For me, the essence of good web design boils down to understanding your visitors and enabling them to access relevant, well written content as quickly and easily as possible.
Nothing revolutionary there.
This practice includes avoiding the dreaded Flash infection which impacts usability and hurts search engine optimaization. It means using standard HTML navigation that visitors are comfortable with.
Gerry McGovern in a recent opinion piece stated that the press release is “awful web content”. He continues:
“Maybe you have to put press releases up on your website for legal reasons. Just know that they are not the reason any sane person would decide to come to your website.”
You see while I agree visitors may not come to the site for press releases, I disagree they don’t serve a valuable function online and offline.
First of all, if we base our navigation on providing the information people need in places they expect to find it, then your press room should provide a full archieve of the company’s press releases. (Press Room design is a separate topic)
The poor Press Release is not always the most effective means of communication, but it serves a purpose. Journalists know what to expect with a press release. It provides a company’s version of a news event with the factual information, corporate quote and links to more detail.
It’s not always exciting, the reader may not always find it interesting, but it does provide a useful repository of information for website visitors in a format they will expect and can therefore find, navigate and use.
That’s good web content practice.
Gerry also believes that press rooms are less than effective:
“Let�s say I�m a journalist and I�m thinking of doing a story on your organization. Where is the last place I�m going to look? You guessed it! The media/press section. I�m going to root around your website to try and find something interesting. I�m certainly not going to be corralled into your media section and fed the story you�d like me to write.”
I think Gerry (who was a journalist in the deep past) is getting confused with Woodward and Bernstein here. Most corporate websites do provide useful product or service information but they are rarely the receptacle of dark corporate secrets.
Getting back to the basics of good navigation and providing visitors with the information they want in the place they expect. The press room serves an important purpose.
If a journalist is looking for PR contacts, artwork, the date a product shipped, the raw details on a product such as features and price, they’ll head to the press room.
Good press rooms provide contact details, artwork, background information, forthcoming events, links to relevant background materials etc. In essence it can provide a useful portal for visitors (and journalists) who wish to find out the basics, check information and then delve deeper.
That’s good.
What’s the alternative? No press room? No standard repository of information and resources? Endless searching for contact details? No standard means of providing information on what the company is doing and has done?
Steady on. The press release and the press room are alive and well and both serve a purpose. In fact our press room is one of the most popular sections on the website – someone’s visiting it.
Yes there are improvements to be made and yes we can all probably apply our skills to making press releases more effective, but let’s make sure the baby doesn’t fall out of the bath.
Good online communication is not simply about innovative formatting and wacky new ways to deliver information. It is the marriage of good online practice with tried and tested traditional techniques.
Of course, that’s only my opinion…
Murphy's Law 