Leave it to Microsoft to brand its online press center. The e-newsroom, dubbed PressPass, features such a wealth of information it boggles the mind.
Obviously, the software behemoth has more messaging, more white papers, more products and more PR contacts than the average company. But PressPass has so much information,
organized in so many categories, it's hard to know where to begin digging through it.
Nevertheless, the painstaking attention to reporters' needs is admirable, and the site provides a research tool unmatched by other corporate sites we've seen. Need information
on a specific product? It's your lucky day: The site organizes press contacts by product line (and other categories). Need the skinny on Bill Gates? Not only does PressPass
provide your answers, it links to an entire Web site on Microsoft's chief software architect, which in turn links back to PressPass and other key company information.
This site raises the bar for online newsrooms, but most companies don't have the staffing, the external resources or the IT power to produce a similar product for the press.
However, browsing PressPass may provide some interesting ideas for how to make better use of your own virtual real estate, whether it's organization or the types of content that
make this site an industry resource for reporters.
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Criteria
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Grade
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Comments
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| Link from Homepage | A | The homepage links to PressPass through a prominent left-hand navigation bar under an “Information For …� heading. We would have given them an A+ for this one, but it’s our petty version of revenge for listing journalists last in the list of stakeholders the corporate site serves. |
| Press Release Archive | C | Press releases are linked to the PressPass homepage through a prominent tab at the top. The site only features the last couple of weeks’ releases, however, since the company puts out so much news. There’s no archive to search, just a search function, which could make finding “old� news difficult if a reporter doesn’t have the appropriate keywords or was hoping to browse during a specific timeframe. |
| Contact Information | C | Contact information is exhaustive and easy to find. It’s also broken down into a variety of categories: Have a question about corporate issues? There’s a listing of issues and a corresponding contact number. About a specific product? Separate numbers are listed for each product line. The drawback is that the numbers listed are for Microsoft’s many, many agencies, and no specific contact names or email addresses are listed, leading us to the question, once a reporter reaches the right agency, how easy is it to find the person who can answer his question – or lead him to the person at Microsoft who can answer his question? The fewer steps to the right contact, the better. One major bonus on this international corporation’s press site: Under International News, Microsoft lists offices in various countries, along with links to those offices’ local sites and local press sites, plus contact information. |
| Timeliness | A+ | Press releases were updated to the day when we toured the site. |
| Archive of News Coverage | F | The site does not feature an archive of its coverage in the press, though to be fair, considering how much press the company receives, it would be next to impossible to do so. |
| Ease of Navigation | B | The site is so organized it’s almost overpowering. Because there are so many categories for information and contacts, we suspect many reporters’ eyes will glaze over long before they hit on the category they were searching for. A redeeming factor: The site lists contact information for Waggener Edstrom’s “Rapid Response� unit for any queries reporters can’t answer using PressPass. |
| Search Functions | A+ | The site offers a prominent link to a search engine that will scour Microsoft’s entire corporate site for information, an absolute necessity with a sprawling press site like this one. |
| Company Information | A+ | The site not only offers four categories of news (Products & Issues, Legal, International and Consumer), it also features everything from the standard mission and value statements to information on Microsoft’s community relations efforts to its research initiatives to essays on technology. Executive bios are readily available, and (as we mentioned) an entire site is available for the latest on the big boss. A Microsoft events calendar can display a customized listing of those events for which an individual reporter has registered. And a section on the corporation’s work with kids and educational initiatives rounds out the corporate information. |
| Financial Information | A+ | PressPass links to the Investor Relations site, which includes earnings information, an annual report, financial press releases, stock information and analysis tools and other key financial stats. The homepage of that site was being used at the time of this writing to tout the conference call announcing the company’s FY02 results at the close of Q4 on June 30. |
| Graphics and Other Value-Adds | A+ | Not only does PressPass’ Image Gallery include reams of executive photos (organized alphabetically, of course), it also features photos of the corporate headquarters, products, logos and other images. |
| News by Email | C | We couldn’t find a link to email updates (that doesn’t mean the site doesn’t provide email updates, just that we couldn’t find it in the piles of information available). The site does offer an online newsletter with the latest news and information on Microsoft, however. |
| Overall | B+ | As usual, Microsoft’s sheer size is its biggest weakness. The massive volume of information and vast network of contacts that make up the software giant’s press site are brilliantly organized, but most reporters would need far longer than the average less-than-20-minute visit to become thoroughly familiar with PressPass. |