Newswise — On April 4, 2008, Newswise originally published the Cancer Research Awareness Wire to journalists only, to promote the observance of National Cancer Research Month this May. Today the Cancer Research Awareness Wire goes live to the public, and the articles contained in the wire will continue to be available at the Cancer Research Awareness Feature Channel.
With more than 80 submissions from contributors on a range of cancer topics, the wire was a huge success. Thanks in large part is owed to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for their efforts soliciting contributions and sponsoring the wire.
Sponsorship Opportunities with Newswise
With our new topical and strategic themes, contributors can focus their ideas towards a pre-screened and interested audience of both media outlets and individuals. In addition to 4,500 journalist subscribers, our virtual wires are also distributed to more than 10,000 professionals who are seeking the latest in medical and scientific news. Sponsors may suggest themes based on a strategic issue, an event, or an awareness campaign.
"We are excited to be collaborating more closely with our contributing members through these sponsorship opportunities" says Dr. Roger Johnson, founder and President of Newswise. "We look forward to enhancing the public awareness of what is most important to our members, which include journalists, contributors and individual professionals."
An important element of that collaboration is how Newswise works with clients as a partnership. "We are constantly striving to put the 'relationship' back into media relations," Johnson says.
"The wire looks great," says Staci Goldberg, Communications and Public Relations Director for AACR, who worked closely with Newswise to produce the Cancer Research Awareness wire. "I am impressed and pleased with the number of contributions and the breadth of content categories."
| Table 1.1—Reporters' Suggestions for Thematic Wire Topics | ||
| Medical | Science | Other |
| Autism | Environment | Literacy |
| Hearing | Ecology | Emergency Management |
| Long-term Care | Green Issues | School News |
| Neurology | Aerospace Computers | Tourism |
| Cardiology | Nanotechnology | Homeland Security |
| Obesity | Climate Change | Civil Rights |
| Surgery | Biodiversity | Pharmaceutical Law |
| Sports Medicine | Sustainable Development | Mental Health |
| Sleep | Animal Behavior | |
| Genetics | ||
We asked some of our vetted reporter-subscribers to suggest topics they might like to see for future thematic wires. Some of their responses are included in Table 1.1.
Expanding Your Reach with Thematic Wires
Every media relations professional has a goal in mind for press coverage. Whether that means being written up in a top-circulating national daily newspaper, getting prime-time cable news exposure, or something else, Newswise believes that every clients' press releases have potential.
"We see a lot of press releases of embargoed research results and breaking events that get covered by the daily, 24/7 news cycle," says Thom Canalichio, Media Outreach Director at Newswise. "Smart media relations people also recognize that there are other ways to get traction with publications that circulate on a monthly or quarterly basis. We've seen over the years that these media outlets have a large appetite for features and in-depth type of stories."
A preliminary analysis of user traffic on articles from the Cancer Research Awareness Wire shows the prominence of media outlets with more long-term deadlines. As illustrated in Chart 1.1 (Image 1 above), Magazines and Trade Magazines make up almost two-thirds of the web traffic browsing articles from the wire. As May approaches, we expect many more of these publications to be running articles related to Cancer Research Month.
In the meantime, several media outlets have already published articles sourced from releases included in the Cancer Research Awareness Wire. For example, a feature expert release from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was referenced in several regional publications out of Wisconsin, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, as well as the national USA Today and their online news section Sci-Tech-Today.com. Also, a research results article from the Cancer Institute of New Jersey received coverage from local news affiliates in Indiana and Tennessee, The Washington Post, Science Daily, U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, and WebMD.
Chart 1.2 and 1.3 (Images 2 and 3 above) illustrate some of the effectiveness reporting tools that Newswise offers, Real-Time Hits and Web Clips. Note that stories with the highest Real-Time Hits are not necessarily getting a high number of Web Clips. When examining the relationship between total hits and web clippings on a sample of 10 stories from the Cancer Research Awareness Wire, it is important to recognize that several factors contribute to the success of a story.
How much are Real-Time Hits an indicator of a story's potential Web Clips? "They aren't, actually," says Senior Editor and Web Clippings Specialist Craig Jones. "The number of web clips correlates with the quality of the articles. Stories with real research and new discoveries routinely get 40-50 clips, much more if the story gets picked up by one of the news agencies such as the Associated Press or Reuters."
"What we've been able to do with these thematic wires is show that Newswise can reach both audiences," says Zakira Beasley, Newswise Vice President for Business Development. "On one hand, there are a lot of articles of interest to the media, and those stories get clips. But on the other hand, there's an audience of professionals who are very interested in consuming science and medical news. Those stories are getting a lot of hits, regardless of whether or not journalists write an article."
Targeted Audience
The thematic wires are geared toward a segment of users that function on a longer-term deadline. Since Cancer Research Awareness month is observed in May, it was important to give writers and editors a longer lead time.
In addition to the large audience of public users seeking knowledge-based news and information, a substantial segment of Newswise subscribers are journalists writing for very specific audiences. For example, Newswise serves over 200 trade magazines focused on Medicine and Healthcare. That allows Newswise to offer an audience of knowledgeable professionals who are positioned to become advocates for the latest research and advances in their profession. For reporters writing to this audience, the thematic wires help to augment the usual daily routine of searching for story ideas.
"The wire was useful for publishing articles about cancer research," says Sherry Fox, editor with ADVANCE Newsmagazines. Fox is involved in a family of 31 trade magazines produced by Merion Publications, including ADVANCE for Imaging and Radiation Therapy Professionals, which covers a broad-range of cancer topics. She uses Newswise on a regular basis and welcomes this type of targeted content. "I value Newswise very highly as a source of articles on new research and other news and features," she says.
About Newswise:Newswise provides an advanced platform for web-based distribution of news releases. Newswise has an audience of more than 4,000 vetted journalists and 10,000 public subscribers with a particular interest in medical and science news. Articles are archived and organized by topics and story types, including embargoed news, multimedia, and contact information for experts and PIOs. Subscribers are able to select between medical, science, life, and business wires, so they select only the news they want.
More information about the thematic wires, a calendar of scheduled wires, and sponsorship opportunities is available at http://www.newswise.com/about/contributors/thematic.
For more information on Newswise reporting tools such as Real-time Hits and Web Clippings, contact [email protected]
More comments about thematic wires from Newswise subscribers is available here.
An online view of the wire can be found at http://www.newswise.com/public/examplewires/cancerwire/
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