expert comment.



References

i „Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think.‟ Blog post, 11 August 2009,

http://socialnomics.net/2009/08/11/statistics-show-social-media-is-bigger-than-you-

think/

ii Digital Britain, Final Report, June 2009

http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digitalbritain-finalreport-jun09.pdf

iii http://twitter.com/pressitt

PR 2.0: Managing News in a Digital World

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Transcript of PR 2.0: Managing News in a Digital World