Media release: Slice Australia now includes downstream

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday 7 May 2009

As from today, Slice Media (www.slicemedia.com) will include downstreaming copyright as part of its fixed fee media monitoring packages.

Australian Slice Media subscribers will now be able to lawfully distribute news clippings by email, or post on an intranet to a maximum 350 users within their organisation(*). News clippings will continue to be able to be retained for up to 90 days.

Slice Media will now pay downstream fees for up to 350 nominated users to the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) on behalf of their subscribers for each press clipping received.

Internal distribution of news clippings is governed by the Downstreaming Terms and Conditions of CAL which may be viewed here (PDF).

*The downstreaming terms and conditions do not allow distribution of press clips to third parties, including clients. PR and marketing firms wishing to forward clips to clients require the CAL News Access Licence (PR and Marketing firms). For more information visit www.copyright.com.au and follow the links to Licensing. Press clippings may be retained in digital form for no more than 90 days.

For further information contact:
Kylie Lewis, General Manager
kylie [at] slicemedia [dot] com | Phone from New Zealand: 0800 1 75423
Phone Mobile: +(61) 439 446 468 | Phone Direct: +(613) 8327 6461

About Slice Media
Slice Media has been operating in Australia for two years. Slice is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Media Monitors Group (www.mediamonitors.com.au). Media Monitors is the leading media intelligence company in Asia-Pacific. With the most comprehensive media monitoring coverage in the region, innovative products and great people, Media Monitors provides over 4000 clients relevant media content and independent media analysis to enable effective communications strategies.

Website: www.slicemedia.com
Blog: www.slicemedia.blogspot.com
TV: www.youtube.com/slicemediamonitoring
Facebook: Slice Facebook Page
Twitter: www.twitter.com/slicemedia

ENDS

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Media monitoring

Transcripts, video clips and audio clips just got cheaper!

Happy new year Slicers!

To get 2009 off to a flying start, we've sliced our broadcast product pricing! Check out our new prices:

Video clip : $90.00 (up to 1 hour)
Audio clip: $50.00 (up to 1 hour)
Transcript: $20.70 (per minute)
Regional Charges: no longer apply! yay!

Remember all products are delivered in digital format, directly into your Slice Media online library.

To order your products, simply hit the 'Order' buttons beneath your broadcast summary, then 'View basket', then submit your payment and you're away.

Too easy. Here's to a great 2009.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Subscribe in December and score an iPod!

Hark! The Slice angels sing...

iPods for new subscribers in December!

To have yourself a merry little Christmas in 2008, simply sign up to Slice Media for a small, medium or large media monitoring package in December and Saint Nick will throw an iPod your way.

And being December, we're giving away the (Product) RED iPod video Nano, where a portion of the purchase price goes to fight AIDS in Africa.

So jingle your bells over to www.slicemedia.com.au and get your media monitoring for the new year off to a rockin' great start.

Remember, Slice has no long term contracts and provides comprehensive Australia-wide and NZ press, broadcast and internet coverage for a single low cost fixed fee. Our small package starts from $295 (ex gst) for up to 3 months of monitoring.

That's gotta bring a little joy to the world.

You must have subscribed to Slice by 5pm Wednesday 31st December to qualify.

Packages : Tour : Subscribe

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Media monitoring 101

OK, you may have heard about media monitoring, but never really understood what it was all about. Well, welcome to Media Monitoring 101.

So what is media monitoring?
Media monitoring is the process of tracking the media for mentions of keywords, topics or issues that (predominately) companies are interested in. Traditional media monitoring requires scanning press publications, or listening to radio or TV, or scouring the internet to find articles or on-air mentions that match a client’s brief. Once a match is made, a copy of the article, or a summary of the broadcast transcript, or a link to the webpage is sent to the client.

Why monitor the media?
Think about it for a moment - mass media coverage has been shown to affect stock prices; lead to corporate collapses; reduce sales; result in the resignation of senior officeholders – even bring down Presidents. Even on an everyday level, mass media help shape brands and reputations; inform (or misinform) consumers about products; raise issues in public debate; and influence governments to change policy, regulate or legislate in certain areas (1).

