All updates:

• More workspace in the Manager with a collapsible sidebar

• Sticky toolbar in the Media Library for easier asset downloads

• Structured data added to improve article indexing and GEO visibility

• What's coming next: Presspage's strategic direction

More workspace in the Manager with a collapsible sidebar

When you're writing or reviewing content, the last thing you want is a navigation panel eating into your screen space. The left sidebar in the Presspage Manager can now be collapsed, giving you a wider, cleaner working area when you need it. Its state is also persisted across pages, so it stays collapsed or open, however you left it.

It's a small change with a noticeable impact. Less visual noise, more room to focus, and a layout that feels more in line with modern content tools. If you work across multiple articles or sections in a single session, you'll feel the difference quickly.

Sticky toolbar in the Media Library for easier asset downloads

Downloading assets from the Media Library sounds straightforward, until the list gets long. Previously, the top filter bar and sidebar on the Media Library were only visible at the top of the page. Once visitors scrolled down to browse or load more content, they had to scroll all the way back up just to confirm their selection or hit download. On mobile, this was particularly frustrating.

The filter bar and sidebar on the page now stay visible as visitors scroll. Select what you need and download it. No scrolling back. This update applies to Newsrooms running on Presspage's modern design foundation. If you're are interested in having the sticky navigation enabled on the Media Library, reach out to support@presspage.com.

Structured data added to improve article indexing and GEO visibility

Getting a press release or news article published is only part of the job. Whether it gets picked up by search engines, or understood correctly by AI tools that summarise and surface news, depends partly on how well the page is structured beneath the surface.

We've made further improvements to the structured data based on schema.org to all news articles. This gives search engines and AI agents richer context about each article: the account and what language it's in, whether it's freely accessible, what topics it covers, and which organisation published it. Authors and publishers can now also have a canonical domain set at the Newsroom level, which strengthens how they're identified across the web. In practice, this means Presspage articles are better positioned to appear in AI-generated summaries, news carousels, and search results. No extra work required from your team.

What's coming next: Presspage's strategic direction

The updates above are part of the day-to-day work, but there's a bigger picture taking shape. Presspage's product and development team has been working on a longer-term direction for the platform, with a focus on how corporate storytelling is evolving in the age of AI.

For a first look at where Presspage is heading, watch the video: Presspage Strategic Direction: The Future of Corporate Storytelling with AI. We'll be sharing more detail on what this means for the Manager and for your newsroom in the coming weeks.

Professional Services builds on Presspage’s work with organisations including BT, Specsavers, Heineken, the University of Manchester, Booking.com and Rolls-Royce. Its purpose is straightforward: help teams use Presspage in a way that supports the pace and responsibility of modern communications.

The program will cover a set of practical areas that influence how teams use Presspage day to day. These may include crisis communication readiness, workflow and approval design, SEO and GEO reviews and industry benchmarking for PR impact. The aim is simple: help teams publish more reliably, reduce delays and understand how their work compares within their sector.

“We believe every organization can get more out of their communications efforts when they combine the right tools with the right expertise,” said Arinda Loef, Head of Professional Services at Presspage. “With Professional Services and our partnership with Metricomm, we are empowering our customers not only to manage their communications more effectively, but also to understand their true PR impact.”

Metricomm brings clarity to high-stakes decisions

Presspage is also strengthening the analytical side of communications work through a new partnership with Metricomm. Known for its strategic communications consulting and PR impact modelling, Metricomm helps teams understand how coverage influences reputation, whether an issue is likely to escalate and how an organisation compares with others in its field.

This collaboration gives Presspage customers access to deeper insight at moments where evidence matters. Media coverage influences how organisations are perceived, but its effect is often difficult to quantify. With this partnership, teams can access data that shows how reputation and outcomes shift over time, helps them understand the forces behind those changes and enables them to explain the impact of their work to leadership and business results like sales, stock price and brand value.

Presspage and Metricomm are working closely across product and advisory teams to help customers interpret these insights and apply them in their planning, while keeping each organisation’s services clearly defined.

The partnership will be announced at the PR Week Measurement Conference in London, where Metricomm will be delivering a keynote presentation on 'Capturing the C-Suite, with insights and metrics that inform strategic and financial choices'.

A word from the CEO

Supporting PR teams where it counts

Presspage puts PR teams in control of publishing and distributing owned media without having to rely on marketing, IT or external agencies. Professional Services strengthens how they use the platform in practice. Metricomm provides robust and quantifiable audience-centric evidence that helps teams understand and explain the impact of their work.

Together, these initiatives give communications teams a stronger position: faster action, clearer judgement and a grounded understanding of how their efforts influence perception inside and outside the organisation.

Presspage puts communications teams in the driver’s seat when news breaks. By connecting with Scompler’s strategic planning environment, teams can move from campaign idea to live story in one seamless flow. Instead of juggling spreadsheets, emails, and external vendors, PR leaders can plan, publish, and engage directly with their audiences without delays or mixed messages.

The integration not only accelerates publishing, it strengthens alignment between strategy and execution. Communications teams gain a single view of both planned content and live media activity, reducing silos and giving leaders a clearer line of sight from editorial intent to measurable outcomes.

Built for Comms Leaders

The integration delivers three essentials every PR leader needs:

• Move at news(room) speed: From planned campaign to published release in minutes, not days.
• Stay in control: Publish on your own terms, without IT bottlenecks or costly newswires.
• Prove your impact: Track exactly what resonates with journalists and stakeholders, turning comms into measurable results.

Early adopters in industries such as aviation and healthcare report faster response times and closer alignment between planning and delivery.

What’s next?

By closing the gap between planning and execution, Presspage and Scompler are simplifying the comms tech stack. The integration not only makes today’s workflows faster and more reliable, it also sets the stage for more connected, insight-driven PR.

That’s exactly why we’ve been building out the Presspage Academy: to give new hires the tools to get up to speed quickly, and to give experienced pros easy ways to sharpen their skills. The goal: everyone on the team feels confident and ready to act when it matters.

The Academy now comes in three flavors:

• Self-service video tutorials to cover the basics and get hands-on fast.
• In-platform product tours that point you to all the right features you need to do your work.
• A brand-new Webinar series, starting with Digital PR Operations (our foundational training). In the new year we’ll go deeper with advanced topics like Investor Relations and Crisis Communications.

Together, these resources make it easier to empower new colleagues while giving the whole team more time for the work that really matters: crafting and delivering your story.

For those who want to show the world what they’ve mastered, we now award an official Presspage Digital PR Operations certificate, which you can proudly showcase on LinkedIn.

And while the Academy is all about building skills, we’ve also made improvements inside the platform itself. These updates give your team more control, better visibility, and less time lost on repetitive tasks.

Export Email Activity

You can now export the full activity of your email recipients. Open rates, clicks, and engagement data can be pulled in one go, making reporting faster and freeing you up to focus on insights instead of spreadsheets.

Granular Rights Management for Page Creation

Admins can now decide how much freedom different user roles get when creating Pages. From article-only templates to fully custom pages, you can fine-tune where flexibility is valuable and where structure prevents mistakes.

Improved Restricted Access to Articles

We’ve made it easier to control access to sensitive articles by allowing you to select individual users from a list, regardless of their role. For larger organizations with many communicators, this now comes with bulk selection, a search bar, and better visibility. This makes it faster to manage access without losing oversight.

These updates reflect what matters most: helping teams learn faster, work with more precision, and keep sensitive news secure.

Got feedback or ideas? We’re always listening.

How AI-Powered Search Is Changing PR Strategy

I’ve seen PR teams do everything right: publish compelling stories, secure national coverage, get picked up by respected outlets, and still see traffic stall.

That’s not because the work is weak. It’s because the rules have changed.

Traditional search rewarded clicks. Generative AI rewards citations. And those citations come from whoever is most credible,  not from whoever publishes the most. In a recent large-scale analysis of AI-generated search responses, over 95% of cited links came from unpaid, non-promotional sources. Around 27% were journalistic outlets. Paid placements? Almost invisible.

Instead of sending people to your site, AI systems summarise your work and serve it directly on the results page. If you’re not part of that summary, your audience may never see your story, even if you’re sitting in the number one organic spot.

This changes the PR job description. The stories that get cited are the ones backed by reputable outlets, published in structured formats, and tagged with clean metadata. AI is scanning for signals of trust.

If you want to appear in AI-driven search, double down on earned media, publish in machine-readable formats, and treat credibility as your new ranking factor.

Will AI Replace PR Professionals?

