I spent a few hours over the weekend evaluating the Websites of the top 50 corporations in the 2008 Fortune 500 with one very simple question in mind: Is there a direct link from the home page to the Newsroom or equivalent?
By Newsroom, I mean the area within a corporate Website that hosts press announcements and other types of news content - Just to be clear.
You're probably asking yourself why?
The Newsroom is a basic, low maintenance and inexpensive way for corporations to share content with journalists, analysts and bloggers, so you'd think that the most successful companies in America would make it as easy as possible to get access to the information, right?
Second, the Internet has placed pressure on corporate communications to engage in a conversation with the audience and this, in turn, places pressure on newsrooms to change. The one directional communication (i.e. the press release) is increasingly irrelevant. As a result, the traditional newsroom is out of sync with what most major corporations are doing now in social and digital media.
Out of the top 50 corporations in the Fortune 500, 42 do have a direct link to their newsroom i.e. it's one click away.
Of the 42, ten have direct links to their most recent media announcements.
The ten are:
Ford Motor (Fortune 500 rank: 7); Bank of America (9); JP Morgan Chase & Co (12); Verizon (17); Goldman Sachs (20); United Health Group (25); Boeing (27); United Parcel Services (46); Time Warner (49).
These companies have brought news to their home page.
The eight that don't have a direct link and which force users to go via the 'About Us' section (as an example) are:
AT&T (10); Hewlett-Packard (14); Home Depot (22); Costco Wholesale (29); Dell (34); Wells Fargo (41); Microsoft (44); Lowe's (48).
These companies are effectively hiding their news from journalists, bloggers and also their customers.
It seems odd that only a small number of companies are bringing their news to the forefront of their Web presence, since this is the content that changes most often.
One of the disconnects that I see in corporate communications is between the conversational and authentic voice that companies are adopting in social networks and social media channels and their persistent use of gobbledygook in news announcements.
I continually see examples of big corporations putting out media releases, which flout the basics of press releases writing and are more or less meaningless due to the heavy use of marketing speak and jargon.
Some organisations are responding to this disconnect and re-working their newsroom in way that becomes more useful for bloggers and journalist.
Ford is a high profile example of this. For major products, Ford is breaking content into snippets which can be re-purposed and re-compiled by the receiver in any way they like. You can find out more from Ford here; commentary from Geoff Livingston and Jason Falls.
The newsroom is going to change shape and form in the years to come as it gels with and responds to the demands of social media and an ongoing increase in rich media, such as video. The companies that take the lead will be desirable places for corporate communications execs to work and they'll more effectively engage their audience groups, resulting in better exposure.
I think we'll see News content move up the site map to corporate home pages in the years to come.
Finally, there are some noteworthy sites within the Fortune 50.
I think the Goldman Sachs site is outstanding, it very succintly tells a story and has a clear message unlike many corporate home pages.
At the other end of the spectrum, Berkshire Hathway with a market valuation of $206,976 million dollars has a Website that would do my local community centre proud. I'm guessing they don't pick up a lot of clients via the Web.
Daniel Young, PR consultant, writes on the impact of new technology and the Internet on PR and corporate communications. Daniel is based in Australia.