Multiple services are needed to follow all of the media.

Why Monitoring the Media is getting harder as the types of media are segmenting. With Television, and Radio, Traditional media monitoring services are substantial resources to follow "Old Media". Traditional media monitoring services can follow TV, and Radio, and Newsprint just as well as any other service. These services are usually a regional service that provides service in that part of the country. Regional Service CANNOT be overlooked as they have the most comprehensive list of media that is covered for that area. They are have Hyper-local coverage containing weekly papers, local newscast and local radio coverage that has a very limited reach. So if you are tracking something for that community and need to know the impression that the media is giving in that community, then that is your best shot at getting ALL of the coverage that is available.

So with the advent of twitter and Facebook and many other blogging services, RSS is now becoming a real tool to monitor what can be said in the internet world of media. Google alerts is great to get a huge number of hits about a generic topic, but if you are a State Hospital Association for instance, then the number of hits that are found is intimidating. There are too many hits that are false, and Google alerts does not allow you to track these hits with a limited geography of where they originated.

A combination of traditional media monitoring services, and new media monitoring service, or Traditional monitoring services that now offer internet monitoring is the way to go. You will find that there is some overlap from the printed edition of the newspaper and the online version of the newspaper, but only by about 20%. There are many ads that never make it online and there are many article and blog post that never make it to print. Advertising is a whole different ballgame when you are talking about internet vs print.

Solution: A multifaceted approach for media monitoring is needed in order to monitor everything. You will need to use a Traditional Clipping Service, that can provide clips online in a digital format, Broadcast Monitoring Service that can provide online stats and preview of those clips found, and a Internet Media Monitoring service that is versed in RSS and Feeds and can help you set up alerts for yourself to monitor. Google alerts if good if you have $0 budget, but you will spend more time weeding out false hits and the likelihood of missing something is far greater than if you use a professional service.

Please contact me if you wish to discuss this in any further detail. you can find all of my contact information just about anywhere on the web. I am VIDEODRED or Dred Porter all over the internet. Full Disclosure I own and operate a monitoring service, but we are regional in nature and If I can not provide service for you I will tell you straight up, and can refer you to possible contacts that may be able to help from the national association NACPCS (North American Conference of Press Clipping Bureaus) nacpcs.com

Dred P. Porter, Jr.
Magnolia Clipping and Broadcast Monitoring Service
298Commerce Park Dr. Suite A
Ridgeland, MS 39157-2237
dredporterjr@magnoliaclips.com
videodred@gmail.com
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