DWPub Sporadic

The DWPub Media Suite - reflections on a re-brand

It was a therapeutic experience producing our recent piece in B2B Marketing about brand consistency where we discussed the introduction of the DWPub Media Suite among other things.

Our re-brand, which was implemented in a 'big-bang' last September after about a year in the planning, was a major project for us. Reading about it (yes, reading rather than writing, I confess that the first draft of the article was written by our  PR team) helped me appreciate what we have achieved.

Thinking back on it the whole process was a heady mix of stress and enlightenment. I'm very happy with the results, I must admit what appeared to be a project about logos and strap-lines actually turned out to be as much about strategy. We now have a much clearer idea - internally as well as externally - of what DWPub is all about.

People may sometimes mock branding excercises, but done well they can really contribute to a business at every level.

Our approach to moderating ResponseSource enquiries

Following on from the debate triggered by the increasing use of the ResponseSource Enquiry Service by bloggers, we've started to tighten-up the moderation of the service.

We're doing this in response to feedback from our PR customers, who fund the service and who scan the hundreds of enquiries each week (often well over 100 a day) to see if they can help.

Below is a bit of background on the service and a list of things we look for in blogs when considering whether we are able to release requests. The latter are also useful as general guidelines for any blogger wanting to increase their audience.

I want to stress that we're always reviewing our approach to this and are keen to consider thoughts from bloggers and the PR community about how we can do this better.

Background

ResponseSource is primarily intended as a resource for journalists and professional media to seek information from PR professionals. PR professionals subscribe to the service to help them obtain effective media coverage for their clients.

Requests from bloggers are welcome and of course in most cases they are legitimate and represent valuable opportunities for PR professionals. But the volume of blogs that want to use ResponseSource has grown significantly and we have be sure we meet the needs of our subscribers for requests from quality, established blogs reaching a relevant audience.

Our aim is always to maintain the effectiveness of the service in the long-term for both the PR subscribers who pay for the service and also the media - including bloggers as well as journalists and broadcasters - who use it to source content. We therefore must reserve the right not to distribute any request which we feel is inappropriate for our subscribers. Due to the high volume of enquiries, we may not always be able to provide a full reason to the submitter, although we will try to contact submitters and discuss requests if we are able to help.

Blog 'qualities'

To help submitters decide if ResponseSource is suitable before submitting a request, below is a non-exhaustive list, not in any particular order, of some qualities we consider in a blog:

Frequency and regularity of posts - generally more than once a month, and preferably one or more a week.  We're looking for clear dates so we can see your blog is thriving

Variety of content - if your blog is mainly about product reviews, competitions and giveaways, it may not be suitable to our audience. Too many "personal" posts may also be inappropriate

High standard of design and language - this could be anything from spelling and grammar to fonts, image size and quality, and page layout. We're looking at your blog as a reader would - it needs to impress from the first click on to your home page

Clear focus and/or audience - eg do you concentrate on food, fashion, technology, or for a specific audience eg young men, over 60s, finance professionals? Whatever the target audience, consistency is all

Experience and qualifications - are you blogging about something you do as a profession, or are you an enthusiast about your topic?  Add this to your about page - it will make it easier for passing visitors to get a feeling for you as an author

Viewing figures (traffic reports, normally 'unique visitors' per month) should ideally be freely available or offered on request, and if you submit a ResponseSource enquiry you'll need to provide these in each request

Well established - we and our subscribers are wary of newly established blogs and in the early days of your blog we may not be able to distribute your requests.  If we say no to begin with, come back in a couple of months and we will be happy to review it

Comments from visitors - we're looking for quality as well as quantity. People engaging with your content demonstrate you have an audience

Transparent - is your full name and contact details shown on the 'about' or 'contact' pages? Blogs that are transparent about the people behind them engender more trust

In addition to considering the above we also look at the requests themselves, as a poorly constructed or vague media request makes it difficult for recipients to decide it if it is worthwhile responding. Clearly written, specific requests always work better.

Hopefully the above gives you some idea of the criteria we use to measure the quality of a blog. Like I have said, we're on a learning curve with this and welcome input from both bloggers and PRs to refine these guidelines.

Media communications refreshed - the new DWPub

We have unveiled our new branding today.

During nearly 15 years of business our branding has developed in a fairly ad-hoc fashion. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride and there always seemed to be more important things to do than looking at how the business presents itself as a whole.

So we thought it was time to freshen things up a bit.

What you will see is not a radical change, but we have simplified and refreshed things. Perhaps the most obvious change is that we are now using DWPub instead of Daryl Willcox Publishing, the latter was a bit of a mouthful and DWPub already well recognised - dwpub.com has been our web address almost since the beginning. You also see that each service is now branded in a more consistent way. (See the press release.)

