Keeping the Newsroom Fresh

Some companies call it Current News.  Others call it Company News.  Still others call it Latest News.  That part doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that you keep the content updated, relevant and consistent for your website visitors.

To further clarify, what I am referring to is the section of a corporate website that contains company news, sometimes in the form of press releases, sometimes in the form of articles in which the company was included, sometimes (hopefully) both.  I visited the website of a prospective software client today, and for the umpteenth time I discovered a newsroom filled with press releases and articles from 2006.  While there are a number of problems with this, I’ll try to sum it up briefly.

Every potential visitor to your website can be a prospective client, prospective partner, prospective investor, prospective employee…you get the point.  Most people have short attention spans.  One of the first things they may look at is the Company News section to get a feel for “what this company has going on”.  If the content is outdated  – you’re still listing a major partner announcement from 2005 and the product webinar from 2006 as your headliners –  guess what those visitors think?  This company has nothing going on lately, must not be a company I want to work with/work for/invest in/partner with.

And of course, that may be very far from the truth.  Your company may have all kinds of exciting things going on – new customers, partners, upcoming events, etc.  But from the viewpoint of the random website visitor, you’re not doing much lately, and therefore it may not be worth taking the next step to get in touch.

If you’re going to include a company news section on your site (it’s not necessarily appropriate for everyone), then keep it updated or else scrap it.