Pitching stories through online newsrooms

Pitching media stories online: it is not new, it becomes an imperative... News reporters, will intensify reportage based on online sources to save time and produce low-cost results. But what makes a great online newsroom? For starters, news! If you have plenty of compelling, relevant, timely, engaging, exclusive or otherwise sensational news to share with the media on a regular basis, it probably doesn't matter what your online newsroom looks like. Imagine, twitter doesn't have an online newsroom - but try to find a media outlet that hasn't covered the company in the past year. After all, Twitter is the media and most journalists are only a tweet away.

But what if you're organization is slightly less popular than Twitter? What can you do to make your online newsroom more compelling? What information should be in your online newsroom to improve your chances of scoring an interview with your favorite journalist or blogger? Rather than provide you with a checklist of content you should add, I decided to take a look at the online newsrooms for some other top-of-mind companies. My plan was to find some ideas we might be able to use for the online newsroom (Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft)

Apple Press Info: Apple is known as a media favorite. The company gets an incredible amount of traffic to its online newsroom and is built to handle it with the following features.

• Apple Media Helpline - the most dominant element of Apple's online newsroom is a phone number for its Apple Media Helpline (along with an email address for media inquiries). I can't overstate the importance of having media contacts prominently displayed in your newsroom.
• Latest Press Releases - the media might not be interested in your press releases anymore, but many care what Apple has to say. The company's press releases are always relevant and deserve to be the dominant element of their newsroom.
• Search Press Info - Apple does a great job with their newsroom navigation. Providing search capabilities makes things even easier for busy journalists - especially if you have a lot of content in your newsroom, as Apple does.

Facebook Press Room: Facebook is my personal favorite as far as online press rooms go. While the company has been criticized for its media relations in the past, the Press Room is the most frequent example I show to people. What is to like:

• Consistent Look and Feel - the Facebook Press Room looks like part of Facebook. All the information is organized like any other Page you would see on Facebook. I think this works very well for them. And considering they have more than 350 million users now, there's a good chance visitors are comfortable with the layout.
• Organization of Information - think of anything you would want to know about the company and you'll find a link for it on this page. The company boilerplate is front and center, followed by releases, and recent blog posts (the best of both old and new media relations).
• Statistics - many companies hide their numbers (or more accurately, choose not to share this information - usually due to competitive reasons). Facebook provides a handy page with all sorts of useful statistics on its usage, averages, growth rates, platform, etc.
• Content - factsheets, bios, images, a timeline, and b-roll footage (with videos on every conceivable topic) round out the newsroom content. No wonder Facebook is in the news so much (I'm sure it has nothing to do with its stratospheric growth rate).
• Speaker Request / Interview Request - Facebook gets bonus points for including both a "Speaker Request" and "Interview Request" option in its newsroom. This is the best feature of all the press rooms I looked at (it's very well done too).
• Tell Us a Story - Facebook also includes a "Your Stories" option that encourages users to share their stories about using Facebook. They let their users know that they are interested in hearing from them, and would like to share their stories with the rest of the world. This is awesome.

Google Press Center: The Google Press Center is pretty boring at first glance, but built to serve its function (like everything else Google creates, useful and handy). And if there's one thing I know about Google, they test and retest everything. I guarantee you that every piece of content in the newsroom is exactly where it's supposed to be.

• Google Blog - most of Google's news is communicated through its blog, which is the dominant element of its Press Center. The company only seems to produce press releases for the really BIG stuff (like the recent Nexus One Phone announcement). I like the blog approach for Google because that's the format that best fits the journalists and bloggers that write about them.
• Reviewer's Guides - reviews are essential for gaining adoption for Google's products and services. Providing Reviewer's Guides for self-service through the Press Center is an excellent feature. This makes it easy for any journalist or blogger to conduct their own review on any of Google's products or services.
• The Google Podium - executive talks from the Official Google YouTube Channel. I like this feature because it gives you access to Google's leadership in video form. It doesn't hurt that it's powered by one of Google's products (as are most of the Press Center's offerings).
• Google Twitter Directory - Google has a Twitter feed for every product it has. If you're interested in following a specific product, you can quickly find the appropriate feed in this directory. There is also a Google Blog Directory that serves a similar function. This is a great approach to building relationships with audiences around the areas they are most interested in.

Microsoft News Center: Microsoft is the oldest company in this comparison group, so you might expect they would have a pretty sophisticated online newsroom (they do).

• Visual Impact - Microsoft has one of the better-looking newsrooms of the mix, appearing more like a page you would see on an Internet news site (you know, like you might see on MSN.com). The Microsoft News Center features a lot of news. Rather than resorting to a bunch of press releases, the company has produced its own news content in its newsroom. This is a nice touch.
• Press Tools - for journalists and bloggers that prefer to write their own stories, rather than read what Microsoft's journalists have to say, the company provides a wide-range of media resources you would expect to see: press releases, facts about Microsoft, bios, images, videos, analyst reports.
• Microsoft on the Issues - one of the featured blogs in its News Center, Microsoft provides content around the issues of the day - from the company's perspective. This is a good use of the company's influence around the world - and a great resource for journalists and bloggers.
• PressPass RSS - Microsoft gets bonus points for its PressPass RSS feed in its newsroom. Subscribers can customize their feed based on the information that is relevant to them. This is an awesome feature for an online newsroom, particularly for an organization like Microsoft that has so many different media audiences to serve around the world.
• Worldwide Contact Info - Microsoft also provides contact information for every market around the world on its newsroom. Any journalist can quickly find the appropriate media contact (including agency representatives) through its newsroom. While you might expect this from a company of this size, it's amazing how many companies don't do this.

My final thought: Put yourself in the shoes of a busy journalist or blogger and visit the site you like the most - would you be able to find what you're looking for? What information is most compelling? What can you do to improve the experience? Where are the real news with extroversion and storytelling? You tell me...