The short answer is no. And the fact that this question keeps coming up tells me we’re still missing the bigger picture.

Yes, AI can draft a press release. It can summarise your story in a few seconds. But it can’t read a room. It can’t earn a journalist’s trust. It can’t weigh the risk of a quote in the middle of a crisis or adapt your message to land with the right nuance.

Those are human skills, and they’re the ones that matter most. AI might change the workflow, but the judgment, relationships, and strategic insight at the heart of PR are still uniquely yours. 

As I’ve said before: when traffic drops, it’s tempting to blame the message. But more often, it’s the method. AI is changing how stories are found, not whether they matter.

What PR Teams Can Do to Stay Visible in AI-Driven Search

In conversations with PR teams, we almost always end up at the same conclusion: The teams that come out on top are those who understand it’s not AI versus PR professionals, it’s AI with professionals. Here are four moves that matter right now:

1. Optimize for AI citations, not just rankings

For those of you only just getting your SEO playbook sorted, I’m sorry to report that it’s now time to think beyond SEO. AI doesn’t rank the way search engines do. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini don’t just look at keywords and rankings. They pull from content that’s clear, trustworthy and easy for machines to read - and they consistently prioritize citations from high-domain-authority outlets like Reuters, AP, and the Financial Times.

Think of it like this: if your content looks like a teenager's bedroom, AI won’t bother digging through it. But if everything’s labelled and neatly put away, you’ve got a much better shot at getting picked up.

To make that happen:

• Keep names, dates, and titles consistent and accurate.
   
• Include expert quotes and data from sources people trust.
   
• Publish (or get mentioned) on high-quality, reputable sites.
   
• Avoid PDFs or unstructured formats that AI can’t easily access.
   
• Use schema markup (here’s a handy guide for the unfamiliar) to tell AI exactly what your page is about.

It’s about being readable, reliable, and ready for machines.

2. Prioritise quality media relationships

This one shouldn’t be a struggle for most PR pros! The media relationships you invest in today will continue to shape how your brand is seen tomorrow, both by people and machines.

Think of trusted media relationships as your new SEO strategy. AI doesn’t care if you’re ranking #1, it cares who trusts you. And nothing says ‘trustworthy’ like a journalist choosing to put your name in print. 

Coverage from credible outlets is one of the strongest authority signals AI can detect. If your name appears in a respected publication, you’re positioning yourself as a source AI will return to in the future.

To do this:

• Target outlets that regularly shape conversations in your industry.
   
• Offer expert insights that add value to the journalist’s story.
   
• Stay consistent in how you position your brand and spokespeople.
   
• Track citations, quotes, and unlinked mentions, not just traffic.

This is how modern PR delivers long-term impact: meaningful coverage in places people (and algorithms) trust.

3. Become a thought leader

One thing I’ve noticed: the brands that consistently show up in AI summaries are the ones already shaping the conversation, not chasing it.

You rarely get cited by accident. AI tools are trained on the voices that are already embedded in high-quality sources and tend to favor content published within the last 12 months. When it’s done well, thought leadership creates a positive feedback loop. One quote becomes three. One byline turns into a pattern. And over time, your voice becomes one of the de facto experts that AI models rely on.

To stay top of mind:

• Share ideas early, don’t wait for perfect timing - you can always change your tune or refine your thinking!
   
• Respond to industry shifts with clarity.
   
• Make your experts accessible, media-ready and quotable. That means preparing everything in advance and having it easily available in your newsroom for when journalists need it.
   
• Anchor your POV in places AI respects, such as credible media, structured newsrooms, and trusted platforms.

The more consistently you’re cited in the right places, the harder it becomes for AI to ignore you.

4. Treat your newsroom like the asset it is

Your newsroom shouldn’t act as an archive; it’s your single most visible source of truth. And it’s often where AI decides whether you’re credible enough to cite.

An outdated, hard-to-navigate newsroom signals that you’re not paying attention. A clean, structured, regularly updated newsroom signals that you’re worth listening to.

That’s actually why we originally built Presspage: to turn newsrooms into a discoverable, trusted source. Structured publishing, built-in metadata, integrated media kits, and multilingual support all work together to help your content get found, even as AI search becomes the default.

Your checklist:

• Design your newsroom as a standalone destination, rather than an isolated subpage, no one can access (unless they’ve decided to take your footer with a magnifying glass…)
   
• Keep your media kits, logos, and key assets up to date and easy to access.
   
• Align content with the topics, language, and formats AI systems are most likely to surface.
   
• Regularly audit every page to ensure it reflects your brand now, not two years ago.
   
• Publish in machine-readable formats. AI will skip unstructured, paywalled, or PDF-only content.

Final thoughts

The visibility game has changed. Most PR content will never be seen, not because it’s bad, but because it’s invisible to the systems deciding what matters.

The good news is that PR’s core strengths, trust, relationships, and credibility, are exactly what AI values most. But you can’t rely on those strengths alone. You need the structure, strategy, and technical readiness to make sure your best work surfaces when it matters most.

At Presspage, we help comms teams stay visible by giving them the tools to publish smarter, distribute with purpose, and build the kind of authority AI listens to.

If you’re interested in more insights on how AI is reshaping the industry, check out my take on how PR teams can maintain trust here. It’s based on a discussion I had on a recent episode of the Onder Embargo podcast.

Presspage will continue from its Amsterdam HQ with its leadership team, ensuring continuity for both customers and staff. The acquisition is a perfect fit for Banyan Software’s long-term vision of offering a “permanent home” for software businesses, prioritizing sustained growth and innovation.
 

The deal strengthens Banyan’s position in Europe, with a particular focus on the Benelux region. For Presspage, it unlocks new momentum, backed by Banyan’s proven track record in scaling enterprise software companies and advancing AI-powered tools.

This partnership boosts Presspage’s ability to support comms teams through complex challenges, delivering clear insights that help PR professionals demonstrate their strategic value. The platform remains a trusted ally for day-to-day media relations and high-stakes crisis communication alike.

See what content drives social engagement

As of June, the Newsroom Statistics page includes a new section showing how often your articles are shared on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook.

This gives you concrete insight into what resonates with your audience. Not just in terms of views, but in terms of action. Are certain formats or headlines more shareable? Do thought leadership pieces outperform product news? This data helps you spot those patterns. It's a small addition with a big impact on editorial strategy.

Configurable roles for Contributors and Managers

In May, we introduced a major step towards a more flexible permission system: Configurable Roles.

Admins can now fine-tune what Contributors and Managers can do in your Presspage environment, like whether they can:

• Change the layout or modules on the Newsroom homepage
• Add or manage tags

This is one of the most-requested features, particularly around tag governance. Some teams want to lock it down to avoid clutter, others want to delegate the task. Now you choose. And this is just the beginning: we’re laying the groundwork for more granular user rights across the platform.

Let us know where you'd like to see this flexibility next.

A cleaner, smarter Dashboard

And in April, we launched a full redesign of the Dashboard, focused on clarity and speed. You now get a combined snapshot of your Newsroom and Email activity at a glance. It's less clicking, more knowing.

Alongside the redesign, we also released:

• Tag merge: Clean up your tags without re-tagging articles manually. Great for when teams consolidate or tidy up content structures.
• Tags Module: Now you can display the tags of each article directly on the article page, which makes content easier to explore. This is especially useful for journalists.
• Video durations: Videos now show their length in the Newsroom. Helpful context for your audience.
• Media library landing pages: You can now set a specific category as the default landing view instead of “All,” which always showed the latest additions. Ideal if you want to prioritize evergreen or themed collections.
• Search API: Integrate your Newsroom’s search into your broader corporate website, so visitors can find your news as easily as product pages or investor information.

Each of these updates is rooted in the same philosophy: helping comms professionals work more strategically, with less friction. From tightening control over your workflows to surfacing the right insights at the right time, we’re continuing to shape Presspage as the platform that meets you where you work.

Got feedback or ideas? We’re always listening.

Your PR team works with some of the most sensitive information within your organization. Handing that data over to a public AI model is the digital equivalent of shouting your confidential strategy from your office rooftop. 

And yet, the urgency hasn’t fully registered. There’s still a sense that this risk is somehow less pressing than it really is. However, the numbers tell a concerning story: A study by KPMG & The University of Melbourne revealed that professionals’ trust in AI systems dipped from 63% in 2022 to 56% in 2024, while anxiety about data privacy climbed from 49% to 62%.

