UK organisations behind global average in newsroom best practice

New research has found some of the UK’s biggest brands and organisations are failing to fully engage with the media, consumers and key stakeholders by not optimising their online newsrooms for mobile browsing and overlooking the importance of multimedia content.

Mynewsdesk’s What’s the story? 2014 newsroom report has found, with an overall average score of 26.3%, many of the top UK organisations in the high street, local government, university, grocery and travel sectors are not keeping up with top 100 global brands in terms of newsroom best practice by comparing it to their overall average score of 38% according to last year’s report.

Despite the number of mobile devices significantly outstripping the number of PCs globally and 2014 predicted to be the year when mobile search overtakes desktop queries, only 20% of the newsrooms assessed in the report were responsively designed meaning UK organisations are limiting their ability to communicate with many of their target audiences.

Aside from the 40% of High Street brands who failed to offer even a basic newsroom, many UK organisations are attempting to deliver a positive newsroom experience but are falling down in crucial areas such as keeping up with the demand for multimedia content. Just one third of brands in the report included an image library, but 84% failed to provide images with a resolution high enough for media use. Furthermore, a shockingly low percentage of newsrooms (17%) contained a video library.

Paul Sutton, Head of Social Communications at Bottle PR said, “The days of PR being a one-way process, where consultants sent out news releases as a means of gaining press coverage, are long gone. Journalists and bloggers now work in the moment, using social media channels and the web to find the information and assets they require at a moment’s notice. If that information isn’t available for your brand, the chances are very high that they’ll simply move onto one of your competitors. So it’s shocking to read that so many newsrooms are out of date, inaccessible or contain poor quality information. Running a Facebook page or a Twitter account in isolation simply isn’t enough and brands must wake up to that face. Fast.”

Peter Ingman, CEO of Mynewsdesk stated, “Whilst some sectors performed better than others, the reality is that even the best performing sector, travel, failed to score as high as the 38% average of the top 100 global brands. This should be a wake up call for organisations in the UK who need to take advantage of the developing trends in technology, as well as the changing media landscape, by providing their target audiences with the types of content they want, such as video and images, on the devices they want to use.”

Mynewsdesk’s What’s the story? The 2014 newsroom report is available for download here. It includes the complete findings of the study, it is also offers best practice guidelines, top tips for a successful online newsroom, practical information, expert opinions and real-world examples.

Ends

Notes to editors

The full study, What’s the Story? The 2014 newsroom report, evaluated the top 10 brands from five different UK sectors and benchmarked them across 60 different criteria, taking in to account content, social media integration, newsroom structure, features, multimedia, blogging and mobile functionality.

Methodology

Based on a decade of experience developing newsrooms for companies across the world, the Mynewsdesk team devised a set of best practice criteria, in conjunction with professionals from across the communications industry. We evaluated the top 10 UK companies from five different sectors against our criteria, and assigned each a score. With 56 points available, we were then able to create a benchmark based on how well they performed.

You can download the 2013 benchmark report into the top 100 global brands here.

The companies assessed were: Lurpak, John Lewis, Princess Cruises, University College

London, Leeds, Warburtons, Imperial College London, Cornwall UA, Cunard, Audley Travel, Birmingham, Oxford, London School of Economics, Sheffield, The Body Shop, Exodus, Walkers Crisps, County Durham UA, City of Edinburgh, Bristol, Durham, Dunelm Mill, Inntravel, Evans Cycles, HF Holidays, Fred Olsen Cruise, Bonmarché, Manchester, Cambridge, Trailfinders, Glasgow City, Nestle Nescafé, Hovis, Lucozade, Andrex, Bradford, King's College, Manchester, Waterstones, Edinburgh, Kingsmill, Wiltshire UA, Lush, Richer Sounds, Lakeland, Early Learning Centre, Cadbury, Whiskas, Archers Holidays, Riviera Travel

Media contact:

Darren Willsher / Andrew Hill

EML Wildfire Tech PR

+44 20 8408 8000

mynewsdesk@emlwildfire.com

or 

Laura McLean 

Mynewsdesk 

07860 755 772 

laura.mclean@mynewsdesk.com