But this project, which has been about a year in the making, is more than just about new logos and better choice of words. We've done a lot of work on making it easier for people to discover the full breadth of what we do, and navigate more easily between services.

Speaking to customers, we found that some did not realise the full range of what we do. Although our individual services were well known, it was not always understood how they were related. Thus the inspiration behind this project, to bring our products closer together from a branding perspective. From this was born the DWPub Media Suite, a 'collective' brand that serves to present our main services as a whole.

Ultimately I hope this helps all of our community of journalists, PR professionals, bloggers, marketing people and small business owners understand how we are working to make media communications easy.

I'd just like to end on a tribute to my team. Although more of an evolution than a revolution, this project has touched all parts of the business. Every member of the team here has been involved - some more than others, and everyone has played their part with great enthusiasm, often while working under considerable pressure, and I'm proud to have such a great bunch of people working with me.

Wider coverage, simpler submission and a new name - what we're doing with press release distribution

Last week we revealed a new-look SourceWire.

While that was a big change - bringing the site design and navigation in line with Response Source and FeaturesExec - it was really just the tip of the iceberg.

Crucially, we've made a raft of changes to our press release wire service, including renaming the service SourceWire News Distribution (formerly the Response Source/SourceWire Press Release Wire).

The new name eradicates some confusion with our branding, but the biggest benefit is that all press releases now appear on both www.sourcewire.com and www.responsesource.com. So, press release submitters no longer have to choose which site they want to appear on.

In addition:

Pricing has been simplified and is now based on the number of subject categories chosen rather than which wire (SourceWire or Response Source) you want to appear on

The press release submit form is easier to use, with clearer steps for inserting your text, image and video media uploads, previewing, editing, and submitting your news stories

You can now supplement the distribution of your releases with the Press Association (PA) wire. The PA has long established links with national and regional press and broadcasters in the UK and Ireland. I believe SourceWire News Distribution is now the cheapest way to access the PA wire

As you can see, we've tweaked the name but SourceWire News Distribution is better in many more ways than that. And while the SourceWire website has become the focal point for our news distribution, the Response Source site will be the focus for our journalist enquiries service while continuing to feature press releases as well.

Most of this stuff has been done at the request of our users, so I really hope you like what we've done.

Response Source media request Twitter feed offers barometer of media needs

The Response Source Journalist Enquiries System Twitter feed has been revamped so it's more informative.
Now each tweet includes the first sentence or so of the main request text. Previously, the feed showed the subject categories and deadline, which was of little use in isolation.
This move has opened the Response Source service up a bit. It is now theoretically possible to respond to some enquiries without actually subscribing to the full media requests service. This is because in a small number of cases journalists are revealing the media outlet in the first words of their request and this is appearing on the Twitter feed.
We realised this could be an issue for some journalists so added an option on the media enquiry form to opt out of the Twitter feed. About one in four enquirers are currently opting out, which is consistent with a survey we did before the change.
Some enquiries are also missed from the Twitter feed as Response Source enquires sometimes come in too fast for the third-party system we use to keep up. So, the Response Source Twitter feed does not show all enquiries – it's probably around 60 per cent over all – and only a few give enough information to illicit a direct response. But at the very least the feed is a good barometer of what media outlets are asking for.
Journalists are able to specify a response by Twitter also, meaning they can request information using as many characters of text as they like but force PR professionals to respond in 140 characters, which will appeal to many hacks who complain of information overload.

Getting your message across with video news releases

It's now possible to embed video in press releases on our press release wires on Response Source and SourceWire.

This gives public relations professionals the ability to get their message across in a more enagaging way and also demonstrate video footage available to online and broadcast journalists.

Check out the example of our own video news release.

You'd be forgiven to think 'why now?' After all, online video has been around for years. Well, it was a matter of timing. Decent quality video used to cost around £1,000 per minute of edited video to produce and bandwidth issues made uploading and streaming video challenging for many people. Nowadays both the cost of video production has gone down and the bandwidth issues have lessened.

In addition to this, today's increasingly digital-led media has a much greater appetite for video - from bloggers to the major news sites video content is becoming more mainstream.

So, we felt the time was right to offer video on our wires.

The video is hosted by us, the advantage over simply embedding video from sites like YouTube is the presentation is free of third-party branding and other distractions like adverts, links to 'relevant' content and comments. While YouTube is a perfectly valid channel for many brands, our wires offer independent and professional distribution to our network of journalists and bloggers.

We've also put together 11 tips on producing effective video news releases.

Say hello to the new FeaturesExec Media Database

We've launched a brand-new FeaturesExec Media Database - with a fresh new look, easier navigation and new functionality.

