20th September, 2006
The business of media relations
A new online business, designed to help other businesses grow and journalists find contacts and story ideas, opened for
business this week.
netPRess, an online media research and business promotion tool, is a comprehensive fully searchable website, established
to allow businesses to promote their skills and achievements to and through the media.
Founded by journalists for journalists, and backed by HP and Microsoft, netPRess aims to help the media find new
contacts, source leads and check out the latest events with ease and without intrusion.
“We developed netPRess for businesses and other organisations which want to get their name out there, but don’t
necessarily want to spend a lot of time or money doing it,” says Lesley Springall, a freelance business journalist and
netPRess director. “Good journalists are always looking for new contacts and story ideas and netPRess builds on this,
helping journalists find stories and contacts, while helping those contacts get their news out through the media.”
Free to anyone who works in the media, netPRess profiles businesses, their spokespeople and contact details; lists
events; and publishes press releases from a broad range of businesses and other organisations. Journalists can search
netPRess’s directories using key words or sector categories or simply check out organisations, stories or events in
their local area.
“The idea of netPRess is to help businesses, and other organisations, grow and promote themselves with as little trouble
as possible, without intruding on the media,” says Vicki Wilson, netPRess founder and director. “There’s information and
tips on the site about how to best deliver their messages. All they really need to do is sign up and we do the
promotional leg work for them.”
netPRess is a new communication channel with the media, says Wilson. “One that’s not intrusive and won’t result in your
details or press release ending up lost because it was either poorly targeted or not required at the time, or simply
consigned to the delete box or rubbish bin.”
It works for all sides of the PR equation, says Springall: journalists, researchers and producers get a comprehensive
database of story ideas, contacts and events, that they can dip into when they want; businesses and organisations get to
distribute their news and details through a well targeted and fully searchable database; and PR professionals have a new
communications channel to promote their clients and their clients’ news, which ensures their client’s details are always
available to the media.
ENDS