At Presspage, our approach to AI is secure by default and private by design. We’ve implemented AI capabilities across the entire PR workflow – from PUBLISH and REACH to CONNECT – but always with one non-negotiable principle: your team stays in control. That means no surprises, no shortcuts on compliance, and no compromise on data privacy.

2. Optimizing AI Output with Precise Prompting

But security alone isn’t enough. 

I often say that great AI starts with great prompt-writing. Anyone can generate a pitch or press release in seconds, but quality depends on clarity. The best results come from prompts that are specific, clear, and well thought out. By investing time upfront to give AI precise, actionable instructions, you unlock the real value: speed, consistency, and accuracy across your entire PR workflow. 

For practical tips on how to get started, explore our guide to generative AI best practices for PR teams.

3. Relevance Wins Over Completeness

Getting good content out of AI is a great first step. But even the best stories won’t land if they’re not relevant. 

If you want your audience to care, don’t bury them with details. Modern PR should focus on uncovering the insights that truly matter and finding creative ways to share those with the right stakeholders. As Charissa Smits put it in the podcast: “Complete coverage is an illusion. Relevance is what counts.” 

AI helps us get there faster, cutting through the noise to pinpoint the information that truly engages your audience. 

4. Act Fast, Stay Ahead in Crises

Mike Tyson said it best: “Everyone has a strategy until they get punched in the mouth.” 

In PR, that punch often comes without warning. Today, a crisis can spiral out of control in a matter of minutes. That’s where AI can make a real difference. Pairing AI-powered drafting with an integrated newsroom and distribution workflow, teams can publish a holding statement, alert key journalists, and update the story in real time – all from one single platform.

Four Actionable Steps to Responsible AI in PR:

1. Start Small, Think Big: Pilot AI with low-risk content to quickly evaluate quality. 
2. Prompt Smarter, Not Harder: Develop prompt design into a core PR skill to set a benchmark for content quality. 
3. Set Clear Boundaries: Establish immediate guidelines and secure AI configurations to protect sensitive information.
4. Unify Your Workflow: Adopt a centralized platform like Presspage to minimize errors and streamline content approvals and analytics.

Final Thought

I want to be clear: AI isn’t here to replace PR professionals – it’s here to empower those who integrate it responsibly. The sooner our industry adopts these thoughtful, responsible AI practices, the quicker we can move from routine execution to the kind of storytelling that actually makes an impact. 

Ready to strengthen your PR strategy with secure AI practices? Listen to our full conversation on Ronald van der Aart’s Onder Embargo podcast to hear actionable insights directly from industry leaders. 

Want to get straight into implementing AI into your press release writing? 

Watch our on-demand webinar – AI-powered or purely human? How to write press releases in 2025 – or download the slides for more actionable tips.

Let’s start where many of your most time-sensitive moments begin: email. Our new Email Template Editor makes it much faster to create a branded campaign. We’ve set up a solid foundation with preset header and footer blocks so you can jump straight into your message. Everything from logo placement to fonts and colors is now configurable in a few clicks. It’s simple but powerful. And most importantly, it helps you keep control over your brand, especially when speed is key.

That same spirit of usability drove the redesign of the Asset Manager. A lot of communicators work with large screens, especially during big announcements or in crisis mode. The new layout finally makes full use of that space. Beyond just a cleaner interface, we also added smarter navigation and better visual cues. The goal is to make it second nature to manage your files and find what you need. We’ve also added support for .ics files, so your stakeholders can now add events to their calendars with a single click. Perfect for press briefings, earnings calls, or on-campus events.

We know that subscribers are the long-term asset behind every great newsroom. So we’ve made the Subscribe module more versatile, with a new option to capture each subscriber’s country. This is a small tweak with a big impact if you want to localize updates or analyze your audience. You can also reorder your lists now, which gives you better control over the topics you want your audience to subscribe to.

Meanwhile, for your newsroom (and article or custom pages), we’ve added a new Card module. This gives you a lot more flexibility in how you present evergreen content, use cards with images and links, make them fully clickable, or just display short bursts of text. It’s an easy way to draw attention to a report, your company strategy, or a topic you want to highlight. 

For those managing tags across complex content ecosystems, we’ve added two new functions to the Tags manager: a “Times used” column and Merge tags. It’s not flashy, but it’s deeply useful. You can now see how often each tag is used and click through to see exactly where it appears and better organize your tag structure. This added visibility helps you clean up outdated tags, spot overused labels, or simply find your way back to the right stories. 

Finally, our new helpdesk and video tutorials are live. We’ve given the support experience the same design love as the rest of the platform cleaner, faster, and easier to navigate. And with short, focused videos, it’s easier than ever to onboard a colleague or refresh your own workflow.

These updates span every corner of the platform from Publish, to Reach, to Connect​. But they all ladder up to the same goal: helping you work faster, look sharper, and stay ready for anything.

Thanks for growing with us. On to Q2.

All inquiries in one place

Presspage Connect enables teams of spokespeople to answer and process media inquiries quickly, intuitively and efficiently. Thanks to the integrated online environment, combining disjointed systems is no longer necessary, as the entire workflow occurs in one online place. The CRM function is designed to instantly build a network of media contacts. With just a few clicks, the most important and relevant contacts are selected and made accessible, while integrated AI technology ensures speed and reliability. Features like management of deadlines and the internal chat enhance synergy within the team, enabling seamless collaboration at all times, especially during busy periods.

The perfect partner for media relations

Folkje Lips, Lead Product Manager at Presspage, about Presspage Connect: "We launched this innovative tool in 2023 to help companies within the ecosystem gain more control over their media inquiries. Based on user experiences, customer requirements and the latest technology, Presspage Connect has been further improved and expanded. Companies who are dealing with media inquiries can now use this new version and its additional features as a stand-alone tool.” 

Jan-Willem Schalkwijk, CEO of Presspage, adds: “As far as we’re concerned, technology should ensure that you need to spend less time in front of a screen, so that you can invest more on building relationships. Thanks to Presspage Connect, you’ll never miss a press inquiry, can collaborate and consult smoothly and efficiently and position yourself as a transparent, professional and media-friendly organisation. In short: the perfect partner for media relations.”

Presspage Connect can be purchased as a standalone, subscription-based tool, with prices starting from €240 per month for 2 users.

More information: presspage.com/media-relations-software

The latest research from PRCA and CIPR trade groups in the UK reveals some shocking stats: 33% of industry professionals report having been diagnosed with a mental health condition, up by eight percentage points in just a year. Even more concerning is that 91% of survey respondents have experienced poor mental health in the past 12 months - a figure that hasn’t changed in almost 5 years. These aren't just numbers; they represent real people overwhelmed by massive workloads and murky expectations.

Too much work, cited by 58% of respondents, is a major stressor. Additionally, 51% pointed to unclear expectations from employers as a significant source of anxiety. This chaotic work environment, coupled with what we’d conservatively label a ‘pretty messed-up’ political and economic landscape, is making it nearly impossible for PR pros to keep up.

It's worth noting that while these numbers are from the UK, conversations with our clients and wider network make it clear everyone is feeling the pressure.

Learning from Experience

As Alastair McCapra, CEO of CIPR, points out, poor employee retention, burnout, and downsizing are only making the problem worse. Public sector PR teams have been shrinking year after year, leaving individuals isolated and bearing enormous responsibility. In agencies, despite recent growth, head counts are contracting due to relentless client pressure, further straining the remaining staff.

Having worked with numerous PR and communications teams, we’ve seen how these pressures can build up. We’ve heard stories of colleagues struggling to meet demands with fewer resources, and the toll it takes is clear.

Steps Towards Real Change

Despite some progress, with 79% of workplaces now having policies aimed at improving mental well-being, only 55% of people feel these measures are taken seriously. This gap between policy and practice suggests there’s a lot to be done.

Talking about mental health is crucial, but beyond conversations, we need actionable steps. Many professionals avoid taking time off for mental health reasons, fearing negative perceptions or simply feeling overwhelmed by their workload. It’s time to change that narrative. But how?

Embracing Hybrid Working for Better Wellbeing

The pandemic has taught us a lot about work-life balance. Pre-pandemic, 70% of PR professionals worked full-time in an office; now, only 9% do. Those working from home report better balance and improved mental health. However, the survey also indicates that those who continue to work full-time in an office have higher well-being scores. So…now what?

A hybrid working approach, supported by 64% of respondents, seems to be the way forward. It combines the best of both worlds, offering flexibility and promoting better mental health.

Moving Forward Together

Employers must take these findings seriously and make meaningful changes to support their employees' mental health.

