How to boost the relationship with journalists through your website

By André Nunes

The power of media is widely recognized nowadays. Media can help a brand stand apart from its competitors and make it shine for its audience – not only through the content but also through the tonality and emotions attached to what is written about the company.

For this reason, companies cannot neglect the information that should be shared with journalists. According to Comprend’s Capital Market survey 2016 corporate websites are the second main source business journalists use after independent printed business papers.

When it comes to receiving news and updates, the majority of journalists consult companies’ websites on a weekly basis and prefer to receive updates by email. So, provide a subscription service and make sure you update your press section accordingly.

Keep reading this article to discover what you can do to enhance your relationship with business journalists.

Plot twist: Despite what you would expect, journalists don’t value websites’ Press sections more than the other sections – About us, Reporting, IR. Apparently, one may conclude, Journalists prefer to draw their own conclusions and backup their articles with the information you provide on your website than go after your news and press releases uniquely.

While 44% of surveyed journalists think the features and content of websites’ Press sections are very important, 71% think the same of the About us section. On average, the financial criteria is very important for 62% of journalist respondents as well as the Reporting section which scored a better average of importance per criteria (4.04 out of 5). On average, the latter is very important for 75% of business journalists that responded to our survey.

With this in mind, grasp the following tips to make sure journalists have all they need to write good pieces about you.

While developing your About us section, have in mind that journalists also consult this content. About 86% of business journalists find fast facts about the company very important. This is the highest ranked content for journalists on the About us section. Also, present your business areas clearly and with detail as this is the second most important content for them.

The most important content for business journalists appears to be the overview of key financial figures that is ranked high and above the latest annual and interim reports. To make sure journalists write correctly about your company and your performance you should develop your figures and reporting without complex terminology or jargon. Make the content easy and simple to read.

According to journalists, you need to display a personal media contact with an email address in the Press section. You should have a good separation between press releases and your everyday company news. Add a date and time for every release.  You should also design them to be printer-friendly as 71% of journalists find this very important. Despite secondary, images and video gallery can be developed and included on press releases and news so journalists can have correct and updated references when mentioning your company.

Read more about our Webranking surveys and why they are so important.

For more information contact us at webranking@comprend.com or Helena Wennergren, Head of Research +46 70 971 12 10, helena.wennergren@comprend.com.