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

Contents

Acknowledgements p3

Introduction p4

Executive Summary p5

Methodology p6

Current practice in Further and Higher Education p7

Journalist use of digital media for news gathering p17

Reviewing the press release p22

Recommendations for education PR practitioners p23

2 PR 2.0: Managing News in a Digital World
CIPR Education and Skills Sector Group, November 2009

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.

PR 2.0: Managing News in a Digital World 3

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


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