The Bailey Blog

PRWeek magazine just released its 2008 Media Survey and it includes some intriguing numbers regarding reporters and their interaction with companies and their on-line presence.

Eighty-nine percent of respondents said that when conducting research for a story, they use a company’s Web site while 74 percent said they use Google or a blog search. When pushed for more detail, respondents said that a company’s Web site (65%), recent press releases (63%) and a company’s virtual press room (51 %) were “extremely important” or “very important” to their research.

Seeing those numbers should make you think two things immediately: “What’s on my Web site right now?” and “When’s the last time anyone from our company did a Google and blog search on our company?”

I’ve blogged before about the need to keep up with Google searches on yourself and your company and hopefully you heeded my words of advice.

Stop and think – no cheating – how many of you can tell me what’s on the front page of your company’s Web site right now? What links are available? What documents are linked? What’s the status of your staff directory? What is the latest news item you have posted there for visitors to see? Do you even know what color your site is? Do you know the address? You do know your company has a Web site, right?!?

OK, sorry about getting carried away, but let’s face it – it’s a brave new world out there and what you don’t know can hurt you.

Ok.. I’ve decided.

My ultimate dream account; the product I must represent, and would have clearly devoted my four years of university learning… well… let’s just say the “time I was in college,”… the zenith of my professional career would be…. “Peeps.”

I will give the pure magnitude a moment for the idea to settle in.

The Peep is that yellow, smooshy, apparently chick-shaped, eraser-like substance in an Easter Basket near you. Oh, and it also made the cover of today’s Life Section of USA TODAY.

Wait —Van Halen restarts its tour after some hidden medical condition involving Eddie Van Halen. THAT gets “news brief” status, a sidebar in the section.

But Peeps? Peeps anchored the entire bottom of the page with four columns and an illustration dedicated to delicious, sugar-fused foam.

What gives?

To be cliché, “timing is everything,” or at least, nearly everything.

This is a great example of what we always stress to clients; simply, a company needs to take full advantage of what they do and how what they do fits into everything else that’s happening in the outside world.

Often, the people inside companies get tied up in what they think is important… downright vital… in their eyes.

However, let’s say a new glue to hold two widgets together is cool, but how much is it saving the world — or the customer?

Is there a trade show coming up to provide the right backdrop and to give the reporters an excuse, as it were, to cover it? Heck, is April National Sticky Month? We need a hook to go with the message — this is the point.

So, today ya gotta hand it to the peeps behind Peeps. With the Easter Holiday on the horizon, they nailed a sweet spot that should make even Van Halen jealous.

“The State of the News Media, 2008,” a 700-page comprehensive look at the state of U.S. journalism by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts was released today.

Of the many interesting things they found to talk about, one in particular caught my attention: The agenda of the American news media continues to narrow, not broaden.

People often talk these days about the 24-hour news cycle. Well, guess what, there has always been a 24-hour news cycle. I remember when CNN was referred to as “the fledgling Cable News Network.” I remember as a young journalist thinking about the amazing possibilities that would be laid before us in a true 24-hour news delivery cycle. I was excited about the stories we could cover if we just had more pages or air time to give them. Or maybe some of the stories we already were covering would be better because we could go more in-depth or produce more sidebars and follow-up stories.

Religion is a major source of friction in this country and around the world. Race relations are better in many ways but worse in so many others. Education – from philosophical debates to funding – is a major concern for parents with kids from kindergarten all the way through college. Transportation in this country is facing a major funding pothole – especially if you live in Michigan. The legal system is fraught with absurdity and abuse. Housing is exploding across the landscape one minute and tumbling down in a foreclosure hurricane the next. An aging population straining an already over-burdened health care and social protection network is a growing problem with generational repercussions.

These are the stories that could be told and should be told – all day, every day. Instead, the PEJ reports, each of the topics above each received less than 1% of the news hole in 2007.

Oops, I have to go now – there’s a breaking news alert about how much money Paul McCartney’s ex-wife is getting in their divorce settlement…