At Presspage, we believe that fostering a supportive and flexible work environment is not just a responsibility but a necessity. Allowing staff to disconnect from work emails outside of office hours and promoting regular breaks throughout the day are simple yet effective steps.

We’ve seen that when employees feel supported, they thrive. By prioritizing mental well-being, we can help PR and public affairs professionals manage their mental health effectively. As Alastair McCapra rightly says, "We should not accept that stress has a right to be part and parcel of the culture of PR”.

A Personal Commitment

The mental health crisis among PR and public affairs professionals is a pressing issue that demands immediate attention. Let’s bridge the gap between policy and practice, ensuring that our mental health initiatives are genuinely effective and supported. By adopting hybrid working models and prioritizing mental well-being, we can create a healthier, more sustainable work environment for everyone in the industry.

So, what are we waiting for? Let's get serious about mental health in PR and corporate communications – our superheroes deserve nothing less.

Jan-Willem Schalkwijk, CEO of Presspage, explains why digital transformation is such a relevant topic in the industry right now, and why it is at the heart of the new campaign: ‘These days, a high-impact communication storm can develop overnight. When that happens, you’ve got to respond fast and appropriately, without beating around the bush. Especially if your company operates multiple brands or locations across more than one country, well-organised communication is the key. The communication industry is now also facing the challenge of how to maintain the human touch in a climate that is so heavily tech-driven. It might sound odd coming from a tech company like us, but often we actually argue in favour of less tech and more contact.’

‘Still, if you’re a PR or communications professional, the last thing you want is to waste precious time using outdated software and tools. To stay agile and work more efficiently, the solution is to embrace a digital PR ecosystem that offers you all the right tools. That’s why we firmly believe in leveraging technology to save time that you can then devote to building personal relationships and working more proactively without wasting time on piecemeal solutions. Our new campaign is based on a whitepaper that gives PR and communications professionals a guide to building a digital PR ecosystem. Our message is clear: Control your narrative. Connect with your team. Communicate to the world’, says Schalkwijk.

International ‘3 Cs’ campaign

The launch of the international campaign marks a milestone for Presspage. It offers PR and communications professionals a detailed guide to improving their storytelling (Control), strengthening collaboration (Connect) and reaching a wider audience with news and stories (Communicate). The message will reach professionals in the targeted countries via electronic direct mail (EDM) and multimedia advertising, including videos and carousel ads.

PR ecosystem

Presspage was founded 15 years ago and has continually evolved to keep pace with technological developments and changes in the field of PR and corporate communications. Today, the company is a partner to PR professionals, spokespersons and communications teams around the world. The Presspage PR ecosystem offers these professionals a complete toolkit for working more efficiently, maintaining control over their communications, connecting with media and stakeholders, and sharing stories with the world. The ecosystem includes a built-in global media database, email distribution system and the recently added Inquiries Management Solution, a tool that lets communications professionals register and manage press inquiries and use AI technology to formulate press responses in the right tone of voice.

Learn more: presspage.com 

It won’t come as a surprise that we didn’t manually scoop over all those contacts and other data points. That would be a bad idea not just because of time reasons, but also because manual processes inevitably introduce inconsistencies, or even mistakes. So the first thing our developers did was build a system to run the sequence of steps needed for a migration in an automated fashion, based on Airflow. We also built a system to do a testrun and validate the data on every migration before it actually took place. 

Every migration basically contained the following steps, in chronological order: 

• First the (not automatable) logistics:
  • Categorize each customer on migration size and duration.
  • Agree on a migration date with the customer via our Customer Success team.
• Secondly, the preparations:
  • Run a test migration with the dataset of the customer on a staging environment.
  • If the test fails: find out what went wrong and fix that, before trying another test run.
• Finally the technical Migration:
  • Disable the customer’s old CRM system and connected modules, so that no new data comes in, which would otherwise get lost.
  • Copy the data from the old databases.
  • Convert and map the data points to make sure the data is properly formatted with the correct values for the new environment.
  • “Paste” all the data to the new databases.
• If the migration is not successful, start a Roll Back:
  • Purge all data from the new environment.
  • Re-enable the old system and its modules so that everything is functional again, without data loss. 
  • Investigate what went wrong.
• Migration successful? 
  • Enable the new system and all its modules.
  • The customer can immediately start using the new CRM with their existing data showing in the new environment.

Automated but supervised

Although the system automated the whole migration process, we kept monitoring every migration closely. We decided to run them sequentially and never in parallel. This was therefore quite a ‘heavy’ project for our developers. Although we tried to schedule most migrations during their ‘awake time’, in close alignment with our users of the CRM, this was not possible for all of our customers. Meaning our developers sometimes got out of bed at 3AM to check if everything went well. Even after 150 successful migrations. Because you never know. 

Sometimes the pre-run tests would fail, resulting in an aborted process before the migration even started. The most common reason for that was a slightly different spelling of similar data, due to changing the underlying structure of our data. We made that change to make it easier for all users from one company, with different teams, to work on the same global dataset. A CRM capability that was highly requested by multinationals that value centralised control and efficiency as well as empowering their local teams to adapt to their local needs. 

Previously, team A could have a contact working for cnn.com, while team B had the same contact working for CNN.com. In our new system, they would need to be merged into one contact. All these types of entries needed to be humanly analyzed, assessed (are they indeed single entries or do they need to be merged?) and then processed the right way. 

Creative and expected customer use cases would also sometimes surprise our tests. For instance, one customer had 94 tags added to one single contact, which was much more than we had anticipated and tested for. This hefty number made the amount of characters exceed the max size of the database cell. Increasing the size limit made a retry of the testrun successful. 

We had one actual case where we had to roll back the whole process, so having that precaution in place - a base condition - and fully automated was definitely a life saver. During the migration of one of our biggest customers in terms of CRM usage, a lot of recipients of their emails happened to engage with their emails. There is nothing you can do about it: somebody can even click on an email link 10 years after it’s sent to him. This scenario was actually already taken into account by us. We had put a validation system in place to discover the differences before and after the migration. But in this case, the volume of actions far exceeded our expectations and made the migration fail. Once we worked on the validation, we were able to run the migration a second time, this time successfully.

Proof of the pudding: CRM performance

Also, logically, as the migrations proceeded, customers started to use the CRM. Although we had performed many stress tests before going live, with many different types of mock customers and different volumes and set ups, the real proof of the pudding is always in the eating. One big thing we learned very quickly after having migrated a couple of customers, is that the amount of languages that a customer has in its account, has a big impact on the performance of the CRM, bigger yet than we had anticipated. Meaning that certain actions, such as pagination or sorting the overview differently, took too much time: multiple seconds. As soon as we realized this, we pivoted very quickly: we paused the migrations temporarily to investigate. The first thing we did was drill down to which calls were causing the biggest delay for the customers in question. We also added more caching and we came up with a supporting UX that clearly shows what’s going on, to make the waiting less painful. With all these mitigations in place, we reduced the load time to 1 second max and were able to pick up the migrations again after 1,5 weeks.

We started migrating customers in October 2023 and it took us almost 2 months to carefully migrate all 1 million journalists, 27 million emails and all other data. During the time, our monthly AWS invoices grew notably to keep the servers running that hosted the migration automation software. We improved the performance of the CRM significantly. And most importantly: we unblocked the development of the CRM, which you will notice in our upcoming Product releases.

If you’re curious what Presspage’s CRM and Media Relations involve, read about it here or reach out to us for a demo. If you have any questions or suggestions for our CRM, please reach out as well!

Presspage has been around for 15 years already. 15 Years of continuously innovating on PR and IR technology and improving the workflows for PR and IR teams means that we have a robust, feature-rich and very mature product. We are far beyond all the growing pains of a startup and don’t need to compromise on quality or security. 

One inevitable trend that all software companies deal with however, is the fast-paced development of technology world-wide. This makes the technology market a very exciting space: who would have thought, five years ago, that we could let AI help us draft replies to inquiring journalists today? But this also means that all the technology you wrote yesterday, would be better technology if you’d write it today.

Is that a problem? Usually not. If software solved an issue yesterday, it doesn’t matter if a slightly more modern approach would solve it again today, but with a slighter cleaner code base. The end result is the same, the user is satisfied, the issue is still solved. 

However: if the old approach is blocking you from innovating, because the old technology doesn’t allow you to adopt newer practices that solve new problems, then an ambitious company such as Presspage does have a problem. And that was our issue with the old CRM.

