Best Practices For Press & PR
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Want Reporters to Use Your Web Site? Start Thinking Like They Do
By Nina Shariff, Ragan Communications
PR professionals know that reporters use the Web to research their stories, but few sites provide the goods that actually help them get the job done. Just ask "usability" expert Jakob Nielsen, principal of Nielsen Norman Group, who recently asked 20 reporters to help him judge the effectiveness of 10 online newsrooms. Most said that poorly designed Web sites could single-handedly discourage their coverage of a company. "I would be reluctant to go back," offered one reporter, who said he had a tough time finding what he needed on a company's site. "If I had the choice to write about something else, I would."

Quotable Quotes: Ensuring Your Quotes Are Actually Used
By Robbie Vorhaus, President & CEO of Vorhaus & Company Inc.
So you want to be quoted? Getting the interview is only part of the challenge. Ensuring your quote is actually used is the other. Competition is fierce. Many reporters use services such as ProfNet to gather resources for their stories. Often they receive hundreds of responses in just hours, interviewing the best candidates. Here's how to ensure your quote is the one reporters choose:

Online Media Sites: What Works, and Doesn't Work, for Reporters
By Nina Shariff, Ragan Communications
Think you've got a lot of happy journalists using your site? Take this quick test: Do your speech documents use a standard title documentation (i.e., Remarks by…)? Does every press release on your site include your company name, address, phone number -- plus the date and time you issued the release? Does your mailing address appear on your home page? If you answered no to any of these questions, you're likely frustrating reporters.

TWNA Recommended Practices For Digital File Formats
Compiled By Tom Kelley, Editor/Photographer/Web-Spinner, The Deadline Factory
As digital images become more of a fact of life in the print publishing world, it becomes necessary to arrive at some standard format. To try and provide a common denominator such that image producers in the public relations community and image users in the publishing community can be reasonably sure that electronic images will be distributed in a useable form, TWNA has set out to develop a list of standards and recommendations.

Meet The Press - Tips For Handling Press Inquiries
By Evan Lockridge, Producer/Host, RoadStar Radio News
There's an old joke that says, "You know its going to be a bad day when you wake up and Mike Wallace with 60 Minutes is outside your front door and wants to ask you some questions." If Mr. Wallace ever has any questions for some trucking companies, he had better be prepared to wait while they figure out who handles their media relations. As a reporter, I am amazed by the number of successful trucking operations that fail to have one person designated to field calls from the press, whether they are from 60 Minutes,, their local TV station, or a trucking reporter from the likes of Heavy Duty Trucking. or RoadStar Radio News.

TWNA Press Event Guide - Press Event Survey
Compiled By Carol Ludorf, President, Ludorf Public Relations
This survey is intended to provide insight and information about what makes for good, effective press relations in the Trucking Industry. It offers advice and suggestions from the truck industry journalists themselves, obtained through a survey conducted of the journalist members of the Truck Writers of North America. The survey was done anonymously so participants would not feel encumbered and could be candid in their responses.