Media Monitoring
Q: I was wondering with your experience if you could recommend a media monitoring service. I have researched Bowden’s, and a local (Halifax) company called NewsWatch (a division of the CCL Group) and I’m sure that there are more out there, but who are they and what will they do for me? In order to be able to justify the money the company will put into this, I have been asked to research different companies and prepare somewhat of a comparison of them. I’m just wondering if you’ve seen anything like that already prepared and available to PR professionals.
I would appreciate any feedback or recommendations you have.
Thank you,
Tracy McMichael
A: Dear Tracy,
I haven’t seen a comparison of different media measurement services, but if one has been done, it would probably have been covered in a PR or Media Relations publication. You might contact the editors of industry publications like Philips PR News, PR Reporter, or PRSA’s The Strategist. I believe Ragan Communications in Chicago also publishes one or more newsletters geared to media relations.
I have a copy of the 2001 PR and Corporate Communicators Yearbook published by Tom Moore (301-279-9455) that lists a number of monitoring services. I’ll list their web sites below. Some specialize in just broadcast, or just Internet; others do it all. You might come up with a list of criteria of what you’re looking for and check out the contenders on that basis from their sites and from talking with them. Some will provide a lot of raw data to you. Others provide a great deal of analysis and recommendations. Obviously, you’d pay more for the analysis, but in the end, it’s far more valuable.
Here are some of the Web sites from the Yearbook:
- baconsinfo.com
- bowdens.com
- burrelles.com
- carma.com
- delahaye.com
- dowjones.com
- ewatch.com
- lexisnexis.com
- lucepress.com
- luceonline.com
- mediascan.com
- newsalert.com
- newsclip.com
- newsedge.com
- prnewswire.com
- romeike.co.uk
- surveys.com
- umi.com
- vidmon.com
- webclipping.com
Good luck,
Angela D. Sinickas