Unlocking innovation in Media Relations

Elevating media and investor relations for PR and IR teams is one of the major missions for Presspage. We believe that standing out from the crowd is crucial when it comes to your relations with the media and your investors. Moreover, meaningful connections based on values such as reliability, mutual interests, transparency, responsiveness and consistency will make you a valued and reputable partner for the media and for investors. 

Our “old” CRM solved many issues for PR and IR professionals, such as managing their contacts, creating distribution lists, subscription management and showing engagement statistics. To give an indication: The contacts of our top 15 CRM using customers received on average 13 emails sent from our systems from the company, with a high of 187 emails and a low of 3 emails per year. 

However, to achieve our mission, we wanted to be able to do more than that. We wanted to tackle the issue of having to do double work in different local teams. Be able to support and track more engagement with journalists. Do easier mass contact management. Pitching. Insights and recommendations about engagement, interests, inquiries. And at the same time get more mundane tasks out of the way of PR and IR specialists, so they can focus on human relations. And those things were hard, if not impossible, to accomplish on our old CRM system.

So that’s why we rebuilt our CRM, with the future of Media Relations in mind. A huge endeavour, where every feature had to be rebuilt. Because we also changed the underlying data structure, this also meant having to reconsider a lot of workflows while always keeping our strict data privacy policy in mind. For instance: if somebody shares a distribution list with another team, should this team then also be allowed to add contacts from that list to other, non-related lists? (The implemented answer is: it depends).

Once we figured it all out - with the huge help of our customers who showed us their preferred workflows, their wishes and their limitations - we were extremely happy with the result. We are now able to innovate on Media Relations faster than ever before. And this will become apparent very soon in our upcoming Product Releases.

One major step in the CRM rebuilding process was the migration of all our customers from one system to another. If you would like to read more about that, you can find our behind the scenes blog here. 

If you’re curious what Presspage’s CRM and Media Relations involve, read about it here or reach out to us for a demo. If you have any questions or suggestions for our CRM, please reach out as well!

In the summer of 2022, Schiphol Airport faced a daunting challenge when a short-term crisis transformed into a prolonged issue. In this reflective blog post, we share the experiences of Schiphol's press team as they navigated the storm and emerged stronger and more resilient.

While corporate communication departments are well-equipped to handle short-term crises, managing a situation that persists demands a different approach. Schiphol found itself at the epicentre of media attention due to long queues caused by a shortage of security staff and a surge in travellers. The challenge was not just about crisis resolution but also about continuous adaptation.

Schiphol's Queuing Quandary

During the May Holidays of 2022, Schiphol Airport faced an unprecedented situation. Travellers, eager for post-COVID vacations, were met with unexpectedly long security queues, sometimes forcing them to wait outdoors during peak periods. This scenario garnered extensive media coverage, putting immense pressure on Schiphol's press team.

Lessons Learned: 

Data-Driven Communication

Schiphol's press team quickly realized the power of data-driven communication. By leveraging insights from social media, customer inquiries, and press requests, they addressed key concerns promptly. Questions about arrival times, missed flights, and queue predictions were met with proactive measures, including press releases and a live blog providing real-time updates.

Centralizing Communication Efforts

A pivotal change was centralizing communication through a dedicated newsroom and live blog. By offering immediate, accurate information and preemptively answering common questions, Schiphol reduced incoming media inquiries significantly. This streamlined approach allowed the team to focus on delivering timely updates to both travellers and journalists.

Team Reorganization and Resilience

Managing a prolonged crisis required reorganizing the team. Schiphol implemented weekend-only shifts, providing team members with essential downtime to recharge. For the team, maintaining team morale and personal connections proved crucial. Finding moments of levity amidst the crisis helped the team cope with stress and foster stronger bonds.

Product Spotlight

Creating a live news blog with Presspage is as simple as generating the appropriate content. Just activate the module on the platform, input all the necessary information, and publish it with a few clicks.

With Presspage, your newsroom becomes the hub of press-related activities. For Schiphol, this is where the live news blog was featured. The team utilized data and insights within the Presspage platform to shape their daily messages and updates. By proactively tailoring their messaging based on data, they experienced a notable decrease in incoming press inquiries and articles containing live blog updates were featured in the media without the need for direct engagement with journalists.
 

Clichés and Realities

Despite their efforts, Schiphol's press team encountered communication clichés. Media coverage tended to emphasize the public impact while overlooking the diligent work of the airport staff. Schiphol learned the importance of continuous communication and introspection, recognizing the need for ongoing improvement, even in the face of persistent challenges.

In Conclusion: Navigating Prolonged Challenges

Schiphol Airport's journey offers valuable insights into managing long-term crises effectively. Embracing data-driven communication, centralizing messaging, fostering team resilience, and acknowledging communication nuances are invaluable lessons. This experience reaffirms that, in crisis management, adaptability and proactive communication are indispensable. As we conclude this exploration of Schiphol's crisis management, it is evident that a well-informed, agile team can overcome even the most enduring challenges with determination and resilience.

Remember, digital PR software serves as a valuable support tool, but it's important to note that it isn't the solution. In saying this however, the last thing you need in a crisis is a system that malfunctions or requires excessive time, or a newsroom that becomes overwhelmed and goes offline - so choose your tech wisely!
 

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It is undeniable that in the past year or so, a lot of attention has been paid to the capabilities and potential of generative AI. This has been triggered in no small part by the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, a Large Language Model (LLM) capable of generating what I will now refer to as “convincing text” - something we will get back to a little later. The focus on generative AI has been amplified further by other generative AI models, including the likes of Dall-E2 for images and GitHub Copilot for programming source code.

The capabilities of these services and the AI models behind them are objectively impressive. On that basis, a lot of content has been created about the way generative AI can, or in the opinion of some will inevitably, be a game-changing development in many markets and professions.

This article aims to provide my perspective on the considerations of using generative AI in corporate communications. I will focus mainly on public AI services and models for generating text that are now readily available and heavily publicized about. However, the core points can be projected onto other types of content as well. Also, in closing I will make a few comments about an upcoming development that is worth keeping an eye on.

Authenticity and tone of voice

For many brands and organizations, it is important that the content created, published and distributed by corporate communication teams is an authentic representation of the organization’s principles, values and, if you will, tone of voice. Although LLMs like ChatGPT are powerful AI models with a thorough grasp on the language(s) they generate content in, they currently do not embed a comprehension of human concepts like principles and values.

If generative AI is used as a primary tool for creating the content output of corporate communication, these aspects are not guarded by the model. Furthermore, LLMs generate language, which inevitably has a tone of voice. And although generative models can often be asked to change the “mood” of their output, capturing the exact tone of voice that connects with an organization’s or brand’s identity is, I would say, an unreasonable ask of the LLM used.

Transparency

Somewhat related to the point of authenticity, it’s relevant that there may soon be legal requirements concerning transparency about the use of generative AI for creating content. For one, the AI Act that is currently under development within the European Union is likely to stipulate that AI-generated content must be accompanied by clear disclosure that generative AI was indeed used. One could argue that such a disclosure could “taint” the authenticity of content it accompanies.

Other clauses in aforementioned legislation are likely to state that overviews must be provided of copyrighted data that was used to train the model. This can lead to undesirable situations if such materials include those of sources a brand or organization would not want to associate with.

Hallucinations

Generative AI services based on LLMs are built and trained to generate language that is received positively by their users. In achieving that goal, which can be paraphrased as “not wanting to sell a ‘no’”, generative AI has become great at creating content that is convincing. However, that is not the same as it being accurate. 

The fact that generative AI can “make up” things to fill gaps its responses would otherwise contain - gaps that could “disappoint” the user, which is something the models are trained to prevent - is a well-known characteristic of generative AI called “hallucination”. Hallucination being an inherent characteristic of LLM-based generative AI, every apparent fact in content created by generative AI effectively needs to be fact checked by a human.

Feeding the model

The models backing generative AI services are trained on vast amounts of data. At the moment of first release of a generative AI service, data sources used for training tend to be selected data sets that include publicly available information on the Internet - although the exact composition of training data is effectively unclear.

What is generally true is that after initial release, the conversations with the generative AI service are themselves used to further train the model by default. Certain providers do allow this to be switched off, usually at the expense of certain functionality like retention of conversation history.

As a general rule of thumb, anything that is shared with an AI service on which model training has not been disabled should be considered to be out there in the public domain. Particularly in the case of future, embargoed communications this is very important to consider.

