The A-Z of Australian and NZ PR Blogs - for MarketingMag.com.au

Hot on the heels of our list of Aus/NZ PR peeps on Twitter, here's a list of Aus/NZ PR and comms related blogs compiled by me and Trevor Young. Kate Kendall, online editor of MarketingMag.com.au came up with the idea and asked Trevor and myself to make it happen (top idea Kate). Voila!

You can find the list on Marketingmag.com.au here. Kate will keep the list up-to-date, so if you're not on the list and think you should be, leave a comment at Marektingmag.com.au. If you are on the list and would prefer not to be, or would like your listing updated/corrected, ditto.

Big shoutout to all the fab tweeters who responded to our calls for assistance with this post - you guys give good tweet!

We've tried to make sure these are blogs specifically about PR issues/campaigns written by flacks. While we did find more blogs than listed, if they hadn't be posted to for more than six months, we didn't include them. Even so, we are a tad surprised that we didn't find more PR comms blogs? Are Comms people too busy helping clients with their blogs to do their own? Is blogging seen as to time consuming for the perceived return? Hmm... interested to hear thoughts from the frontline...

Regardless, there's lots of great stuff listed - dig in and enjoy!



Australia

A
Andy Lark's blog by Andrew Lark

B
Behind Digital PR A Hill and Knowlton blog
Better Communications Results by Lee Hopkins
Black Watch by Tony Blackie

C
Caffeine blog by Espresso Comms
Clever together - PR explained by Horizon Communications
Corporate Engagement Trevor Cook on Crikey blogs
CP Communications blog by Catriona Pollard
Creative Territory by Tracy Jones
Creativity in Public Relations A Hill and Knowlton blog

D
Dennis Rutzou PR's blog
Dummy Spit by Dr Tom Watson

F
Fresh Chat blog for Network PR

H
Hill and Knowlton collection of blogs

I
Influencing the influencers A Hill and Knowlton blog
I scratch my mind by Renee Creer, New Media Director, Stellar*
In silico blog by Paul McKeon

J
Just another PR blog by Karalee Evans
Just another 24 hours by Daniel Young

K
Kimberley Lee

L
Louise Convy Media
Lexy Klain's blog by Lexy Klain

M
Marketing is Us blog
Mumbrella Tim Burrowes, previously editor of B&T magazine

O
On the write track blog by Roger Christie

P
Porter Novelli Adelaide
PR Disasters.com by Gerry McCusker
PR Lab blog by Greg Smith
PR Warrior Trevor Young
Public Relations Sydney by Catriona Pollard, CP Communications
Publicity Queen Sally Romano
Pursuit Communications blog

S
Shoot the messengerblog for Kinectics Comms
Stand Out! Tips by Candy Tymson
Stellar* blog
Strawberry Communications blog

T
Tale Spin Lukas Picton
The Communications Room
The Media Pod Edited by Ross Monaghan'
The Perth Files by John Cooke
The Professional Communicators' Coach by Heidi Alexandra Pollard
Traffic on Maine Bob Crawshaw's blog
Trevor Cook

Y
Young PR Paull Young


New Zealand

Michelle Boag
Bullet Points blog for Bullet PR
NZ Voice Public Relations Institute of New Zealand
Pursuit PR blog

Also check out the PRIA page of resources for other sites on blogging, social media, RSS, social media releases and international PR blogs.

Media monitoring

120 Australian & New Zealand Public Relations peeps on Twitter (and counting)

OK, we've seen lists of Oz journos on Twitter (thanks Dave Earley and Laurel Papworth), so I thought we'd even up the score a little and post tweeting Aussie & Kiwi PRs. Hopefully, we'll all get along just nicely in the Twitter sandpit...

I realise that this list may be a mere drop in a proverbial sea of twitterers, but hey, you have to start somewhere.

