Comments on: Online News Hits are Better Than The Print Versions

By: Five PR Trend Predictions for 2009 « Fredzimny’s Blog

Five PR Trend Predictions for 2009 « Fredzimny’s Blog — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:31:35 +0000

[...] More media outlets are expanding their online presence, which means more opportunities for coverage. Web editors don’t have the same page space limitations as their newsprint counterparts. That doesn’t mean they take crappy pitches and turn them into stories. It means you have a better chance of not having a good story get left on the editing room floor. [...]

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:52:43 +0000

Who Referees Social Media?…

When 37 of the top 100 economies in the world, according to 2006 data by total revenue and GDP, are corporations, we can’t count on government to set the rules, can we?Rather, with the knowledge that ……

By: Lara Kretler’s Blog — PRogress not PRfection

Lara Kretler’s Blog — PRogress not PRfection — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:20:09 +0000

[...] days of delivering a huge binder of news articles to clients at the end of each month… okay, I’m dreaming, many clients do still want hard copy clips in a printed report with “thud power” as it [...]

By: Harry Hoover

Harry Hoover — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:27:29 +0000

Nice piece, David. I’ve been in PR for about 30 years, and clients have always liked the tangible placement. It was great for reprints, which allowed you to merchandise your media coverage. A good placement in a magazine is still hard to beat from a prestige point of view, but I’d agree the online placement is better from a business perspective.

By: Lara Kretler

Lara Kretler — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:20:37 +0000

David, I agree with you that online hits are great for our clients but I can’t say they are *better* than print… yet. A solid placement in a top notch magazine is still many of my clients’ dearest wish. That said, I do dream of a day when clip reports will be done via Delicious and there will be an end to hours spent on fist-thick binders stuffed with clips just so clients can hear that satisfying “thud” when it hits their desk.

By: shannonpaul

shannonpaul — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:02:00 +0000

I agree, as do most consumers, that online hits are better than print.

However, most people in our industry still prefer print — a study by U.K.-based Parker Wayne & Kent (http://www.pwkpr.com/news/news010808.htm) confirmed this despite earlier studies that indicate consumer preference to be quite the opposite.

The durability aspect is something that is often noted, but print really isn’t any more durable — in fact, it’s tangible qualities make it less durable since it can easily be lost, damaged or destroyed.

The real reasons I think online coverage is yet to get its due respect have to do with old measurements of ROI. Even many mainstream news outlets have yet to post really clear numbers of unique visitors to the site, let alone an individual page.

I think once online coverage can be satisfactorily measured and people get over the tangible aspects of seeing something about their company in print, then online coverage will become the new standard.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:57:22 +0000

And if you’re selling something online (say a book) and the story (say a book review) provides a link to said item, that’s like *ding* instant money, whereas a print item means someone has to go to the store and buy.

By: davidmullen

davidmullen — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:53:00 +0000

@Scott – YES! Great point. Can’t believe I overlooked that. The online stories also can show up in Google searches on your company, add to your brands SEO, etc.

Smart.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:44:09 +0000

I’d say it also might have something to do with “permanence”. I’m sure there’s a better word for it, but it’s like this, if you get a story written about your business online it’s, in most cases, going to be readily available for quite a while. If it’s on TV or in print it may be archived somewhere, but in most cases that won’t be quite as easy to get to.

By: davidmullen

davidmullen — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:36:24 +0000

Good point. Didn’t think about some people having a pro-deadtree bias.

There are always exceptions. I agree that a less tech-savvy audience would keep print, radio and TV hits as the home runs.

Thanks for sharing good insights.