In reality this latest batch of enhancements is just some of many we have done this year, but it's the most immediately noticeable thanks to the new look and navigation. It's all down to our plan to listen to what customers want from PR software and to implement it in FeaturesExec.

The service has become so capabable I have sometimes wondered if we ought to change the name from 'FeaturesExec'. But it's a powerful brand and most people realise these days that we do a lot more than forward features. The latest design changes make it even easier to create press lists, distribute media announcements and also track activity.

Check out the press release.

Why we moved to user-based login

Users of our services will notice that when they login via their existing company-wide username they will be prompted to create unique login details just for themselves.

Why are we doing this?

Since the FeaturesExec Media Database was conceived in 1997 it has evolved enormously. It's now much more than a media directory - we have added custom forward features searches and alerts, press list creation and distribution, note-taking, social media integration and much more. We want to be able to customise how these features work for each user, rather than each organisation, and recent feedback from the FeaturesExec community suggests that future enhancements need to be personalised too. User-based logins are required to achieve this.

Although FeaturesExec is the main beneficiary of this change, it also applies to the parts of our Response Source Journalist Enquiries System, Freelance Journalist Directory and our press release wires that require logins so that we may introduce personalisation to these too in due course.

One question we have been asked is “Does this also mean you will be charging per-user?” This is something we are considering for the future but is not being implemented straight away. User-based login does allow us to consider a pricing structure which more accurately reflects how much the product is used, though we won't be rushing into anything as it is important any changes work well for the FeaturesExec community.

The prime reason we are moving to user-based logins is to personalise FeaturesExec and to make it an even more valuable tool for identifying and clinching media coverage opportunities.

In addition there are security benefits for our customers in having individual login credentials for each user. There will be greater transparency and control over which members of your team are using the service. And when people leave, for example, we simply remove their login and everyone else's remain unchanged.

What you'll see is FeaturesExec and our other services gradually becoming more personalised to the individual user. And as ever we are very keen to hear what other ways our services can evolve to make your lives easier.

That 'special relationship'

There is no doubt that journalists and PR professionals have a special relationship, though the definition of 'special' varies depending on personal perspectives.

Whatever your perspective, of course we all know that ultimately journalists are in the driving seat, making editorial judgements that serve their audience rather than those who seek publicity. Quite right too.

Both sides are under pressure to get the job done. Journalists are under pressure to produce more material with fewer resources and PR profesionals are under pressure to generate coverage across a fragmented media. This can put pressure on that 'special relationship', so it's good to step back and have a bit of a laugh every now and then.

This is what The CRAPPs is all about. I'll spell that one out - The Communicative Relations Awards from Public Relations Professionals. That name alone I think sets the tone for this initiative - a bit of a laugh. And that's why we supported it.

The team at 10Yetis did a fantastic job of coming up with the idea, making it work well as a fully online 'virtual' event and judging the tone absolutely right (there's a case study in digital PR here for sure). We just lent a bit of credibility as a sponsor. To be honest I was a bit nervous of the reaction we might get from some journalists (and, of course, there could be at least as much mileage in an awards for PRs created and voted on by journalists, though that's a different project). But when I saw journalists sending Response Source media enquiries to try to get nominated I was reassured.

There has been an almost completely positive response to The CRAPPs which I personally find very heartwarming having started my journalism career at the age of 20 and for the last 14 years run a business helping both sides of that special relationship.

Congratulations to all the winners: Ben Moss - sport.co.uk, Adrian Bridgwater - freelance, Tara Evans - thisismoney.co.uk, Charles Arthur - The Guardian, Sean Poulter - The Daily Mail, Gary Flood - freelance, Tom Fordyce - BBC, Sally Whittle - Who’s the Mummy, Adam Vincenzini - Comms Corner, Harry Wallop - The Daily Telegraph, Caitlin Moran - The Times, Dr Ben Goldacre - Bad Science, Mark Dye - freelance, Harry Wallop - The Daily Telegraph, Jemima Kiss - The Guardian.

Check out The CRAPPs results here.

 

Finding media contacts quickly

 

Our approach to product development with our FeaturesExec Media Database is one of incremental enhancement, we try to avoid 'big bang' revisions, instead we focus on smaller steps based on customer feedback.

This is the approach taken by big social media sites and I think it suits FeaturesExec too.

I'm particularly pleased with a recent development of the general search on FeaturesExec, which in itself is not a huge change but represents a big step forward in ease of access to the editorial contacts and forward features information in FeaturesExec.

You'll find searching is faster and the results presented cover individual staff journalists, freelance journalists, media outlets and forward features in an easy to absorb summary. You can then select the specific information you need.

This makes FeaturesExec useful as a 'quick reaction' tool, allowing you to look up a journalist or media outlet within seconds. We've tweaked the advanced search in a similar way so results are presented in a consistent way.