Sensible scenarios

Considering the previous, it may seem that I’m making the point that no sensible scenarios for using generative AI exist in the context of corporate communications. This is not the case. The capabilities that generative AI models have in the area of human language can also be used to process content that is originally written by humans. 

Examples of scenarios in which this capability of LLM-based AI services can safely be used:

• Asking for a review of a human-written text, to identify mistakes in grammar, obvious inconsistencies or “gaps” in the content.
• Extracting summaries or lists of key points/topics.
• Suggesting titles, ideas, etc.

In a slightly less “strictly phrased” sense, generative AI can also be used to “unblock” a human writing session that gets stuck due to, let’s say, a dip in inspiration. As in: providing it with a manually written text that is known to be incomplete, and asking for suggestions on how to add a missing topic or perspective.

It remains important to primarily use the actual, textual output of generative AI services as thought starters, feedback or suggestions for improvement, not as content that should be copied “blindly”. And of course, in all cases where generative AI is used the points made in previous sections - and those under “Feeding the model” in particular - still need to be considered.

Upcoming: private generative AI

Up to this point, I have focused on the use of public generative AI services that are readily available. A type of generative AI that is currently under active development and seeing initial adoption is based on so-called “private generative AI”. This is a form of generative AI that’s trained with private data sets, those being data sets owned by the organization operating the AI model.

The use of private generative AI could most likely address some of the concerns mentioned above, at least in part. At the same time, it comes with its own caveats. 

For one, a private AI implementation needs to be trained with sufficiently large, correct and balanced data sets. These data sets need to be collected, vetted and composed, which requires specific expertise.

Also, a generative AI model - public or private - will generate output based on the data it was trained on. Public generative AI services are so “universally powerful” in part because their training data sets are very large and diverse. Private AI will almost invariably be trained on much smaller and more focused data sets, leading to output one could describe somewhat disrespectfully as “variations of the same”.

Although this can be perfectly fine for certain applications, corporate communication often relates to new developments, at least from the perspective of the organization in question. This means that private data sets “documenting the past” may not project too well into the future - at least from the perspective of the actual content that is generated.

The use of private generative AI is a more recent development, and some of the aspects mentioned here may be ironed out over time.

Conclusion

As generative AI continues to find its place within the landscape of corporate communications, it's essential for organizations to strike a balance between harnessing its capabilities and addressing its limitations. The emergence of private generative AI offers promise in mitigating some concerns, yet the challenges of data quality and diversity remain. As we navigate this evolving landscape, it is crucial to view generative AI as a tool for augmentation rather than a replacement for human creativity and judgment. By leveraging its strengths while upholding the principles of authenticity, transparency, and accuracy, organizations can harness the power of generative AI to enhance their communications effectively. As such, I’d say it’s a technological development that is worth keeping an eye on.

The answer lies in a transformative strategy, shifting from brand-centric content push to audience-centric content pull, from fast-paced content to timeless quality, and from short-lived sales to fostering long-term engagement. Embracing this change is vital for brands to thrive in an era where attention is scarce, but the potential for meaningful connections is boundless.

Recently Jasper Koek, formerly PR and Content manager at Porsche Nederland, shared his approach and dilemmas when setting out to attract new audiences for Porsche Nederland during a knowledge session for communication and brand professionals organized by Presspage. In an insightful presentation, Jasper shared his valuable learnings on the challenges faced, strategies adopted, and results achieved by the renowned automobile brand when trying to tap into new target audiences.

Changing Markets: Current State and Challenges

In his presentation, Jasper addressed the current state of content and marketing. He highlighted three crucial challenges faced by Porsche Nederland when they set out to reach new audiences with a product that these audiences intrinsically were not interested in, and build a relationship with them that could be capitalized on in due time.

·   Content Overload: In a world of abundant content, capturing audience attention has become increasingly difficult. Standing out in the vast digital landscape requires content that truly resonates with the target audience.

·   Data and Relationships: First-party data has become a prized possession for brands seeking to build lasting relationships with their customers, and essential for future-proof digital marketing.

·   Cultural Relevance: Finding cultural relevance is the key to forging a meaningful connection with a new audience. Understanding the trends and topics that matter to the target market is crucial for crafting compelling content.

The culture that brands exude is more important than ever. Brands are not just there to sell products, they are supposed to show what they stand for. Porsche Nederland decided to choose a strategy based on consumer pull, instead of brand push. However, this could only work with timeless, qualitative content. If done right, it could lead to long-term engagement.

Engaging the Audience: Worth Your While

The strategic starting point for the new direction of Porsche Nederland’s content transformation was ‘Worth your while’: grabbing and continuously keeping the attention of the audience with content that is worth the effort. Jasper emphasized the importance of understanding your audience and finding common ground between their interests, brand identity, and remarkable content. If you know what is trending in your audience’s lives, you can tap into it by offering (sub)culturally relevant content, and thus build a lasting relationship.

Creating Scarcity in A World Of Abundance

Porsche Nederland's content strategy follows Google’s YouTube model Hero, Hub, Hygiene. This principle, also known as the ‘Three H's’, is a content strategy framework developed by Google to optimize online video content and engagement on YouTube. The principle categorizes content into three main types: ‘Hero’ content aims to create viral, high-impact (video) content, often tied to significant events or campaigns, to attract a massive audience. ‘Hub’ content refers to regularly scheduled, thematic content that retain and engage subscribers, encouraging them to return for fresh content. Lastly, ‘Hygiene’ content involves the creation of evergreen, search-friendly content optimized with relevant keywords to capture organic traffic. By implementing this strategy, content creators and brands can achieve a balance between reaching a broad audience, nurturing a dedicated community, and consistently delivering valuable, discoverable content on the platform.

Furthermore, Porsche's core values, including exclusivity, entrepreneurship, design, and performance, serve as the foundation for their storytelling approach. Recognizing the need for quality content that engages its audience in a world where people spend a significant portion of their day consuming media, the brand embraced the concept of 'slow content,' creating scarcity in a sea of content abundance. Scarce things are not easy to obtain, one needs to put in extra effort to discover them. You need to be willing to explore, in the spirit of founder Ferry Porsche: “I couldn’t find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself.”. This approach requires courage and a willingness to tell uncommon stories.

Discovering New Loyalty

Porsche Nederland launched 'Discovered,' an online lifestyle magazine showcasing qualitative content such as documentaries, podcasts, and interviews to reach new audiences. The brand adopted a publisher's mindset to strike a balance with editorial formulas and focused on relatable topics such as art, design, travel, music, and fashion. Local micro-influencers, like Eva Cleven, were leveraged to engage the target audience through podcasts. The content was directly aimed at the new audiences Porsche Nederland wished to engage.

By offering quality content that interests these audiences but is not (yet) directly connected with cars, Porsche Nederland took the courageous step to find common ground and build a relationship with these audiences before actually offering them content that is directly related to their product, luxury automobiles. Any content related to cars is generally presented through a surprisingly different approach, for example where a footwear designer or an architect are asked to reflect on old and new car designs.

Getting the show on the road

Implementing any new strategy or transformation inevitably comes with internal discussions and challenges. Porsche Nederland too encountered several dilemmas during the content strategy implementation of their new approach. One significant issue was the delicate balance between marketing and PR efforts. Porsche had to find the right equilibrium to tell their stories effectively while safeguarding the brand's reputation. Another crucial decision involved shifting focus from fast sales to long-term engagement. Recognizing the importance of building enduring customer relationships, Porsche Nederland made a strategic move towards fostering long-lasting connections.

Additionally, Porsche faced the challenge of catering to both their current, more traditional audience and attracting new segments without alienating either group. Striking this balance was essential to ensure the content's relevance and appeal, as well as the brand fit.

Traffic to Discovered is generated by leveraging earned, paid and owned media. While the campaign received decent exposure through earned media, mostly professional channels like Adformatie, owned media was most suitable to reach Porsche’s audiences. This way, Porsche can build their own community and control their data. More importantly, the brand completely controls the narrative and cautiously builds its brand image through lifestyle content.

Insights Content

This way, Porsche shifted its approach, leveraging owned data and storytelling competence, rather than solely relying on earned media through journalists. The results of the 'Discovered' platform were remarkable: a total of 9,119 users reached an average of 3.75 pages per session in 13,158 sessions. The long-term effect is not yet visible, the platform has only been live for 1.5 year now, but the numbers look promising for a niche brand like Porsche.

