What is news monitoring?
Media monitoring is the process of reading, watching, or listening to the editorial content of media sources on a continuing basis, and then, identifying, saving, and analyzing content that contains specific keywords or topics.
Monitoring editorial content of news sources including newspapers, magazines, trade journals, TV, radio stations and the Internet is by far the most common type of media monitoring. This form of media monitoring is called “news monitoring”.
To build a prominent image of a brand and a good reputation, it is essential that you should monitor the news going on around your brand, whether your Ads are effective or not, how the public is reacting to them, tracking your competitors, popularity of the business, etc. All these practices of analyzing and monitoring come under “news monitoring”. There are two ways in which news can be monitored, print and online.
Different tools are used to monitor the news and they can be very helpful as they get the work done with a lot of precision and accuracy.
For example, google alerts can be used for online news monitoring, many other websites like Reddit, Hootsuite, Tweepsmap, etc. can provide information about things like, number of times your brand was mentioned or the number of hashtags about your news that were used.
Well, in the case of print news monitoring, 24×7 information tracking is done manually, many agencies provide these kinds of services where they keep a track of newspaper articles, magazines, periodicals, etc., and deliver the specific content to their customers.
What are the differences between print and online news monitoring?
The basic point of differentiation is that print news monitoring is done manually and is sent in the form of clipbooks which consist of various cut-outs from magazines and newspapers. Whereas, online news monitoring is done through various software which can track the specific news according to the algorithm that’s been set, can analyze the reaction of the audience, feedback from customers, etc.
Print news monitoring includes clippings that can be kept for years and can be attached to reports as well, it is all tangible and if needed, can be shown as proof as well. On the other hand, online news monitoring can track the total number of mentions about the news, top influencers who promoted the brand, recordings of various news channels, or radio broadcasts.
Even though online news monitoring is less challenging, the credibility of print news monitoring is more and the importance of news that has appeared in print media is greater as compared to an online medium.
In recent years, specialized Online Media Monitoring Services have emerged to track social media for word-of-mouth or “buzz” about companies, brands, celebrities, or political/economic issues. Most of the established online news monitoring services now offer integrated news and social media monitoring services.
Summary
Print news monitoring v/s online news monitoring
In summary, monitoring news and social media is a vital function to track news release placements, identify other mentions in the media about the organization, manage corporate and brand reputation, monitor competition, stay current on industry issues, and other purposes. Online media monitoring agencies offer superior results and lower costs than in-house monitoring by staff.