Company web sites fail to help reporters

A study by the Financial Times and Bowen Craggs & Co. has discovered that corporate web sites do not provide the information that journalists need to do their jobs more effectively.

David Bowen writes, “There are obviously great differences, depending on the media and the individuals, but here are some generalisations:

“They do not want to be spoon fed – give them a ready-made story, and they will either ignore it, or look for a way to put a different twist on it (not necessarily in the company’s favour). The last thing they want is to write the same story as other people. What they do want is leads, which explains the keenness with which they have taken to Twitter. Companies need to understand Twitter – both to feed journalists leads and to get early warning that a nasty news storm is about to blow in.

“They are sceptics – or they should be. They are not inclined to believe anything a company tells them, and they have a sharp nose for spin. That said, they are big users of corporate sites, because these are the best sources of facts and figures.

“They tend to be in a hurry, and impatient. Their inclination is often to pick up the phone rather than trawl a site. Companies can make themselves unpopular by failing to make press contacts easy to find. But if they make the site easy enough to use, they can stop people reaching for the phone. Journalists also like material they can print out and read on the way to an interview or meeting: fact-filled but concise and easy to absorb.”

Read more here.