Snapshot from the Edge: Dayton Daily News' Press Release Tool

By Beth Lawton

First Published: March 2008

Dayton Daily News’ press release tool lets community organizations post press releases directly to the newspaper’s Web site, like similar tools on other newspaper sites. It’s the way Dayton is using the shared information that is exceptional.

“The motivation behind it is that we wanted to give local organizations an opportunity to get their information to the public as quickly as possible,” said Ray Marcano, Internet General Manager for Cox Ohio Publishing. When he was in the newsroom, Marcano remembered how local organizations would complain that they couldn't get their press releases published.  This tool, he hopes, goes a long way to helping solve that issue.

The new tool, which took just a few weeks to develop, posts all submitted press releases to the online business section as soon as they are submitted. In addition, it automatically sends the release to the appropriate editors in the newsroom via e-mail, posts headlines on relevant, category-based widgets throughout the newspaper’s Web site and will soon interface with the newspaper’s events database.

Those who wish to post a press release are first asked to register with DaytonDailyNews.com, if they aren’t already registered users. Once they register, they can access a Web page with a simple form to fill out; the form includes text boxes for the organization’s name and contact information, the press release itself, and specific event information such as time, date and place. The poster can also input e-mail addresses for people who should get the release, and the tool e-mails those people with information.

During the posting process, users can choose from 19 different categories, such as education, health, sports or tourism. “They’re a more specific list of categories, which allows us to get more granular in terms of who in the newsroom gets the press release,” said Zack McGhee, creative team leader for Cox Ohio. Each of those categories is mapped to up to three people in the newsroom, who receive an alert in their e-mail.

In addition, those categories are driving press release headline lists on other areas of DaytonDailyNews.com. The entertainment, business, local news and other sections of the site have a feed from the press release tool. Community sections of the Web site will get feeds soon.

McGhee said collecting this information in pieces makes the possibilities endless. “As long as we’re collecting this information, if we gather as much as we can about any particular event or press release, we can do what we want with it, like a mapping feature, adding a list of events to the entertainment page.” Events listing on the entertainment pages are already in place, a mapping feature is coming soon, and programmers are working to get the events database and the press release database synched up. The newspaper’s Web site is archiving all the press releases for reference.

So far, there has been no spam or other press release tool abuse. But just in case, press releases that are flagged twice by site visitors are automatically taken off the site and put into a queue that editors can check periodically. Press releases that are mistakenly flagged can be restored easily, making the tool fairly low-maintenance.

In its first few weeks, community members submitted 100 press releases, and several organizations were already repeat customers. The press releases included announcements about local artists’ exhibits, a home and garden show, concerts and spaghetti dinners.

The team in Dayton has done very little marketing so far, but plans to visit community organizations and advertising agencies to get the word out.

The press release tool’s syndication will increase page views across the site, McGhee predicted. “Just starting to syndicate it on the site, we’ve gotten more than 2,500 page views. It’s good for a tool like this at this early stage. We think it has potential.”

Other newspapers in the Cox Ohio Publishing family will have their own, customized press release tools online later this year.