Rethinking Print vs. Online Press Coverage
Every week at Telesian we can't help but notice the thinning of our favorite tech publications. It doesn't matter if its InformationWeek or MBT, the downsizing trend continues. The automation pubs have not suffered quite as much, thank goodness, but most print publishers are looking at how to manage this shift.
A recent B2B study by American Business Media, shows how print revenue is suffering and online activities are helping offset some of those declines.
What is interesting is to think of this in terms of how marketers have defined their PR goals for 2009. Many companies we have spoken with have goals focused on traditional print pick-ups and article placements.
Given the trends, you may need to shift your thinking because online PR also has many benefits. There are a number of issues to consider. Online PR may lack some of the punch we get when a feature article has landed and your company's product is on the cover. But our editor friends still want exclusive, never-before-been published material, whether it will be placed online or offline. Good content is getting harder to create, especially with the availability of information throughout the Internet. On top of that, we're an impatient culture, and want to share the new content today, not in three months when the article is scheduled to appear in print.
So, how you are thinking about PR success in your organization? Online PR offers these advantages over print:
- Higher impression rates. Getting a web feature exclusive that sits on the home page for a publication is fantastic, and will achieve greater visibility over the article life than the print article.
- Link love. Articles placed on the web create lots of link love that support your natural search engine optimization efforts.
- Promotes sharing and interaction. Online pubs are good at encouraging interaction. If your article finds its way onto Digg or FriendFeed, then it will reach a much larger audience. Or it could potentially start up a conversation through reader comments, which is exactly what you hoped would happen anyway (in print). The good news is that these online conversations are visible to many people.
- Good sales fodder. Online articles make it really easy to share information with potential buyers, much easier than print.
Let's look at online growth:
Growth rates of 30-90% are impressive and will only continue to trend up. But the message here isn't to abandon all print plans. I still like sitting down and reading a magazine. People receive information differently in print than online. We need to start coaching our managers about this shift, and set expectations around online press coverage vs. print. While one is really in "black and white" and may feel like a bigger "win," it's time to give online coverage its due and a place in our PR goals for 2010.
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