Do you secretly log onto Hampsterdance.com to relieve stress? Scour the sites of media trades for clues as to whether the journalist you pitched last week is still in the same
job? Obsess over your company's stock price every five minutes? In the age of digital communication, one might argue that bookmarks are the windows to the soul. We contacted a
panel of senior corporatePR professionals to get the skinny on their preferred Web destinations. Here's what they told us:
Peter Harrigan, VP communications, Lockheed Martin Systems Integration Business
Area:
Harrigan says he's got about 50 sites bookmarked, which he uses on a regular
basis. "A lot of these are news and information sources about my industry, some
are online subscriptions like The Wall Street Journal, and I also have
a fair number of customer sites," he says. "The defense department [is a major
client] and they have a huge Web presence." Harrigan uses the Web as a strategic
tool to keep an eye on what's going on. He also regularly eyeballs a page he's
customized on Yahoo! that allows him to check up on about 10 competitors' activities,
from stock prices to press releases to news stories.
But when it comes to PR and communications, Harrigan says the Internet hasn't changed his professional development habits very much. "Interestingly, most of my information about
[our] profession itself I get in hard copy, either email or paper."
Len Marsico, director, General Motors media bureau:
"I'm looking at daily news, also new media, because that's the area I'm involved with," Marsico says. His staff of 11 is assigned to different beats, such as finance and labor,
and they monitor breaking news online to pass back to the rest of the organization.
Marsico does not use a traditional clipping service. Instead, the bureau has a subscription to NewsEDGE, a Web-based, real-time news monitoring service. He likes the service
because it also has about 30 days-worth of archived material, "though it doesn't replace Lexis-Nexis."
Marsico considers the Internet a real boon to his work. "I don't think I've ever gone up and not found something I was looking for," he says. "All you have to do is have a
little patience to find it sometimes."
Joann Schellenbach, national director, media relations, American Cancer
Society:
Schellenbach says most of the Web sites she has bookmarked tend to be organizations
in the health field, such as the National Cancer Institute, along with a proliferation
of news sites that she monitors for news either about her organization or issues
the organization is tracking.
"We've had I don't know how many redesigns on our Web site since we got it up," Schellenbach says, so "I've also looked at other sites when we were looking at how to set up our
own site, to get a sense of what was being done." The ACS site has to meet the needs of cancer patients and family members seeking critical information in layman's language, as
well as journalists looking for information that will help them do their jobs, she notes. "Our site is there to help people get to me right away."
Glen Turpin, corporate communications manager, Quark Inc.
"The first and foremost tool that I use is Vocus Public Relations, the PR database out of Maryland," Turpin says. "Not only do I have access to media lists, contact names [and
so on], if you've changed your address, once the Web team validates it it's instantaneously corrected. And if there's an especially hot contact I don't want anyone else to have, I
can have a private [address book]."
Turpin estimates his two-person office spends 20% of its time on the Internet. "I comb news sites voraciously, on a regular basis I hit 50 sites a week, because our product
offerings are so broad," he says. But he continues to search for a good Web-based clipping service. The company name shows up in so many different contexts that have nothing to do
with promoting the business, that "the cost on a per-clipping basis is relatively high and for my company the value is pretty low," he explains.
Rene Henry, director of communications and government relations, Mid-Atlantic
Region, EPA:
Henry says he's got close to 100 different Web sites bookmarked. "Some I don't
use that often, but when I need them they're there," he explains. "I probably
never hit the same Web site two or three days in a row."
Henry's list includes sites covering environmental issues, but he also checks out the Poynter Institute for Media Studies to read about journalism and ethics, and several sports
and Olympic Web pages because he used to work in sports PR. He uses Gebbieinc.com as a one-stop shop for news sites, since it provides links to many radio, television, magazine,
and daily and weekly newspaper Web pages, along with state press associations. It's a good place to find the sites for smaller publications you only need occasionally, he says.
Henry also bookmarks Amazon.com for personal reasons. "I check on Amazon to see how my book is ranked," says the author of You'd Better Have a Hose if You Want to Put Out the
Fire, on crisis and risk communications.
Martha Chamberlain, director, corporate communications, AchieveGlobal:
Chamberlain's Tampa-based company specializes in corporate training programs, so she has tagged her own firm's online registration site.
Also in her list of bookmarks: InSite2, a subscription information service that she uses to research prospective clients, along with the Web site for the Salt Lake City Olympic
Organizing Committee, since her company is an official sponsor and training vendor for the 2002 Winter Games. She also has CNN.com on her list, for a quick look when someone tells
her something has happened.
Chamberlain admits to bookmarking a couple of personal sites - the University
of Florida (she's an alumna, but she only visits after hours) and Amazon.com.
The latter does have a professional aspect to it, she says. "I manage our company's
research center and I order [books for it there]."
(Harrigan, 301/897-6171; Schellenbach, 212/382- 2169; Marsico, 313/665-3177;
Turpin, 303/894-3687; Chamberlain, 813/597-5591; Henry, 215/814-5560)