In a 2009 survey of thousands of journalists by TEKgroup International, 43% said it was difficult to find a company’s newsroom, and more than half said it was difficult to find the name of the company’s media contact and how to communicate with him or her. That’s a lousy level of meeting the needs of those who are in a position to give your organization invaluable exposure and credibility.

To avoid frustrating media visiting your site thinking they might want to feature your business in a story, follow these eight best practices.

1. Navigation. Use obvious signage in your website structure for the location of your online newsroom. By far the best option is an important navigation link simply called “News”, “Press” or “Media”. Second best is to offer the information the media needs in the “About Company” section of your site.

2. Press releases. Provide a searchable gallery of your organization’s releases, most recent first. Please never provide this material in PDF format, just as normal HTML pages. Since one cannot cut and paste names and quotes from PDF files, companies that provide collateral in this way are considered terribly clueless by media people.

3. Contacts with the media. Journalists have a deadline and will not submit a web form to contact someone who may or may not reply to them right away. They want the name, email address, and phone number of the person who is in a position to help them right away. If there are different media contacts for different divisions of the organization, list them and their areas of responsibility in your online newsroom.

4. News clips. Media people like to scan past coverage of your company. Always clearly point out the difference between your releases and third party coverage.

5. Executive biographies and company history. Make them factual, readable and attractive in style. Don’t fill them with “marketing talk.”

6. Photographs. Recognize that print publications require high-resolution photos (300 DPI), while online media require low-resolution photos (72 DPI). Provide both types of photos for instant download.

7. Video and audio. Reporters like the way they complete the portrait of their organization. Shorter works better than longer here. If you have videos or audios that are longer than 10 minutes, please provide a transcript in addition to the clips.

8. Social networks. Indicate how reporters can sign up for your Twitter account, visit your Facebook page, read your blog, etc.

How can you be sure your online newsroom meets the needs of media people? Round up some of them who have never visited your website and sit them down in front of a computer. Assign them various journalism-related tasks to perform without any prompting from you, such as finding the name and phone number of the media contact, information about your social responsibility activities, and the correct spelling of the name of the senior vice president of operations in Southamerica.

If users can perform those tasks with at least 90% success, great. If not, revise your site to make it more media friendly and try again. Running an effective online newsroom costs little, and its rewards (a higher public profile) can be quite large!