If you're on the list and would prefer not to be, please let me know and I'll remove you ASAP (I've only used publicly available information, and references from other people on the list to put this list of names together). Also, if you are on the list and would like your description updated, please leave a comment and I'll clean it up.

If you're NOT on the list and would like to be, please leave a comment and I'll attempt to get you on it. Finally, if you have suggestions on improving the list, let me know that too.

Thanks to everyone who retweeted my request for help and DMed me with additional names for the list. Special thanks to PR Warrior Trevor Young for supporting the idea and RTing all over the place!

Australia:
A
Sarah Allen Sarah Allen Consulting Marketing, Comms, PR, Social Media, Sydney

B
Johanna Baker Dowdell Strawberry Communications, Central Coast NSW
Natascha Balducelli Cookie Creative
Jo Balfour Tech/online PR running Progressiva
Jenni Beattie Director, Digital Democracy
Emily Birks PR Consultant Pulse Communications
Laura Blasdale from WordStorm PR, Sydney
Jillian Bowen, Director Entertainment PR, Melbourne
Bonnie Bullock Director of Saranac PR

C
Will Clark Tech PR, Melbourne
Michelle Carter Spectrum Comms, Sydney
John Cooke Perth
Bob Crawshaw Maine Street Marketing, Canberra
Sarah Creelman PR & Marketing Manager, CBS Interactive, Sydney
Renee Creer New Media Director, Stellar* PR
Jen Crowcroft Upstream Australia, Sydney
Gemma Crowley Dennis Rutzou, Sydney
Roger Christie Sydney

D
Melissa Dark Internal comms consultant, Melbourne
Julie Delaforce Network PR, Sydney
Keith De La Rue AcKnowledge Consulting, Melbourne
Dennis Rutzou PR
Kya de Rome PR Consultant, Kinetics Sydney
Kelly Drew General Manager, Haystac

E
Jenny Eather Sydney-based consultant
Scott Eathorne Entertainment Publicist, Melbourne
Peta Ellis City Publicity
Geoffrey Emerson Head of Digital PR @ Zing, Sydney
Tim Entwisle Madrigal Communications, Sydney
Cassandra Erbs - Marketing Manager, St Aidan's & freelance consultant, Brisbane
Karalee Evans Communications & Partnerships Manager, Melbourne

F
Simon Fitz Taurus Marketing, Sydney
Ofa Fitzgibbons Tech PR gal, Sydney
Corrina Frankham PR at WriteAway, Sydney
Con Frantzeskos Social Media Strategy Consultant
Campbell Fuller Ex-News journalist/dep-ed,Head of corporate/financial communication with Porter Novelli Sydney

G
Richelle Gillett, Spectrum Communications Account Director, Sydney
Ang Graham Digital PR manager, Amnesia, Sydney
Brian Giesen Director of Digital Strategy, Ogilvy Sydney (fresh import, happy to claim him as our own for this list!)
Tara Grimshaw V/radio journalist working in PR, Sydney

H
Mat Hardy In-house NetComm PR manager Wanted Digital, Sydney
Michael Hendo MD, Spectrum Communications & Max Australia
Donna Hogan Sydney
Jocelyn Hunter Director BenchPR

I
Rob Irwin Media & Online Specialist, Network Communications, Sydney

J
Sharmin Jassal Biz Tech Comms specialist, Sydney
Polly Johnson Sydney tech PR flack for Kinetics
JoJo at Dennis Rutzou PR

K
Christine Kardashian DashPR
Keep Left PR Melbourne
Stella Katsaros Little Miss Stella PR

L
Drew Lambert Publicity Director, Mark Communications, Sydney
Kim LaRochelle at Dennis Rutzou PR
Derek Lau PR guy, Sydney
Jemma Lee Verve Communications, Sydney
Kimberley Lee Sydney
Hayley Lettoof, Account Manager, Stellar* Concepts
Gareth Llewellyn Oracle Flack, Sydney
Anthony Lowe Principal of Porter Novelli's Sydney technology practice

