Designing Effective Online Press Rooms

Designing Effective Online Press Rooms

1. Introduction
2. Press Room Usability
3. Five Reasons for Visiting
4. Philip Morris
5. Bank of America
6. Apple Computer
7. Recommendations
8. Enhancements
9. Conclusions
10. Works Cited

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By Matthew Tevenan
Page 3 of 10

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Coyne and Nielsen cite the five most common reasons journalists in their study gave for visiting a company's website:

• finding a PR contact
• checking basic facts about the company
• discovering the company's own spin on events
• checking financial information
• downloading images to use as illustrations in stories

Making these five reasons usability goals should be the aim of every corporation when designing its online press room. To gauge how well corporations are fulfilling journalists' needs today, the online press rooms of three very visible firms are examined next, using these five goals as guides. Included among them is one (the press room of Philip Morris) that was also examined in the Coyne and Nielsen study. A brief evaluation of the press rooms of these three companies provides an eye-opening look at the differences between--and lack of any usability standards among--corporate press rooms today.

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Copyright © 2001 by Matthew Tevenan. All rights reserved.