Porsche Nederland even managed to expand its content strategy beyond the digital realm, organizing events to engage potential subscribers. In his presentation, Jasper offered valuable takeaways for other organizations looking to enhance their content strategy in order to engage their (new) audiences:

·   Thoroughly understand audience motivations: Identify your audience's motivations and pain points to craft relevant and engaging content. Start by understanding your audience through first-party data collection.

·   Define your brand message: Clearly define your message and values as a brand in order to resonate with your target audience.

·   Find the sweet spot: Strike the right balance between brand interests, remarkable content, and audience relevance.

Porsche Nederland's 'Discovered' platform exemplifies how a brand can navigate the challenges of the digital age by embracing slow content and leveraging first-party data. As Porsche Nederland continues its journey of engaging and building relationships with diverse audience segments, it sets an inspiring example for other brands seeking to make a mark in the digital landscape.

Presspage's CRM Solution

At Presspage, we understand the importance of these relationships, and we are continuously dedicated to revolutionizing and improving your media and investor relations. Presspage's new CRM is a comprehensive contact relationship management system that streamlines the management, targeting, and engagement of your press and investor relations. Most importantly, our CRM seamlessly integrates with the entire Presspage product suite, eliminating the need for multiple disjointed, siloed tools and ensuring an optimized experience.

With a deep understanding of communications teams' workflows and the pressures they face, the Presspage team has crafted a CRM that caters to your specific needs, enabling you to work efficiently amidst internal and external stakeholders.

These are a few of the benefits of using the Presspage CRM for your media and investor relations:

Efficiency And Ease Of Use

Entering and updating contact information can be time-consuming and prone to errors, causing frustrations and hindering productivity. Our new CRM is designed with the latest insights in intuitive and neuro design, revolutionizing contact management. It provides you with an array of cutting-edge features to enhance efficiency and ease of use. You can update and manage your contact database effortlessly, leveraging time-saving functionalities such as autosaving, live searching, modal locks to prevent accidental clicks, smart sorting, and filtering.

Customizable To Your Specific Needs

The contact database system is highly customizable, offering numerous fields to enrich data, including custom fields tailored to your unique requirements. This makes it easy to collaborate between team members or across departments, as all the data can be captured centrally in an organized manner.

Collaborating globally and locally

Sharing functionality for contacts and lists across all your global and local Presspage accounts enables seamless collaboration on contact management within multinational companies, ensuring compliance with data privacy legislation and eliminating duplicate work across teams. This feature enhances the accuracy of your databases and boosts productivity.

Unique Inquiries Management

Automatically centralizing inquiries from journalists and investors within Presspage's Inquiries system ensures you never miss a question, providing consistent and reliable support. Collaborative features, notifications, and deadline management help you exceed expectations, and if you need assistance with your tone of voice, our AI copilot can suggest answers.

Engagement Analytics

Presspage CRM's rich analytics provide insights into the level of engagement each contact has had with your content, offering valuable information on how to approach them and which topics resonate with them. 

Targeting the Right Audience with Precision

Segmentation capabilities empower you to create both broad and niche distribution lists from your “owned” contacts, which seamlessly integrate with Presspage Email campaigns. To maximize the impact of your communications, our CRM furthermore offers advanced targeting capabilities. With access to our database of over 1.2 million journalists, all vetted by our research team and GDPR compliant, you can precisely identify journalists in your region, interested in your specific topic. Utilize our fine-grained filtering system to refine your audience selection, avoiding a scattergun approach and increasing your chances of success.

Effortless Subscription Management

Streamline your newsletter subscriptions with the Subscription Module on your Presspage Newsroom. Allow your audience to subscribe themselves, empowering them to choose the newsletters that align with their interests. Create multiple newsletters for different target audiences, and seamlessly add subscribers to your "owned" contact database, ensuring you have a comprehensive view of your engaged contacts.

Elevate Your Media and Investor Relations Today

Presspage empowers you to take your media and investor relations to new heights. From efficient contact management and segmentation to centralized inquiry handling, rich analytics, collaborative features, precise targeting, and streamlined subscription management, our CRM is a game-changer for communications teams. Join us and unlock the true potential of your media and investor relations. Discover the power of Presspage and revolutionize your communications today!

To learn more about Presspage and explore its functionalities, visit our website  or contact our team directly.

At the core, Presspage’s publication and distribution capabilities will allow IR and comms departments to keep complete control of their disclosure process. The all-in-one platform ensures a seamless workflow for all essential tasks related to the disclosure process without having to rely on separate tools to get work done. Optimised workflow efficiency ensures a timely publication across all channels and reduces dependability on other departments. Consequently, it also keeps the insider circle to a minimum.

This is in line with Investor Relations experiencing a period of rapid digital transformation. Messages that once followed a predictable route from the press release, to a journalist, to print publication are now being spread instantly through multiple -mostly digital- channels. To maintain a level playing field, IR departments need to embrace more robust technology.

AI has long been a promising development, but not very tangible for the larger public. The launch of ChatGPT in November ‘22, an AI chat interface that is optimized for human interaction, changed this. Suddenly, the potential of AI was visible for everybody.

AI frenzy

Of course the sudden attention spurred companies to think and communicate about ways to incorporate AI in their service, genuinely interested in the value it could bring, or simply hoping to ride along with the market attention. 

At Presspage, we are generally interested in everything that could potentially deliver value for our customers, but wary of riding empty trend waves. So when ChatGPT released its API - late February 2023 - we tested the waters. What struck us immediately, was the ease of use and its almost human sense of language. It wasn’t something that needed a lot of knowledge or explanation. This, in theory, would fit very well with the intuitive user experience on our platform.

We were impressed. But we also found numerous reasons not to cheeringly hand over all communications responsibilities to AI. The most obvious one: AI is not always getting its facts straight. Twitter is filled with hilarious examples of AI errors and fake news. More subtle, but therefore harder to mitigate, is its lack of intuitiveness, a broader context-awareness of your organization, the society and sentiment and a certain authenticity, which are all necessary ingredients to make a communications strategy a success, and a piece of content spot-on. 

Open door alert: AI is not human and therefore lacks the human touch.

But to return to our initial enthusiasm: conversational capabilities in different tonalities and languages is something AI, more specifically ChatGPT, does remarkably well. So we focused on that. What could we do to help customers with this strong feat of AI? 

Introducing your Personal Assistant in inquiries from the media

One of the areas that we have seen our customers spend a lot of time on, is the one-to-one communications with journalists. This is why we introduced our Inquiries solution in September ‘22. At the moment, this solution smoothes out the whole process around answering the journalist: logging, remembering, reusing, analyzing etc. But next on our roadmap is taking it one step further: to also reduce the amount of work on the primary task: to actually answer every inquiry individually. 

And that’s where we decided to first introduce AI, as your personal language assistant. 

Instead of typing the whole answer, including all the formalities, you just have to jot down a list of bullets with all the facts you want to share with the journalists. Clicking on the AI button will then generate a complete answer, already in email style. Depending on the type of relationship you have with a journalist, you can then choose to make your reply more formal or more friendly, just by clicking the AI button again. Moreover, your AI assistant speaks 90+ languages! So you can choose to communicate in any language of your choice. 

When using AI like this, a communications specialist will spend less time on every individual request, while still keeping the conversation personal and factually correct. Leaving more time for a proactive communications strategy. 

AI and communications professionals going forward 

The core of everything we do at Presspage boils down to ‘less tech, more touch’. We believe that equipping communications professionals with the right tools to reduce the burden of performing repetitive essential tasks, will free up time and space for proactive strategy, creative storytelling and relationship building. We also believe that this is not just a nice to have, but actually a must have. A company needs their corporate communications team to spend their full potential, to have the biggest positive impact on company goals and reputation.

The current generation of AI already provides a perfect assistant to help you deal with some essential, but very time-consuming parts of your job. We are curious to see what its next generations will bring. Without ever compromising on authenticity, creativity or simply the truth, we will keep stretching new AI capabilities to its limits, to see what value it can potentially hold for our customers. As a company full of nerds, we have already written rap-style recipes, requirements and documentation with it. If we see a way to responsibly integrate AI with other parts of our solution, we won’t hesitate. 

Do you have any suggestions for us? Feel free to reach out and tell Folkje, our lead product manager. She would love to hear your thoughts.

Want to try our personal AI assistant yourself?

To find out why Presspage is crucial to the success of your communications , book a personalized demo now.

• Comms teams have long been disadvantaged by the scarcity of integrated tools, dedicated to their needs. Working in one environment not only eases the job and reduces inconsistencies but also helps improve efficiency. 
   
