Every PR person knows that all client executives wants to see their name in the paper. But is that really going to deliver the results these clients seek in terms of web traffic, brand recall, revenues, etc.? The juries still out.

PR industry veteran Peter Himler shared a post recently by Paul Gillin with the bodacious title Why Online Matters More Than Print.

In it, Mr. Gillin extols the superior buzzmaking virtues of online media versus print (and broadcast), which builds on the theme of his other more provocative blog "Newspaper Death Watch."

In his post, Gillin observes the tangible effects of three different media mentions of his blog (in BuzzMachine, The New Yorker and The Economist). Both BuzzMachine and The Economist mentions appeared online, while The New Yorker ran in the magazine only.

"Prior to the reference in BuzzMachine, the site was getting about 500 unique visitors per day. After Jeff Jarvis linked to one of my year-end roundup articles, that average jumped by about 200 visitors a day. It jumped again after the mention in the Economist... However, a prominent reference in the New Yorker...had no discernible impact. Why? Because The New Yorker reference was the only one that didn’t include a hyperlink. ...In both the BuzzMachine and Economist cases, a surge of inbound links from other bloggers followed the mentions on their websites. This improved my Google search performance and Technorati authority rankings. Subscriptions to my RSS feed shot up by about 5% in each of the days following the links’ appearance."

Now we can debate the qualitative differences of each mention, let alone the intangible prestige of The New Yorker, but Mr. Gillin weighed the publicity's value on quantifiable metrics, e.g., site visitors, Technorati rankings, etc.

Without question media relations is still about garnering good editorial coverage, whether that be online, print or broadcast. What’s changed is that our success may finally be accurately measured by the action the publicity spurs, not by the coverage itself.

Mr. Gillin concludes: "Not long ago, online publishers were frequently called upon to defend the value of a mention on their properties. Public relations professionals told me that Web coverage was nice, but their clients really valued a mention in a prominent print publication. I would submit that this scenario has now been reversed. With companies increasingly using the Web for promotion, lead generation, sales and customer support, a link from a prominent website is of far greater value than a print article in a prominent print or broadcast outlet. And as a younger generation of business and consumer readers gathers more of its information online, that value will only accelerate."

What does this all mean for the PR industry, with its fancy clip books as the client deliverable? It means we should continue to deliver on our promise of using media relations to build brand awareness, drive revenue, increase web traffic, etc. The difference now is we have more ability to measure our success and our clients will soon realize the impact digital media relations has on their bottom line.

According to the recent Neilsen report, “Most PR sections of sites studied fail to support journalists in their quest for the facts, information, and contacts they can use to write stories about companies and their products.”

 Say What?

 Actually, I’m not that surprised. I’ve been through my fair share of website, micro-site designs and re-designs and know first-hand how more often than not the marketing folks commandeer the content and turn the website into a company brochure. Not to say there weren’t a few marketing execs who understood the importance of the company website as a resource to not only customers and potential customers but to the media as well. It’s the first place they turn to for information about your company, your executives, your products, your services, your news releases, contact information, customer service, etc. why not make it easy to find the information they seek.

 In today’s interactive world, everyone including the media seeks instant gratification. They not only want to know how to reach the right person at your organization, they want to be able to easily download headshots, product shots, bios, relevant videos and news releases without having to go through four of five people before reaching the right one who can help. Furthermore, it will soon be critical for organizations to provide more than just email or phone to get a hold of you in a hurry. Meaning, IM or Twitter will also need to be viable options. If you don’t do this, it may impact whether or not your client gets covered.

According to the report, journalists repeatedly said that poor website usability could reduce or completely eliminate their press coverage of a company. For example, after having a difficult time using a site, one journalist said: "… I would be reluctant to go back to the site. If I had a choice to write about something else, then I would write about something else."

Another journalist described what he'd do if he couldn't find a press contact or the facts he needed for his story: "Better not to write it than to get it wrong. I might avoid the subject altogether."

Us PR professionals aren’t completely off the hook either; we need to make sure our press release headlines are written with journalists in mind so they’re able to quickly grasp the gist by reading only a few words if reading it on the company website or via BusinessWire for example.

One last point, we should also look internally at our own agency websites as well and make sure we’re practicing what we preach.