M
Catroina McGauchie The PR Group, Melbourne
Kenny McGilvary Sydney PRer and Dry Julyer
Lindsay McHugh Philly girl in Melbourne
Casey Macneil Director, Macneil Marketing & Communications, Queensland
Fleur Madden-Topley MD, RedPR Brisbane
Dylan Malloch Sydney
Phoebe Mapperson Primary Communication, Sydney
Andrea Matthews Corporate Affairs Manager, GM Holden, Adelaide
Shannon Molloy ex-journo, Brisbane
Susan Moore Asia Pacific PR for Gartner
Carrie Morgan PR Consultant, Melbourne

O
Jane Outen, Senior Account Manager, Stellar* Concepts

P
Emily Patterson The Unknown Citizen, Perth
Lani Pauli Account Manager, LapePhelan Marketing Communications
Tracy Pendergast Pentica PR, Sydney
Lukas Picton Text100, Sydney
Janine Pittaway Director Bright Communications, Perth
Catriona Pollard Director CP Communications
Melinda Porteous, Account Director, Stellar* Concepts
Clare Preskett Freelance consultant

Q
PruQ Einsteinz, Sydney

R
Louise Roberts Director, Sphere Public Relations, Sydney
Jacqui Rudd
Scott Rhodie Online PR specialist, former-journalist, Senior Account Manager, Zing Sydney

S
Teri Sawers Communications for Insights, Sydney
Tara Schwarze Spectrum Comms, Sydney
Johanna Scott, Account Executive, Stellar* Concepts
Victoria Sennitt Sydney
Melissa Shawyer Director, The PR Group
Caroline Shawyer Owner, The PR Group Melbourne
Saxon Shirley Associate Director, Spectrum Communications, Sydney
David Sims Howarth, Sydney
Brooke Simmons Pursuit Communications, Central Coast NSW
Annette Slunjski GM at Lucidity Marketing Communications (B2B marcomms)
Dr Greg Smith PRLab, ex print journo
Becci Stalker consumer PR specialist, Melbourne
Stellar* PR
Tanya Steinbeck Director Limelight Communications, Perth
Jo Stevens Kramer Head of Corp Comms Microsoft Australia, Sydney
Sarah Stokely Tech journo turned PR, Melbourne
Susan Swan

T
Peter Taliangis Perth
Rebekka Thompson PR practitioner at Zing, Sydney
Marissa Tree Brisbane Team Leader, Red Agency

V
Dena Vassallo Professional Public Relations (PPR), Adelaide
Lars Voedisch Asia Pacific PR for Dow Jones

W
Annalise Walliker Haystac in Melbourne
Martin Walsh Group Manager Digital Marketing @ Microsoft, Sydney
Wes Ward PR, social media, virtual reality at ExitReality and Wadimedia
Emily Wearmouth, Executive director at Kinetics PR
Graham White MD Howorth, tech & business PR firm, an Ogilvy PR company
Lesley White Head of Consumer Digital, Network Communications, Sydney
Emma Wiliams Opera Australia's inhouse publicist

Y
Trevor Young parkyoung, The PR Warrior


New Zealand:

A
Hamish Anderson Creo CEO, Auckland
Catherine Arrow Auckland

B
Sharon Buckland Auckland
Jennifer Boyes Intermediary PR, Auckland
Peter Boyes Perception management counsellor & PR adviser, Auckland

C
Simon Clark Account Manager at Network PR, Auckland

D
Joss Debreceny Communications Advisor at Ministry of Education, Wellington
Jane Dodd GM, Network PR, Auckland
Donovan Boyd Communications Auckland

