Some online pressrooms are a study in obfuscating clutter and about as reporter-friendly as a tightly lipped C-suite executive whose company is about to be bought by another. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you want to make your Web site a venue that’s amenable to media, following are some guidelines:
Be organized: Old press releases should be archived—don’t leave them up on your site’s home page for eternity. That makes your company’s communications department look sloppy.
Avoid excessive downloads of PDF files: Reporters on deadline don’t have time to download a million files. Plus, frequently, reporters may have to download an application just to open these files.
Make sure newsworthy articles have a one-click access on your company’s home page: This should be obvious. Make it easy for the reporter to find the article and read it in its entirety.
Put breaking news on the ome page: Again, this is a given and when you do this, you are serving your media audience.
Post after-hours contacts: News cycle are 24/7 and very often a reporter will want to contact someone after hours.
Make sure your press releases are searchable.
Include fact sheets: They’re an excellent resource for deadline-driven journalists. Use them.
Use a newsletter format: Many pressrooms look like lists. A newsletter format is more helpful and eye-catching when it comes to catching important information.
Make the articles/news items in your press room printer-friendly: Don’t force reporters to print out extra pages.
Avoid using stale, banal quotes in articles.
Incorporate FAQs.
Use downloadable logos.
Source: ragan.com