A cursory look at full-page ads in the New York Times or prime-time spots on television and radio reveals that companies providing Internet-related products and services are tapping the power of "Old World" media - television, radio and print - to advertise and market their products.
At the same time "mainstream," non-Internet-based companies that have relied upon traditional media are now using the Internet. These firms recognize the Net has exploded into a $300-billion industry and want to reach the growing numbers of consumers online.
We are witnessing a natural evolution of converging cyberspace and 'real' space marketing, inspired by a bursting economy and the rapid growth of the Internet.
The Pros of PR
Consider the impact of advertising versus public relations. Compare a respected reporter talking favorably about a company's new product or service against a commercially prepared advertisement using paid, professional actors. The validation of the PR-generated story can make a dramatic difference in the willingness of the viewer, reader or listener to accept the message.
There is also a dramatic difference in price. A moderate advertising campaign can incur hefty creative and placement costs. The PR-generated story typically costs much less for production and materials - and nothing for the air time and print space it occupies. The average television ad, for example, costs $750,000 for production and placement, while the average video news release costs about $20,000.
Advertising, for its potentially intimidating price tag, allows complete message control. PR fills the gaps with third-party reporting, underscoring a company's integrity and image and reinforcing the advertising message. Just as online advertising has become a powerful new addition to traditional media buys, tackling the burgeoning online news media is the number-one priority of public relations professionals today.
Recent surveys on the Internet audience show that more than 83 million adults, or 40 percent of the U.S. population over 16, are accessing the Internet. This figure is up from 66 million in 1998.
A Pew Research Center biennial news consumption survey adds, "The percentage of Americans getting news from the Internet at least once a week has more than tripled in the past two years - going from 11 million to 36 million news users."
When they have a choice between the on- and off-line sources of the same news service, consumers often prefer the Net: the Freedom Forum reports that msnbc.com draws 750,000 online visitors a day to its Web site, five times more than the daily audience of MSNBC's cable news programming.
Online News at Your Fingertips
There are persuasive reasons why consumers "log-in" to Internet news.
The real-time capability of the Internet provides immediately accessible and updateable news. Online delivery gives the end-user news when they want it, and the search and delivery capabilities of the Internet allow for unparalleled matching of content and end-user. The Internet can provide greater depth in news reporting, with large, accessible archive capability, as well as the benefits of multimedia, providing the end-user with print, photos, graphics, audio and video from a single platform.
Heavy workplace penetration by the Internet, in the sense that more workers have online access available to them at their desktops during the workday, has created a news-day-cycle of Internet, TV and radio from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (different from the news-day-cycle of TV, radio and print from 5 a.m.-7 a.m.; radio and print from 7 a.m.-9 a.m., etc.).
Counting on the News
Consumers not only look to the Net for news, they believe what they see and hear. A Jupiter Communications "Digital News" survey completed last December found that 80 percent of consumers believe that online news is just as reliable as traditional news sources (7 percent believe it to be more reliable). The survey also found 70 percent of consumers to be unconcerned about the objectivity of online news sources that promote products or services online.
Extensive research and data collection to compile a comprehensive database of online journalists indicates there are approximately 6,000 major news provider Web sites. These Web sites present a challenge for the forward-thinking PR executive, publicist or media placement expert: how to get their clients' message to the right people in the right way at those 6,000 sites.
One way is to surf the Web, identify key news sites, and then figure out how to approach them with multimedia news content - a time-consuming effort with a high failure rate. An alternative method is to take advantage of Internet news portals for online journalists.
Organizing Online News Media
Both PR professionals and corporate communicators need an effective way to tap into the rich opportunities presented by online journalists' need for multimedia news content. A multimedia Internet news portal is one way to present the public relations industry with a powerful tool to reach a comprehensive database of online newsrooms. Internet news portals have the email addresses of staff contacts at online newspapers, magazines, newsletters and television, cable and radio outlets, as well as e-zines and independent news sites.
Speed is essential in the interactive world of online news. And the more quickly the online media news universe can be tapped, the greater the potential for vast coverage.
Les Blatt is managing editor of the Internet news portal Newstream.com, a joint venture of Business Wire and Medialink, which delivers multimedia news content to online news sites. The site combines all content related to a company's news announcement. He can be reached at 212/682-8300 and [email protected].