E
Michela Enna Creo

F
Sam Farrow
Solange Francois

G
Steve Grbic Auckland

H
Campbell Hodgetts Tech PR consultant Auckland

J
Jacky James Director of Shine PR, Rotorua
Anna Jobsz PR

K
Stephen Knightly Auckland

L
Julie Landry, PR consultant in Auckland

M
Paul Matthews Bullet Points, Auckland
Angela Moriarty Wellington

N
Network PR Auckland
Nicholas O'Flaherty BulletPR

P
Paul Pursuit Pursuit PR, Auckland

S
Toni Skiffington Harcourts NZ Communications Manager, Auckland
Jordan Small Network PR,Wellington

And for good measure:
Public Relations Institute of Australia (National) managed by Lloyd Grosse
Public Relations Institute of New Zealand - Events

(Credit for the tweet image above here)

Media monitoring

Online news rooms: how journalists read online media releases

Following up on our earlier post about Jakob Nielsen's findings into how journos use the web, here's an insight into how journalists read online media releases.

As part of Nielsen's study, he used eyetracking technology to see what journalists look at when they're reading online.

It is common knowledge that people don't 'read' when online, they 'scan'. As Nielsen points out, journalists are busy and work under tight deadlines, so PR pages should be designed to cater for their needs.

Below is an example from the eyetracking research showing a journalist reviewing a list of financial statements for American Airlines' parent corporation. The journos eyes skipped the "blah-blah text" at the top and went straight for the list of items. And most headings got only 1 or 2 fixations.

Eyetracking plot of how a journalist read a website's list of releases
Each blue dot represents one fixation of the user's eyes.
(Bigger dots indicate longer dwell times.)

The following gazeplot shows a journalist reading a press release on TNT's website. The journalist focused on the facts in the initial bulleted list and the second table. The journalist hardly read the concluding paragraphs and mostly ignored the first table.


Takeaway 1: 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;

Takeaway 2: provide interesting lists and bullet point facts - they'll get a lot more attention than paragraphs of text.

Again, here's Nielsen's findings: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/pr.html

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

Melbourne: PRIA Young Communicators' Publicity Night

Date: Tuesday 19 August 2008
Time: Arrive 6.30pm for 7.00pm start
Venue: The Imperial Hotel, 522 Chapel Street, South Yarra, Victoria
Cost: PRIA Members $20 (inc GST), Non-Members $25 (inc GST)

This is a fantastic opportunity to hear guest speakers share their insights into publicity, promotions, public relations and much more! You'll hear tips and advice on how to break into the industry, kick start you career and other useful information providing plenty of know-how to help young practitioners progress in their current role.



Three guest speakers will be sharing their experiences:

Elizabeth Corcoran from Haystac PR
Belinda Aspinwall from The Reputation Group
Brian M Peck from Positive Positioning - Policies, People, Products

To register, click here. Hope to see you there!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

PRs for PR 2.0 research questionnaire

We’ve recently been contacted by Adam Abu Nab, a student in the Media School at Bournemouth University in the UK. He’s conducting research into the PR/Journalist relationship and the changing effects Web 2.0 has had on relations (making blog sites particularly pertinent for research in this area).

The study is measuring the usefulness, influence, credibility, professionalism and informality of new online journalist communications. Under the supervision of Dr Kevin Maloney and Dr Darren Lilleker, Adam has an online questionnaire he’d like PR practioners to complete:

http://s-yan86-40989.sgizmo.com/

Please complete the survey or forward this on to anyone who you think fits the bill. Remember, we were all students once!

The Media School at Bournemouth University claims to be the only Centre for Excellence in Media Practice in the UK, offering courses in Corporate & Marketing Communications, Journalism & Communication, Media, Production and Computer Animation.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

8 Tips for Fashion PR

It's somewhat ironic that winter fashion starts to arrive in store during our hottest month of the year. Timelines for fashion buying, production and promotion run up to 12 months ahead. So we thought we'd ask Gina Pearce of Savage PR who specialises in beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands, for a few fabulously well-designed fashion PR tips:

1. Monthly magazines work on a 3-4 month lead time so make sure you get them information, images and press releases at least 3 months before you would like the editorials to be published. This is especially import for events and seasonal fashion collections.