So given the power of the media, it’s pretty important we track what’s being reported!

Who monitors the media?
Governments and corporations will monitor the press, tv, radio and online to gain information about how they are being presented in the media. Public relations, communication and marketing professionals usually drive the process. They track the media to measure and analyse their coverage in a number of ways (2) :

The audience reached by media coverage (circulation or audience size)
The ‘share of voice’ of various organisations or spokespersons;
The number of mentions of particular issues or messages.
Placement of articles eg. front page, early pages, middle of paper or edition, at the back;
Positioning of content such as key messages eg. headline, prominent mention, passing mention;
Images such as photos, illustrations, charts, cartoons, etc;
Issues discussed and reported and their relative importance to the client organisation;
Messages communicated in articles – favourable and unfavourable;
Sources quoted – including their organisation or affiliation which can affect their credibility;
Tone of content eg. extreme language, figures of speech that denote meaning such as sarcasm, metaphors or similes that are favourable or unfavourable, etc;
Contextual factors such as prevailing economic conditions, major natural disasters occurring around the time, etc which might affect audiences’ reading and interpretation of the content.

Why use a professional media monitoring service?
Professional media monitoring services monitor thousands of newspapers, magazines, trade journals, radio shows, television broadcasts and websites around the clock, and deliver your news to you directly. Professional services will deliver your news clips in a consistent format, through a unified channel, often with circulation and/or demographic information.

New services such as www.slicemedia.com.au offer even the smallest of businesses the opportunity to access professional media monitoring, with packages starting at around $70 per month.

For a tour of how a media monitoring service works, check out:
www.slicemedia.com.au/tour

(1) http://www.mediamonitors.com.au/documents/CARMA%20White%20Paper%20-%20Analysis.pdf pg 4
(2) http://www.mediamonitors.com.au/documents/CARMA%20White%20Paper%20-%20Analysis.pdf pg 8

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Slice news: Version 2 is live!

Great news! Straight out of the kitchen this afternoon is Slice version 2, which offers you a smorgasbord of new functionality including internet monitoring, email alerts, 90 day archiving and improved downloading of clips. Here's our latest ingredients:

Internet monitoring
Slice now monitors over 700 Australian and New Zealand online news sites and influential blogs as part of your monitoring package! Simply login into your account, access your tracking folders, add internet monitoring to your scope and see your clips start to roll in.

Email alerts of new news items
Head on over to your tracking folders, click 'edit' for the tracking folder you wish to set an alert for, and then select 'set email preferences'. Choose to have hourly emails of new items, or set a time for a single daily alert. Delicious!

90 day archive
Slice now archives all news items for all subscribers for 90 days. Juicy, no?

Monitor TV or radio
We’ve divided and conquered our broadcasting monitoring options. You now have the choice of which broadcast media you’d like to monitor – just radio, or just TV or the whole shebang!

New Zealand magazines
In addition to NZ newspapers, you can now track news in NZ lifestyle, business, science & technology and trade magazines. Choice bro.

‘All Items’ downloads
We've completely redesigned the 'All Items' page. Head to this page to:
-download all your news clips since the last time you logged in
-select a folder, media type and a date range for the clips you wish to download
-choose to download the clips as a single pdf or a zip file

We hope we've topped up your media monitoring appetite – for a while at least. We're already back in the engine room cooking up our next release!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Young Communicators Rock!

Thanks the PRIA Young Communicators in Melbourne earlier this week who welcomed us with open arms (I'm sure giving away lollies help our popularity!).



And a special congrats to the girls from Crown, Stephanie Taylor and Olivia Fremantle who scored themselves a tasty Slice media monitoring package!

More photos of the night can be found on the Young Communicators Facebook page, and for upcoming events check out their website here.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Subscribe to Slice and score an iPod!

Simply subscribe to Slice by the end of August 2008 and score yourself a video iPod! (valued at $189)
So what are you waiting for? With professional media monitoring packages starting from $195 (ex gst) for 90 days AND a tasty free iPod, your budget and your senses will all be satisfied. Delicious!

To subscribe to Slice go to www.slicemedia.com.au or call 1300 1 SLICE (75423)

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Voting is open! On our blog!

