Day: October 13, 2003

For solo practitioners and small firms, the cost of a new release of Microsoft Office at $400-$500 can be daunting.

I’ve been taking a look at the latest version of OpenOffice, version 1.1, and it’s come on in leaps and bounds since the earlier releases. The current version supports Windows and Linux, though Apple users should wait for a new ‘Aqua-compatible’ release in the near future.

It lacks much of the polish and some of the power of MS Office, particularly in some of the more advanced features you may have come to love, but it’s a fine product and will certainly cope with the usual (80%) word processing and spreadsheet tasks.

One additional feature that’s very worthwhile is the ability to create Adobe PDF’s from within your word processor. You simply click on the ‘File’ menu and select ‘Export as PDF’, nice and simple.

OpenOffice won’t import all the sophisticated tables and formatting in existing Word documents but it certainly does a great job importing most documents I have. It won’t hurt to have a look. The one big missing is an e-mail/scheduling/task management component. Linux users have Ximian, but Windows users are a little stuck for a full -featured Outlook replacement.

The bottom line is I’m not ready to move from Office yet, it is still the best office suite out there, but OpenOffice is closing fast and the purchase price is quite compelling. Upgrade pricing runs from $0.00 to $0.00.

It’s been a while since we last discussed online newsrooms.

Like any web design project, the specification for an online news room should start with your audience.  What information are journalists visiting your website for, and what’s the best way to deliver it?

Vocus have released their third annual survey on the best practices for online newsrooms.  Among the survey’s more interesting findings are:

• 92% of journalists in the survey use corporate websites for gathering information
• Only 24% of journalists usually find the information they are looking for (up from less than 10% last year)
• 45% of journalists say that finding the right information on a corporate web site affects their decision to include a firm in a feature
• The most popular items journalists want online are press releases, contact information and corporate information
• Their number one issue is no contact information!

There are some absolute cardinal rules for online press rooms:

 Post your contact details on the front page and on every page of information.  These details include direct phone and personal e-mail addresses

 Post press releases in real-time as they cross the wires (and include contact information with every release online)

 Provide background information and resources including photography etc

 Do NOT force journalists to register for access

 Post press releases in HTML – you can also provide them in PDF but always provide them in HTML first and foremost

 Enable journalists to sign-up for future press releases

 Ensure easy navigation from the front page of the website

 Clearly time-stamp press releases and materials

Then there’s a whole range of “nice to have” considerations for a press room. These include publishing your press releases as RSS feeds, providing feature suggestions, providing downloadable press kits.  The ExpertPR article on news rooms below includes a good list of these, however beware that in my opinion a number of their recommendations are not essential (and are promoting the work of the list’s authors) such as a full featured content management system, wireless distribution, built-in approval process etc.

Building an effective press room isn’t difficult.  Start with your audience and very quickly you can have an effective online resource.

Happy Monday morning.  If you’re looking to ease your way back into a new week, here’s a list of some interesting PR-related reading to get you started.

 Overcoming your nerves to make successful PR pitches [ExpertPR]

 Running a media training program [LACP]

 Tips for television appearances [ExpertPR]

 Why good creative PR requires discipline [RLMPR]

 The differences between print and web media [ExpertPR]

 PR and the principles of persuasion [LACP]

 A good checklist for what you need on your online press room [ExpertPR] Read more in the posting above.

 Defining PR [RLMPR]

 Building an effective media list [ExpertPR]

 Statistics on Corporate Morale [LACP]

 What’s the most effective means of pitching? E-mail (41%) Phone (36%) Face-to-Face (23%) [via LACP Online Poll]