2. If something exciting is going on in your business, you launch into a new territory, you have a celebrity wearing your clothes or you have new packaging, make sure you get the news out there. News is interesting, so put it out there and build your brand. If you don’t have the time, or the contacts, hire a professional PR.

3. Always present your business in a professional light. Designing your company website yourself, or getting your P.A’s daughter (no matter how pretty she is) to model your fashion collection for your media shots is a false economy. If your first impression looks unprofessional what does that say about your business? Always if you can afford to, use professional designers, photographers, printers, models, stylist and PRs. They do this job everyday and know what they are talking about.

4. Look at what kind of articles and stories the media feature. Would an article on you or your business fit in that publication? Do you have a great event that they need to know about for the social pages? Do you have a good hook? Is it newsworthy? This is very important; if it isn’t newsworthy it won’t be featured.

5. Tailor releases for the section in the magazine or newspaper you want to target rather than just a generic release. For example if you own a restaurant, target the food supplement, beauty salons or day spas should target the beauty pages and fashion designers target fashion and lifestyle sections and so on.

6. Make sure you target the correct journalist at the publication. For example, don’t contact the editor of the newspaper for a new car accessory story, contact the motoring editor. This means your story is more likely to cut through.

7. When drafting a media release or even an article, make sure it has a dynamic headline, include the, who, what, when, where and why and make sure it is professional with the most important information at the beginning of the release. Don’t forget correct grammar and no spelling mistakes. The release is presenting your business and you want to come across as a professional enterprise.

8. No matter how great your story is and how you have ‘pitched it’ there is no obligation for the journalist or publication to cover it. Never pester a journalist to ask why they haven’t covered your story or bug them about featuring it - this is the best way to NOT get your stories covered in the future.

Gina Pearce is the Director of Savage Public Relations, a Sunshine Coast based boutique PR and Advertising agency specialising in fashion, beauty and lifestyle clients.

Any other tips out there Slicers? We'd love to hear from you.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

One tasty campaign

We love great PR. We love peaches. We love this tasty campaign.

BMF Sydney has created ‘Ella’, a giant, naked woman whose skin is made up entirely of peaches (approximately 24,000). She is a creative and engaging interpretation of Ella Baché’s brand proposition, Skin Good Enough To Eat. She is on display from 1-10 February 2008 in First Fleet Park Sydney, next to the Museum of Contemporary Art on Sydney Harbour.

This fully integrated campaign is also accompanied by a website including competitions, Ella facts and the 'making of Ella' video.

Has anyone seen Ella in real life? Would love to hear what your impressions of the experience was like. Leave a comment below.

Thanks to Cool Hunter for the original post.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Are bloggers in your PR mix in 08?

Approaching bloggers with your PR message is maybe something you haven't tried before. So if you plan to give it a whirl in 08, you might like to take some advice from the big guns that have gone before you. You may have already come across this code of ethics for approaching bloggers devised by Ogilvy PR. But just in case you hadn't, we thought we'd share.

Ogilvy PR’s Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics

OUR APPROACH
We reach out to bloggers because we respect your influence and feel that we might have something that is “remarkable” which could be of interest to you and/or your audience.

We will only propose blogger outreach as a tactic if it complements our overall strategy. We will not recommend it as a panacea for every social media campaign.

OUTREACH
Before we email you, we will check out your blog’s About, Contact and Advertising page in an effort to see if you have blatantly said you would not like to be contacted by PR/Marketing companies. If so, we’ll leave you alone.

We will always be transparent and clearly disclose who we are and whom we work for in our outreach email.

If you tell us there is a specific way you want to be reached, we’ll adhere to those guidelines.

We won’t pretend to have read your blog if we haven’t, and we’ll make a best effort to spend time reading the blogs we plan on contacting.

