A few weeks ago while giving a presentation for work, I stated that the battle for control over the corporate website between communicators and IT teams was a "mythic struggle". IT and web teams want control over the corporate website for security reasons, and because traditionally it was their realm—their area of expertise. In this age of online communication that we live in, the CorpComm team also wants control over the website: they want to be able to update their online information quickly, get information about visitors to the site and generally have at least as much control over it as the IT team.
The reason I was giving the presentation was to help introduce CNW Group's latest product (and the reason I've been so busy lately): the MediaRoom. Hopefully, it will be a peaceful resolution to any disagreements between IT and communications.
What is the MediaRoom?
The MediaRoom is a Web Content Management System designed for corporate communicators. It integrates easily with your existing website, and is easy to use so that the media section can be updated quickly and painlessly. If you can send an email, you can update your website with this. Anyone familiar with blogging tools like Wordpress or Blogger will be able to understand the MediaRoom CMS pretty easily.
As my boss, Nicole Guillot (CNW Group's Vice President, Product Management and Operations), said:
“In today’s 24-hour media environment our clients need to communicate their messages—or respond to a crisis—with complete immediacy. CNW newswire clients can set up their CNW MediaRoom to automatically post news releases as they cross the wire. They can make any other changes or uploads anytime and anywhere there is an internet connection.”
Examples of the MediaRoom technology in work can be found on the newsrooms for Kellogg's, Match.com and Delta Airlines. I think the only downside of these examples is that they don't show how truly flexible the MediaRoom is, and how much you can do with it.
PR in Canada wrote about the MediaRoom, as did CMS Wire. You can also find out more about the CNW Group MediaRoom offering by visiting Newswire.ca/MediaRoom or by checking out the Social Media Release CNW put out about the MediaRoom.
If you've got any questions about it, I'd be happy to answer them for you (mostly my roommates are just sick of hearing about "content management systems" and I'm still pretty excited about the MediaRoom).
-Parker