What do Web journalists want? Digital content, according to Pat Anastasi, senior producer at MSNBC.com. Speaking on a panel during a recent PRSA event in D.C., Anastasi
offered this advice: "We go to your press conferences and you hand out these pretty press kits filled with pages of information. Why not hand out computer disks, too?"
Other pitch tips? Provide video, audio or other multimedia components in a high-quality, downloadable format (e.g., MPEG or QuickTime). And don't treat Internet newsrooms
like the stepchildren of the media world. MSNBC.com boasts five times the viewers as MSNBC's cable channel, Anastasi said. "You can't afford to ignore these newsrooms."
Brian Taylor, director of marketing communications for U.S. Newswire, was on the planning committee and reported on the event, "The 21st Century Newsroom."