In our email we will convey why we think you, in particular, might be interested in our client’s product, issue, event or message.

As available, we will provide you with links to third party information/ blog coverage of the campaign we are pitching to you.

Our initial outreach email will always include a link to Ogilvy PR’s Blog Outreach Code of Ethics.

BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP
Whenever possible, we will articulate how blogger outreach, and your blog in particular, fits in with our overall campaign strategy.

We will seek to present you with a range of opportunities to work together around a campaign, so that you can create the best experience possible for your audience. We acknowledge that, when it comes to knowing your audience, you are the expert.

We’ll let you know who we are by providing you with a link to some background or bio information on the individual contacting you.

We won’t leave you hanging. If your contact at Ogilvy PR is going out of town or will be unreachable, we will provide you with an alternate point of contact.

We encourage you to disclose our relationship with you to your readers, and will never ask you to do otherwise.

You are entitled to blog on information or products we give you in any way you see fit. (Yes, you can even say you hate it.)

We understand that when you agree to blog about a campaign it’s not going to happen overnight. We’ll work with you to develop a reasonable time line for posting that fits with your schedule - and we won’t pester you to put up your post.

If you don’t want to hear from us again, we will place you on our Do Not Contact list – which we will share with the rest of Ogilvy PR.

If you are initially interested in the campaign, but don’t respond to one of our emails, we will follow up with you no more than once. If you don’t respond to us at all, we’ll leave you alone.

COMPENSATION & PRODUCT ACCESS
If we reach out to you with news about a product, campaign or issue, we will not provide monetary compensation, because we believe it is unethical to “buy” favorable reviews and not want to appear as if we are.

If you have advertising opportunities on your blog, we will counsel our clients to consider purchasing advertising as a way to reach your readers. We will make it clear, however, that paying for advertising does not mean that you will post about the campaign or that, if you do, you will do so in a way that is favorable to them.

If we ask you to review a product and, therefore, provide you with the product to enable you to “experience” it, we will ask that you be transparent and reveal that you have been given the product temporarily, or permanently.

If we engage you as an advisor on a specific project, we will consider providing you with compensation (agreed upon at the start of the project). This compensation will solely be for your time as an advisor and will not include an expectation that you will write about the project – favorably or unfavorably.

Originally published on the Ogilvy PR blog on 6 September 07, revised and updated on 1 October 07.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Slice of Life: Meet the Queen

Earlier this week Slice was granted an audience with her majesty, the Publicity Queen, Sally Romano. Queen Sally had some lovely words about Slice, and some insider information for other subscribers... read on and enjoy loyal subjects!

Why Slice over other monitoring services?
Let me say from the outset that I am completely in love with Slice! I am a100% fan, in fact, if Slice was a footy club, I’d want to be the No.1 ticket holder! I’m sooo enamoured because I tailor Slice to suit my needs. I cannot get such comprehensive press and electronic media monitoring anywhere else for this kind of price or with this level of convenience and back-up service – and believe me, I’ve done the research. Slice is king!

What's the best thing you like about Slice?
There are quite a few features that impress me, but perhaps my favourite is the way in which the press clips are presented. Apart from being neatly and uniformly presented, the clips give you all the key information you need about the coverage you’ve received in addition to a graphic of the coverage. This valuable information can then simply be passed onto the client without any further work on your behalf because Slice has already noted the media the clip appeared in, the total column centimetres, the circulation and the placement within the page.

The true benefit for me in this type of information is the immediate and tangible evidence of the value that you are providing your clients.

Tip for other subscribers?
Don’t become too addicted! It’s always such a thrill to log into Slice to see what coverage you’ve received…

How has it made a difference to your business?
I’m going to be giving away one of my trade secrets here…
Because of Slice, I now offer media monitoring as a value-added service. That’s right, possibly as a PR first, I now monitor clients’ media coverage for free and simply absorb the very reasonable costs as a servicing expense – and I have to say that this initiative has impressed even the hardest-core clients!

