Burson-Marsteller Australia (B-M) conducted research into the online newsrooms of twenty top Australian brands. The study found that the vast majority of Australian companies are failing to provide journalists and bloggers with the content or services they require to effectively report company news announcements online.

1. Online Newsrooms and
Australia’s Best Brands
Sydney, Australia
March 2010

2. Methodology – Research Objectives
• The study looked at the online newsrooms (media centres and equivalent) of twenty top Australian
brand name companies.
• It examined the extent to which these organisations are using the Web and online content to more
effectively communicate company news and announcements to journalists, bloggers and
customers/stakeholders.
• The research study looked at the use of the following online newsroom features:
– Access: Is there a homepage link to the Newsroom?
– Images: Are images available for download?
– Search tools: Is it possible to search the newsroom content (specifically)?
– Video download: Is video content available for download?
– Sharing (Social Tags and RSS): Is the capability to easily share news content available?
• This study is the second part in a two part research project. Part one focused on social media use
by Australian brands.

3. Methodology – Source Companies
• The study examined the top 20 brands as listed in Interbrand’s Australia’s Best Brands Report,
March 2009.
• The study ranks the top 20 Australian companies by brand value, which is a derivative of the way
business and financial assets are valued covering three elements: Financial Forecasting; Role of
Branding; Brand Strength.
• Financial assessments are based on published annual reports and analyst reports from
investment banks. Marketing assessments are based on a wide array of primary and secondary
sources. Ultimately, each brand was assessed for inclusion on its own merits.
• Holding companies are excluded from the Interbrand report. Wholly owned or local subsidiaries of
global brands are also excluded.
• Interbrand has published national brand value rankings more than ten countries around the world.
• There is no formal relationship between Burson-Marsteller and Interbrand. Interbrand were not
involved in the development of this study but are aware of its existence.

4. Access - Direct newsroom link on homepage
More than half of the Australian brands
surveyed provide a direct link to their
newsroom from their corporate homepage.
60% News content is arguably the most dynamic
and compelling content that a corporation
has to offer. It provides stakeholders with a
sense of direction of the company and
demonstrates momentum and success.
The remainder of the survey looks at the
online newsroom capabilities and content of
twenty top Australian brands.

5. Newsroom Features Overview
The majority of Australian brands surveyed
are not providing rich media content as a
100%
means of enriching company news.
90%
80% Supporting materials such as executive
photography, logos and video content are
70%
not generally available via newsrooms.
60%
50% Australian businesses are missing an
opportunity to improve the quality of their
40%
coverage and media relationships.
30%
20% The online newsrooms studied are not
user friendly. Very few offer search and
10%
sharing functions.
0%
Image Search Video Sharing
Online newsrooms are typically static
repositories of text based news releases.

6. Newsroom Features – Image Downloads
‘A picture is worth a thousand words…’
Image Downloads
Yes The Internet is driving a trend towards
15%
visual communication and story-telling.
Journalists and bloggers are increasingly
looking for engaging content to help
bring stories to life.
No
85%
Australian companies are missing out on
the opportunity to engage journalists,
Video
bloggers and other stakeholders using
Yes imagery and video.
10%
Imagery and video is an increasingly
important consideration for organisations
that need to convey their story in the
No highly competitive and shortened news
90% cycle.

7. Newsroom Features – Search and Sharing
Ability to Share Newsroom Content
A very small number of the Australian
brands surveyed provide the ability for
Yes
20% newsroom users to easily locate and
share content.
No Only one out of the 20 companies
80%
surveyed offer the ability to search
newsroom content (specifically).
Ability to Search Newsroom
Yes RSS and sharing tags are provided by
5%
20% of the companies surveyed.
No
95%

8. Australian Best Practice - Telstra
Newsroom search
Sharing capabilities
Supporting content including
executive bios, factsheets,
news coverage, etc.
Video content and image
downloads

9. Global Best Practice – Toyota
Newsroom search
Sharing capabilities
Social media integration
Video content and image
downloads
Supporting content
including executive bios,
factsheets, news coverage,
etc.

10. Conclusions and Takeaways
1. Effective online newsrooms provide journalists and bloggers with the tools and content they need to tell stories in an
entertaining and engaging way. Internet users are three times more likely to click on video content yet very few
Australian brands are leveraging video to communicate news stories. Online newsrooms in corporate Australia are
generally ineffectual.
2. Journalists are increasingly turning to the Internet as a primary source of information and story ideas. Providing
easy access to news content and rich media assets can provide an organisation with a ‘competitive’ edge in their
PR efforts.
3. Effective online newsrooms can ‘automate’ many media relations processes (i.e. provision of photography and
supporting information) freeing up Corporate Communications professionals to focus on strategic and proactive
programs.
4. Traffic to corporate websites is in decline. News content provides an opportunity for brands to create a more
engaging, compelling and interactive presence via their online newsrooms.
5. Newsroom capabilities can be easily enhanced at low cost using existing social networks, such as Flickr for photo
archiving and sharing and Twitter for ‘broadcasting’ news.
6. Corporate blogging has not been widely adopted by Australian brands and newsroom content and capabilities are
poor. None of the Australian brands surveyed are competing with global best practice.

11. Contacts
Daniel Young, Director
Burson-Marsteller Australia
+61 (0) 2 9928 1589
+61 (0) 404 626 584
daniel.young@bm.com
Carly Yanco, Associate
Burson-Marsteller Australia
+61 (0) 2 9928 1531
+61 (0) 413 648 396
carly.yanco@bm.com