More Aussie journalists & media types on Twitter

Following in Laurel Papworth footsteps, Dave Earley a multimedia journalist in Brisbane, has put together another list of Australian journalists and news media people on Twitter.

This is the the biggest list on this topic we've been able to find to date (with close to 300 names), and reflects the recent explosion of local media jumping on the the Twitter wagon.

Check out his entire list here.



Dave's list is organised by publisher/publication and in most cases includes brief description of the journalists area of interest/expertise. It also includes handfuls of photographers, freelancers and media academics.

Make sure you bookmark his page!

Media monitoring

Australian journalists on Twitter

Australian social media maven Laurel Papworth has put together a terrific list of nearly 100 Australian journalists on Twitter. The Aussie PR world can send her chocolates and champagne via her blog!

Check out her blog post with the list here:

http://laurelpapworth.com/australian-journalists-on-twitter/

And to make it super easy to choose who you might want to follow on Twitter, she's even given a little description of each person on the list when you mouseover their name - how thoughtful!



If you're in PR and you're not on Twitter - do it now! There's never been a better time than now or easier in than this list. Get to it.

Media monitoring

Online news rooms: usability recommedations

Usablity guru Jakob Neilsen has just published his results on how journalists use the web and specifically, online rooms.

The summary:

"As 3 studies of journalists show, they use the Web as a major research tool, exhibit high search dominance, and are impatient with bloated sites that don't serve their needs or list a PR contact."

As the report notes:

"If journalists can't find what they're looking for on a website, they might not include that company in their story. Journalists repeatedly said that poor website usability could reduce or completely eliminate their press coverage of a company. For example, after having a difficult time using a site, one journalist said:

"… I would be reluctant to go back to the site. If I had a choice to write about something else, then I would write about something else."

Another journalist described what he'd do if he couldn't find a press contact or the facts he needed for his story:

"Better not to write it than to get it wrong. I might avoid the subject altogether." "

Recommendations to keep websites usable for journos include:

- ensure that all your press materials work on low-end home computers running software that's 2 versions behind the latest release (journos tend not to be too high-tech, and often work from home)

- present all press information as simple, standard HTML, not PDFs

- clean corporate website with a clearly labeled Press or PR section

- PR areas include links to external sources, including press coverage; journalists often consider articles from independent newspapers and magazines to be much more credible than a company's own press releases

- pages must present information in well-organized chunks that are easy to scan; distracting animations and irrelevant stock photography don't help journalists who are in a hurry to find the facts

- headlines for press releases and other statements must be written so that journalists can grasp the gist by reading only a few words, because that's how they scan such lists

- sites also must offer a simple way to contact a live human being in the PR department


The top 5 reasons journalists gave for visiting a company's website are:

- Locate a PR contact (name and telephone number)

- Find basic facts about the company (spelling of an executive's name, his/her age, headquarters location, and so on)

- Discern the company's spin on events

- Check financial information

- Download images to use as illustrations in stories

For the full summary visit: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/pr.html

Thanks to Sally Falkow for bring this to our attention!

Media monitoring

How do journalists use the internet?

An interesting study out of the US this week from Bulldog Reporter/TEKgroup Interational offers PR practitioners insights regarding journalists' use of online newsrooms, blogs, RSS and social media.

Here's some findings that grabbed our attention:

"The findings show that the greatest change in journalism practices due to new Internet technology, is the ability to access corporate news and contact information online 24 hours a day."

"Nearly half of all journalists report visiting a corporate website or online newsroom at least once a week, while almost 87% visit at least once a month. "

"Almost 75% of journalists read one or more blogs to keep up with the subject matter they cover, compared with only about 70% a year ago. Today, some 29% of journalists regularly read five or more blogs to keep up with their beat, compared with about 26% last year. "

"There is an increase in journalists visiting social media sites. Today, more than three-fourths of journalists use social media to research stories, compared with about 67% last year. Almost 38% of journalists now say they visit a social media site at least once a week as part of their reporting, compared with only 28% last year. More than 53% of journalists now say they visit a social media site like FaceBook or YouTube at least once a month, up from about 44% last year."

"Among journalists working in national television, some 10.3% seek audio or video material once a week or more and that number jumps to 46.7% seeking such material at least once every three months. Among journalists working in local radio, some 38.4% seek audio or video from corporate websites at least once a month."

Source: Bulldog Reporter article.

The 2008 Journalist Survey on Media Relations Practices Executive Summary is available for downloading at the TEKgroup website here.

It would be great to see an Australian equivalent study sometime in the future, especially considering Australia's Internet penetration rate is second only to the North America.

These results serve as a timely reminder to business communicators to make sure their online presence is always kept current, easily accessible and responsive. And to also ensure their media monitoring scope includes Internet monitoring to see what others online are saying about them... lucky Slice launched Internet monitoring this month! ;-)

Tracking the media, monitoring the message