Track the media, monitor the message

Slice of Life: Jessica Ford of Fordcomm

So what kind of people use Slice Media? Introducing Jessica Ford, Media Monitoring Manager at Fordcomm.

Fordcomm is a medium sized communication and PR consultancy in Newcastle, NSW, specialising in reputation management and development communication for clients in the coal industry, bulk logistics, aluminium production and property development. The consultancy has ten employees and over 15 clients.

In February Jessica decided to review their media monitoring services, and that’s when she discovered Slice. “We chose Slice Media over another media monitoring services because it’s easy to use and it gives us control over what is tracked and for how long. It’s really handy being able to choose your own keywords for the different tracking folders,” Jessica said.

Jessica sets up different tracking folder for each of their clients, enabling them to manage a range of clients and issues simply. “We use Slice to track articles that specifically refer to clients and topical issues relevant to their industries,” Jessica said.

And being all online and digital delivers a raft of benefits for Jessica – no more towers of papers, piles of magazines or wasted time flicking pages. “Slice is also cheaper, faster and more convenient than just relying on subscriptions to newspapers and other publications through the mail. Digital delivery of the articles allows for more efficient management of clippings for our clients,” she said.

Track the media, monitor the message

SliceReach - August 07 list now available

Hiddy Ho Slicers, the new month is in town. And so too is the latest version of SliceReach - our complete list of tracked press publications and broadcast stations.

Slice regularly reviews the press publications we track to ensure we're putting our resources to best use. To keep Slice the trim, taught and terrific spunk we all know it to be, we've deleted some publications, but fear not... we've added some others - all 99% fat free of course.

If you'd like a copy of the latest SliceReach document, send us an email or give us a tingle.

Track the media, monitor the message

Small business, big opportunity

Sensis' Small Business, Big Opportunity marketing and advertising guide is a free book jammed packed with advice and tips for small business operators. Order your free copy at smallbusiness.sensis.com.au.

Once you've got your name in lights (or in print or on the airwaves as it were!), make sure your Slice tracking folders are setup to track your media coverage.

Happy Slicing! http://www.slicemedia.com.au/

Farewell Brendan, Hello Kevin

Many of you many have had the pleasure of speaking with our lovely Irish telephone consultant Brendan McGreevy. With a tear in our eye, we waved him goodbye as he set off to return to the Emerald Isle, and start up a new publishing empire. We wish you all the best Brendan.

In his place we welcome Kevin Passmore to the team. Kevin has just returned from teaching in China for 6 months and is currently breaking in his new headset. When Kevin’s not brushing up on his Boolean or training for the Oxfam 100km trailwalk, he’s on the phone spreading the Slice gospel and answering your questions.

Happy Slicing. slicemedia.com.au

Media Release: Slice Media helps SMEs cut through to the news

Up until now, media monitoring services have been out of the reach of most small and medium businesses on the grounds of cost and accessibility.

That’s now changed with the introduction of a new service by industry leader Media Monitors, which allows companies to easily track media coverage about their own organisation and their competitors online.

Media Monitors has completed a successful trial of its new media tracking service Slice Media, which allows organisations to track media coverage about topics of interest in Australian and New Zealand media outlets.

“The trial went exceptionally well and as a result we will roll out the service without delay,” said John Croll, CEO of Media Monitors.

“The overwhelming response has shown that the SME market has wanted an efficient, low cost, optional term media tracking service that provides actual press clippings and broadcast summaries delivered to the client’s desktop,” he said.

The web-based media tracking service is self-administered by subscribers who set up search strings and tracking folders which automatically track any articles appearing for the selected keywords from more than 2,000 media outlets across print, radio and television. News items are then digitally delivered straight into the subscriber’s online account.

Sonja Bruss from Brisbane’s Skydive Ramblers employed the services of Slice media to track media coverage for a special ‘Sky Symposium’ event held by the company.

