If a reporter was writing a story about you and your company and visited your website, could they find something useful and interesting about you to use in their story? And could I find it quickly? Or would you immediately leave his site and find one of his competitors to write about?

Make it easy for the reporter
Every website today should have a “Media Room” (also known as an online newsroom) with everything a reporter needs to write a story quickly. Not only should you include information about your company’s history, management team and owners, your products and services, etc., but you should also provide links to industry trade groups, information on industry trends, and perhaps even a list of your competitors.

Why would you include your competitors, you ask?

Because just like you, a reporter is very busy and often overwhelmed. If you were the reporter and you visited a website that gave you the perfect story and all the sources to write an objective article on widgets (which turned out to be something your readers of your publication and, more importantly, your boss, they’d love to read), wouldn’t you be excited? Of course you would. And I also.

Also, every time a prospect searches for your competitors’ products and services, his The website will also appear in the search. Perhaps the prospect clicks on the link on your website instead of your competitor’s.

top 20
So let’s consider what you should include on your new Media Room website. Here’s a list to get you started; each of these would be a separate “sublink” within your media room:

• Biographies of owners and management team (one short and one long bio for each person)
• Photos: downloadable, scalable, at 300 dpi (suitable for print publications) and 72 dpi (for online outlets), named/tagged, one for each member of the management team and any product you promote
• Company description and history, including dates, facts, and sales figures (or percentage growth per year)
• A list of products or services and brief descriptions of each
• Customer demographics
• List and description of any awards you or your business have won
• List of story ideas with 4-6 talking points for each
• Audio and video clips with bytes of sound on important topics
• Media Experience List for Company Key Players
• Issues and opinions page, including position papers, articles you’ve written, white papers, links to industry resources for both sides of the opinions (all open in a new browser window, of course)
• Statements or quotes from key personnel regarding your business philosophy, hot industry topics, or comments on community issues.
• Industry news and trends
• Calendar of relevant trade shows and industry events
• List of your main competitors and links to external sites that may contain opposing or even negative opinions (which open in new browser windows, of course!)
• Company and product news (with all your releases listed/summarized and linked to the full story)
• In the News section (links to actual published articles, which open in new browser windows)
• Contact information for company key players: day, night, cell phone, pager, fax, email (make it easy for the reporter to reach you!)
• Email alert service to notify news reporters
• Forms for reporters to request videos, photos, samples
• Ability to search the site for information, keywords, topics, etc.

And don’t forget to put an obvious link to your press roomright in your homepage … and each page. Don’t worry if you can’t do all of this right away. Keep working on it and you’ll soon have a fabulous media room. Then watch your advertising grow.