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Latest opinions, perspectives, links and audio/video content from iPressroom's Online Newsroom experts.
Staying In Front of the Story in a New Media World
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Ten Reasons Why You Need a Better Online Newsroom in 2010
Your online newsroom is your home and you want it to be in order when people come to visit.

That means if you want people to come over, you need to be a hospitable host AND you need to be able to spread the word across your neighborhood and the neighborhoods of your friends and other neighborhoods where you think new friends might live and want to come visit you. But why would they want to come visit you?
- Does your newsroom spread frequent, authentic, relevant and engaging content? Or, do you have mostly just press releases?
- Does your newsroom consider all of the various audiences (journalists, consumers, investors, shareholders, members, etc.) that might visit your home? Or, are you thinking mainstream media only?
- Does your newsroom offer those audiences content in all of the various forms/types of content expected today (e.g.; text, photos, video, audio, pdf, blogs, podcasts, news feeds, etc.)? Or, do you mostly have press releases?
- Does your newsroom enable those people who do come visit to tell others, share, and discuss and even use some of the content within your newsroom to spread the word to others for you? Or, can you just print?
- Does your newsroom allow search engines to find, use, and tell others effectively about who you are and all of what you are doing? Or, are you pretty low in the rankings for most of your main search terms?
- Does your newsroom utilize modern web design principals and best practices and allow people to easily find their way around, not get lost, and save, search, and sort the content they need from the rich collection you are providing? Or, do you have mostly just press releases?
- Does your newsroom prominently refer traffic back and into your main site and additional product, service, organization, and mission and allow people to take immediate action to get more deeper involved with you (e.g., write a story, buy a product, donate, invest, sign-up, comment, refer, etc.)? Or, do you have mostly just press releases?
- Does your newsroom protect your contact information from unwanted guests (i.e. spam bots) and also make you easily accessible via multiple platforms and channels (e.g.: landline, email, mobile, social media)? Or, is your email address consistently getting hit with unwanted spam?
- Does your newsroom help you to easily distribute your messages across the channels your audiences frequent (e.g.; search, email, facebook, twitter, blogs, YouTube, etc.), so you can get your content there and invite people to come back to your home? Or, do you have to go through IT to get anything published?
- Does your newsroom track who comes to visit, where they go, and what content they consume, share, comment on, write-about, or sign-up for? Or, you've been asking IT and can't get an answer?
The City of Calgary launches new newsroom
The City of Calgary is launching a multi-media newsroom today which will provide a user friendly environment to view news with links to applicable City content.“We believe that this newsroom will make The City of Calgary a leader among municipalities in North America - there are very few municipal governments who have a newsroom of this quality,” said Jacob George, The City’s manager of Corporate Marketing and Communications.
Click here to read more
Guantanamo PR Chief on Gov 2.0, Social Media Engagement and Mainstream Media Relations
- Inside the Pentagon with Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Robert Hastings
- Balancing Your Right to Know against Operational Security with US Marine Corps Public Affairs Officer Major Danny Chung
- Social Media Training the US Armed Forces Public Affairs Staff at DINFOS with Staff Sgt. Joshua Salmons
- U.S. Army Reserve Social Media Chief Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Ostlund
Rising to the Top of PRSA with Chair-Elect Gary D. McCormick, APR
How to become a PRSA board member, inside PRSA’s prestigious College of Fellows and judging the PRSA Silver Anvil Awards with PRSA Chair-Elect Gary D. McCormick, APR, Fellow PRSA and Director, Partnership Development at HGTV, Scripps Networks at the 2009 PRSA International Conference.On the Record…Online with Deirdre Breakenridge
Managing social media engagement, the impact of social media on our intellectual development and what’s next with author and social media professional Deirdre Breakenridge (@dbreakenridge), president of PSFMarketwyse, recorded at the 2009 PRSA International Conference in San Diego.- Inside the Online Video Business with Blip.TV co-founder Dina Kaplan
- Daily Candy Editor-in-Chief Dany Levy goes On the Record…Online
- Jason Rosenberg, Online Communications Director for the Democratic National Convention Committee
- On the Record...Online with Disneyland VP PR Duncan Wardle
Our New Social Video Features for Corporate Websites
A lot of thought went into our new set of features enabling organizations to effectively and efficiently add Social Video Communications to their organization’s website. As always with iPressroom, we had to offer industry-leading tools that anyone could use without making any significant changes to their web hosting infrastructure.
Currently a lot of organizations are content with using third-party video for their website. I think YouTube drives a Faustian bargain. You get free social video on your site and they get to siphon off your traffic. We all know intuitively that it’s easier to watch than it is to read - which is one of the reasons why online video is becoming the premium online engagement channel. What we wanted to do at iPressroom is make it easy for non-technical people to use online video on their websites without any of the downsides.
The new social video service (available in select packages within the Online Newsroom, Podcasting or Microsite product offerings from iPressroom) combines plug and play online video hosting, a brandable flash video player, embed codes to allow visitors to embed your video on their web pages, commenting with or without moderation to encourage conversations about on your video, HD and widescreen video formats, automated distribution via YouTube, Revver, MetaCafe , and Yahoo Video, among others.
Here’s the list of features we were able to offer:
- Capable of delivering HD video to any computer
- Full-screen capable
- Not water-marked, enterprise level solution, player can even be modified to match client branding
- Built in embed and link codes and Email-to-a-friend for sharing
- Integrated social sharing (post videos to Digg, Reddit, etc)
We’d love to hear your feedback on these new features and what you think the future holds for online corporate video sharing. To learn more about the social video communications service or any of the product packages that this service is a part of, or, to learn about adding just the video platform to your website or a client's website, contact us for a demo or consultation.
Online Newsroom Best Practices with Toyota Social Media Supervisor Scott Deyager

Are you Digital Ready?
On the Record...Online with David Carr of the NYT's Keynote at PRSA
Show notes:
6:59 - Intro to Carr's keynote speech at the Digital Impact Conference.
8:31 - Carr on the ever-changing advancements in media.
13:44 - Carr on the impact of electronic clutter.
17:17 - Carr shares his amazement with Wikipedia.
19:02 - Carr reveals the importance of "the list."
23:11 - Carr on the strategies Dell Inc. took to gain a favorable shift in the blogosphere.
31:56 - Carr on his opinion of podcasts.
36:00 - Carr on why the small fries need attention, too.
52:18 - Carr on the practices some PR professionals exercise that will no longer work.
1:00:25 - Carr on why conversation--rather than content--is king.
1:12:00 - End