“Slice was suggested to us as an economical alternative to other large media monitoring services. We used it for the duration of the event and received clippings from publications we never would have known about such as interstate suburban newspapers,” Sonja said.

“We found it really useful that Slice not only tracks print, but also broadcast media so that you can order radio transcripts and video clippings. It is ideal for any organisation that is holding a special event and wants to accurately track media coverage,” she said.

Jessica Ford from Fordcomm, a medium-sized public relations consultancy, has been using Slice Media as a service for clients since March.

“We use Slice to track articles that specifically refer to clients and topical issues relevant to their industries,” Jessica said.

“We chose Slice Media over another media monitoring service because it’s easy to use and gives us control over what is tracked and for how long. It is also cheaper, faster and more convenient than receiving regional subscriptions to newspapers and other publications through the mail,” she said.

The Queensland chapter of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) subscribed to Slice Media after using a local service but found that as the AMA grew there was a need to respond to issues more quickly, says Kate Vanpoelgeest, Manager of Media and Public Relations at AMA.

“The big benefit of Slice as a lower-cost media tracking service is that it also tracks broadcast coverage. This means that we’re immediately aware of issues reported in the media and can respond promptly,” Kate said.

There are three subscription packages available to cater to different media tracking needs. For more information visit www.slicemedia.com.au.

Media Monitors is a world leader in media information services and the leading media monitoring group in Australia and New Zealand. The company currently has over 4,000 clients in both the corporate and government sectors.

What? 110 new titles?!

Slice just got a whole lot busier today, with the addition of more than 110 Australian lifestyle magazines added to our tracking list. Slice will now be carving its way through publications such as Australian Mother & Baby, Australian Medicine, Big Issue Australia, city Child publications, Fashion Journal, Life etc., jmag, Instyle, SA Life, TV Hits, Voyeur and Wheels to name few. Hmmm, we may have to increase Slice’s daily carb intake to keep up... they will of course be all low GI.

Happy Slicing. www.slicemedia.com.au

Media Release: Slice launches to the Australian market

Media tracking by the Slice

Tracking the media became a whole lot more accessible today with the launch of SLICE - Australia’s first low cost, web-based media tracking service slicemedia.com.au.

As part of the growing stable of digital assets developed by Media Monitors, CEO John Croll said “Slice fills the gap for small to medium business in need of a low cost media tracking service. Slice represents a great opportunity for SMEs with simple tracking needs, who may otherwise be excluded from the market.”

Slice is simple, accurate and economical. Mr Croll explains, “Subscribers simply log-on, enter their keywords and tracking criteria, and Slice goes straight to work for them.”

Slice continuously tracks an extensive range of Australian and New Zealand press, television and radio media. News items are matched to subscriber criteria and these ‘slices’ are digitally delivered straight into the subscriber’s online account.

As Mr Croll explains, “Subscribers are in complete control - they can change their tracking criteria at any time online to make their coverage as specific or general as they like.”

Slice is geared specifically for Australian businesses. “Unlike other online providers, we track Australian press AND broadcast, and provide the information in a useful format that can be organised according to the individual’s specific requirements” added Mr Croll.

Regional businesses, boutique PR agencies, charities and independent operators will now be able to get online and track the issues that matter to them. Organisations with single issues, or who are event-driven will also benefit from the Slice solution.

Slice is now live and accessible at http://www.slicemedia.com.au/. Take a tour here.

Media Monitors is a world leader in media information services and the leading media monitoring group in Australia and New Zealand. A unique amalgamation of many specialist and respected companies, Media Monitors has grown rapidly over the years by exceeding the needs of customers, by developing new markets and by providing the most comprehensive range of products and services in the coverage of public information.

For further information contact
John Croll, Chief Executive Officer,
Phone 0418-418-433
john.croll@mediamonitors.com.au

Tracking the media, monitoring the message