Hey Slicers, we've opened up a poll on our blog to find out a little bit more about you and your media habits.

First cab off the rank is a question about RSS. Don't worry if you have no idea what RSS stands for (unfortunately it's not Really Spunky Shoes) ... we want to know that too.

So head to the blog, or if you're already here (there?), vote in the box in the right column.

Thanks in advance for your vote.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Slice news: Broadcast pdfs are here!

Since February you've been able to download your press AND broadcast summaries via the 'All Items' page in your Slice subscription website. But wait! There's more! Now each broadcast summary delivered into your individual tracking folders also has a pdf of the summary! Just like a press clip!



No more cutting and pasting. No more formatting crises. Yay for small wonders.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Two tasty improvements!

Two new tasty pieces of Slice functionality to help you better manage your clips, have just gone live on Slice. What a great way to end the week!

Delete clips
Got your clip, now want to delete it? Just hit the red ‘Delete clip’ icon under each news item. A great way to keep those tracking folders nice and tidy.


Reorder your tracking folders
On the 'My tracking folders' page, at the bottom of the tracking folders list, is a ‘Reorder tracking folders’ link. Just drag and drop your folders so they're in the order you want to them to be, and hit 'Update'. Fabulous!



Get organising Slicers and be at peace with your clips.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Passionate PRs make our day

Last Friday PRIA (VIC) held a Women in PR luncheon, themed 'The Power of Passion'. What a fantastic event! The room was filled with 250 of the most interesting and passionate PR people in Victoria (special shout out to those from regional VIC who made their way there).

Ladies at lunch (L to R): Davinia, Elen (Slice), Georgie and Naomi and Kylie (Slice).

The highlight of the event was hearing the special guest panel: Karen Webster, Tracey Curro, Angela Pippos and Janine Kirk tackle the following three questions:

First question: How did you discover your passion for what you do – was it love at first sight or something that grew over time?

Second question: What are some difficult challenges you have faced and how did you stay passionate?

Third question: What do you think the components are of a successful PR campaign?

Fabulous speaker panel (L to R): Janine Kirk, Karen Webster, Tracey Curro

Stay tuned for some of their responses over the next few weeks. In the meantime, feel free to post your own responses below!

About the speakers: Karen Webster, Festival Director of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and formerly manager of fashion programs at RMIT University. Tracey Curro, General Manager Communications for Sustainability Victoria and a former 60 Minutes reporter. Angela Pippos from Radio Sport 927 and former ABC TV sports reporter, Janine Kirk AM partner at Ernst & Young heading its Government practice in Victoria, and previously the Executive Director of the Committee for Melbourne.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Searchable clips are here!

Slice PDF news clips are now searchable. We know, hard to believe that the year is 2008 and they weren't searchable before now. Nonetheless, another small victory in Slice land!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Slice website updates v1.3

On Friday we went live with Slice version 1.3. Here are some of the features you'll notice:

Tracking folder drop down:
Folders with new items will be green and display the number of new items in brackets. Inactive folders will now be greyed out.


New clips display
New press and broadcast clips will now be presented with a green heading when you log in. Press thumbnails will have a green border, until they have been clicked on and the article viewed. Viewed press articles will then have a grey border.


All Clips page
You are now able to download all broadcast as well as press clips by day in one pdf .


Additionally, you now have the option of downloading news items for the last seven days by folder in one pdf.


Broadcast orders
We've added a 'shopping basket' box in the top right corner. This lets you know how many broadcast items you have in your basket waiting to be ordered. We hope you find these small improvements helpful, and if you have any other suggestions, please drop us a line and we'll see what we can do!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Got something to say? Of course you have!

OK people, we've now enabled commenting on the Slice blog. As professional communicators, we're sure you have a lot to say about you and your experiences out in PR, marketing and comms land, and we'd love to hear it.

