Extract: "A clipping service is a “tool”, much like your computer or calculator or cell phone, for the express purpose of gathering business intelligence. To be effective, the clipping service must provide an individually tailored service to search out the precise information you need. We have no “stock” orders because what you need to know is unique to your organization. "
Public Relations professional need to measure their effectivness by gathering clippings from the media outlets to whom they have sent press releases. The purpose would be to see if they have covered the story as they wanted, if they message of the press release was clearly communicated, and to measure the value of the earned media. The value can be qualtified, by measuring the column inches, then calculating the media value by multiplying it by the national advertising rate for that paper. Many PR Pros also use a multiplier to determine a publicity value for those clips, which is more art than science.
2 comments:
I think earned media value or advertising value equivalency i fuzzy math. The value of earned media is in the behavior change it affects in the people that consume information. A better question to be asking is how does X media coverage affect the attitudes and behavior toward an organization.
For example, I've collected over 300 newspaper stories about the 1993 Branch Davidian FBI standoff, and I'm systematically combing the content of the news reports to identify metaphorical framing occurrences that correlated with framing from the FBI negotiations on the ground. My objective is to see if message framing played a role in triggering crisis moment during the 51=day standoff. More importantly, I want to see and the thesis will reflect the larger issue of message framing and how to minimize damage control efforts. More importantly, it will tell me as a public relations professional how to adjust the behavioral attributes of law enforcement agents during a crisis situation.
I have found that the actual numbers do not mean as much by themselves. But when you compare the rate of change over time against the change of the competition, or other issue, or advertiser, then you can measure the change in behavior. But the underlying need to measure the effectivness of PR campaigns remains. How well are you doing, and by how much.
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