Seeking advice from others who have been down this path, we want to be upfront with our moderation guidelines. Taking the lead from Computerworld, we will be moderating comments for:

- Offensive or threatening language
- Obscene or sexually explicity comments
- Personal attacks, insults, or potentially libelous comments
- Material that violates intellectual property rights
- Private information published without consent
- Commercial promotions or spam
- Comments or links that are off topic
- Comments that violate any law

I guess Problogger say it best:

My advice to those commenting on blogs (not just mine) is that in a sense you’re visiting someone else’s home when you leave a comment. Comments have the ability to build up or tear down your reputation. They are a permanent record of who you are and what you stand for - so take care - be gracious - make sure they add value (not only to the blog you’re visiting but also to your own online profile).

Well! With all that heavy stuff out of the way, we'd really like to hear from you. We'd also like to know if you have a post to contribute to the Slice blog, or if there's a topic you'd like covered. So leave a comment below, and let's get started.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Farewell Kevin, Hello (again) Brendan

In what feels like an ironic twist of fate, I find myself writing the exact reverse of a previous post. Back in July we posted a farewell to Brendan as he made his way back to the Emerald Isle, and at the same time we welcomed Kevin to the Slice family.



This month, we've farewelled Kevin and welcomed back Brendan. Seems the sunny blue skies of our wide brown land (and an Geelong premiership win) couldn't keep this bonnie lad away. He's already donned the green Slice cap and he has his headset at the ready. Great to have you and your vast knowledge of all things media monitoring back mate!

So if you hear a lovely Irish tilt when you call us soon, Brendan will be at your service!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Psst... want a deal on a media directory?

Better be quick because this is a great offer...

OK, our friends at Media Monitors have a few spare copies (less than 5) of their December 07/January 08 Media Directory available for a special deal of $130 (ex gst). Normally you couldn't get one of these puppies unless you subscribe for a minimum of 2 issues ($271 ex gst).

As the only hard copy directory of Australian media contacts updated and reprinted MONTHLY, Media Directory is the most comprehensive and up-to-date directory available. It contains phone, fax and email addresses of specific contacts for all press, radio and television in metropolitan and regional areas across Australia, including trade, business, consumer, ethnic and indigenous media.

So if your new year's resolution is to get bigger, better, bolder media coverage in 2008 you want to jump on this offer quick smart.

Call Diana on 02 9318 4765 to place your order.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Merry Slicemas!

Video iPods for all newbies in December 07

Have your monitoring sorted for 2008 now… and score a new video iPod.

You’ll think all your Christmases have come at once. Affordable, reliable media monitoring for your business AND a new video iPod for you? You must have been good this year!

Father Slicemas is on his way and has a sack full of new iPod video nano’s for every new subscriber who joins to Slice in December 2007. Hey, our new Taste package costs less than one of these babies!

So get your tracking for next year sorted out now, and feel very virtuous on 1 January 2008!

And being December, we’re giving away the (Product) RED iPod video Nano, where a portion of the purchase price goes to fight AIDS in Africa. Now you have a doubly good reason to feel saintly.

You must have subscribed to Slice in December 2007 before 5pm Monday 31st to qualify.

Packages Tour Subscribe

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Ello Elen, Farewell Mo

It's with great delight that we introduce you to our newest Slicer, Elen David. You can imagine how lucky we felt when we discovered her previous experience in media monitoring and building search strings (oh, happy days!). Elen is also a professionally trained dancer, which will be mighty handy as she learns to salsa, shimmy and samba around the Slice stage. Welcome Elen!

And as Movember draws to a close we say farewell to a new friend - Hector's Mo. It's been a delight to get to know Mo over the last few weeks - my, how he's grown into a strapping set of handbars - Chopper would be proud.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

The race that stopped the office...

What a glorious day it was for the 2007 Inaugural Slice Stakes. The field looked fine, the pack was highly competent and the race was, well... Efficient! To listen to the Slice Stakes race call, press play below and find out if your trifecta came up.

For those of you who took on the insiders tips (or who simply declared the need for a drink), some bubbly equine influenza vaccine will be coming your way shortly. Enjoy.

Sarah O’Brien, Square One PR + Communications
Lin Rees, Canterbury International
Sally Romano, Publicity Queen
Nancy Gray, GrayMatter Communication
Lisa Owen, Chilli Communications


Until next year punters, Go you Slice thing!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message