• Comms teams require tools to keep up with their fast-paced industry and address wider audiences more urgently. They are in need of a simple, streamlined process that enables them to spread their content far and wide, whilst still keeping control over their story. 

The dirico and Presspage integration offer comms teams a holistic approach to story creation and sharing by uniting the key tasks of planning, creating, publishing, and distributing content. The integration includes a range of features that further enhance team collaboration, reduce rework, and create an effective comms workflow. 

Traditionally STP applies to “hard” data like financials and stock levels. But what’s less well known is that all business processes benefit from the approach, however warm and fuzzy they seem. Human resources. Customer strategy. Market research. And yes, even your corporate comms and PR.

Why? Because ultimately, all business processes are workflows. 

From a strategy deck to your latest customer success story, all processes involve information moving from one place to another, being transformed by your people’s skills and then sent somewhere else. For another team, it might be accounting data or product reqs. For PR and comms teams, it’s the story you want to tell, who you want to tell it to, and how it reaches your target audience. The data differs. But it’s still a workflow.

However, there’s one issue. In a high-touch, soft-skills environment like PR, keeping those workflows performing is more complex. Which is why so many PR professionals try to build a solution from scratch, devoting IT and PR resources to creating custom software in-house. Very often, that steals time and energy from your real job. 

So what’s the answer?

There’s a solution prebuilt by people who understand corporate comms, as customizable as you want, for your unique situation. But before we look at it, let’s go through the pitfalls of building an in-house solution – with notes on how Presspage could save you time and money.

1. Because your pain points need a platform, not a prison
 

A PR job can feel like herding cats: getting consistently positive outputs out of bright, buzzy people often following their own ideas and ways of getting things done. Sure, it makes the department an exciting place to work. But it also leads to inefficiencies as tasks get duplicated, processes multiply, and messaging sounds inconsistent since nobody’s sure who’s doing what. 

The trick isn’t to squash people into standard boxes, exerting control they’ll resent. It’s to make sure those different people share the same platform, where they can create, distribute, connect, and analyze the results of every PR piece, across every channel. The right platform doesn’t seek to crush creativity; it’s an enabler of it, giving everyone the same effective set of tools to work with.

Here’s the kicker: getting that “platform effect” when building in-house is very, very hard. Why? Because the nature of platforms – Microsoft Windows is a platform, Android and iOS are platforms – is that high costs of development are amortized across the millions of people using them. And building a custom solution in-house won’t amortize anything. After all, if you wanted an operating system for your phones, you wouldn’t develop a “YouOS” internally. 

But by adopting a platform developed elsewhere, and customizing it to your needs, you’ll enjoy all the same benefits. Your own private space for your all diverse PR workflows, perfectly matched to your requirements … with someone else doing the heavy lifting of software dev.

That’s our Takeout 1: adopt platform thinking for the win. A platform like Presspage. An integrated newsroom for sharing stories, sending emails out, bringing data in, and managing asset libraries and media connections for your whole team. Platforms make the pain go away.

2. Because all software solutions require ongoing development
 

Anyone in IT will tell you it’s rarely the initial cost of a system that matters. What drags down the effectiveness of any application is the ongoing support and maintenance costs of keeping it up to date.

(The average corporate website is a good example. Many are littered with press releases two years old, abandoned blog series, long-gone events signups, and the like. And a website is a comparatively simple software project.)

Attempt to immortalize your PR processes in software in-house, and two things will happen. First, you’ll encounter pushback, as people trained in corporate communications find themselves forced to become software testers, business analysts, even software developers. Second, the software will soon start showing its age, as improvement projects get delayed and the IT department resents the extra effort your custom solution forces them to put in.

(And that’s before you count the poor outcomes of people doing work they’re not experts in. Your team may be brilliant at peppering the trade press with positive coverage, but could they precisely describe the processes that led to it?)

When this happens, the way people behave is entirely predictable: they reject the system, and find ways to circumvent it. Which puts you back to the situation you had before: communications anarchy. So that’s our second takeout about building in-house: the ongoing costs can be huge. And not just in dollars.

3. Because the right solution should focus on communications needs, not general marketing needs
 

Another caveat of building in-house. In most businesses of size, communications is one cog in a larger marketing machine – and chances are your colleagues in other marketing functions are already using solutions designed for them. Meaning you’ll be under pressure to reuse applications developed for marketing, without considering your unique needs.. 

Many companies do this. And they sort-of work. But they’re not ideal. Why? Because they’re not built with your workflow in mind.

They’re not ideal because a platform approach favors communications processes, which are different to other marketing functions. Where their job is to sell, yours is to persuade, inform, and build. When they blast a message to millions, you’re looking to build relationships with a select group of journalists. Overwhelmingly, these other solutions will feel like you’re wearing the wrong shoes.

So there’s another takeaway thought: look around and see who’s done it. You’ll find very few examples of successful PR platforms built with another department’s goals in mind, however closely you work together. Instead, look for an outsourced solution that’s designed ground-up for you.

4. Because the ideal solution already exists – ready to work for you
 

If you believe in basic economic principles like doing what you’re best at (and buying in what you’re not) you’re our kind of person. At Presspage, we focus on understanding the workflows that work best for PR and corporate comms, and making them work for you. Of course, every communications department is different. But there’s a core set of processes that lead to success, and that’s the platform we offer.

Not a “content cave” but a full-featured Digital Newsroom, connected to your media contacts via seamless integration with email lists and databases. An asset library, acting as custodian of your brand assets and ensuring every communication sings in the same key. Customer Relationship Management for your PR needs, keeping the conversation with each contact in context. And comprehensive social media management, letting you talk to your market on the channels they prefer to be on. All equipped with automated workflows, guiding your team in their daily work so their results stay efficient and effective without making them feel over-controlled.

That’s our final takeout: don’t reinvent the wheel. There’s a solution out there designed specifically for today’s corporate communications team. So: ready to learn more?

CONCLUSION: See how Presspage saves the hassle of building in-house 

If the above got your head nodding in agreement, it’s time to talk more about Presspage’s integrated PR workflow platform. A great first step would be to add your name to our distribution list: take thirty seconds to do it here. Or why not book a chat with a Presspage expert right now? We’d love to talk.

We are absolutely delighted to partner with Levi Hazes.  A young athlete with infectious optimism, Levi is currently training to compete in the Olympics. We are proud to sponsor and support him on his journey to the Olympic podium and are excited to share his story with you. 

Who is Levi?

Levi Hazes is an inspiring example of a young, courageous, dedicated athlete who devotes his time to daily training to achieve his current number one goal - to compete in the Olympics in Paris in 2024. When he is not training, he studies Nutrition and Dietetics at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science. On top of all of these responsibilities, he finds space to help at homecare, clean the environment, and participate in the Young Spirits Social Club. 

His drive is his love for the sport - and what makes that even more remarkable is his devotion and commitment to making the world a better place. 

His goal to compete as an Olympian athlete is not simple. It requires persistence and devotion to master the challenges that are unique to a sprint athlete. It also requires courage and confidence to overcome failures and rise through the ranks to become stronger and better in his field.

Our inevitable partnership

We can’t help but see Levi’s journey as a true inspiration for Presspage, as his values are fundamental to the transformation that PressPage is driving as a scale-up. His personal transformation and growth (both physical and mental) are based on the foundations of a strong drive to inspire others to achieve more. 

As a tech scale-up who is paving the road toward digital transformation for our customers, we know that it takes a specific mix of grit, persistence and a little humor to keep making progress. That’s why when we met Levi, we clicked instantly. 

Levi brings his strength to the Presspage team in the form of inspiration and a reminder that when something is difficult, it’s always worth doing. We’re proud to sponsor and support Levi on his journey to becoming on the Olympic podium. His story is one that keeps us moving forward when we hit roadblocks. 

At Presspage, we are passionate about our customers and their success. Corporate Communication teams are our heroes, and we believe in challenging the status quo for them. Just like growing from a sprinter into a professional athlete, we both need to grow our network, find what we can offer others in similar situations, and support growth from all angles.

In an ever-changing communication landscape and in a world that has drastically shifted to digital, communications teams are on their companies’ front lines and deserve inspiration and support to move through the clutter. Like training for a world-class competition, this is not an easy process. But both Presspage and Levi Hazes are ready to take the lead.

Each member of the Advisory Board is a highly regarded expert in their field of knowledge and provides critical insight, new and fresh ideas to the challenges we face as well as network access to support us in our ambition of becoming the platform of work for corporate communications teams. 

Our Advisory Board members are:

- Yvonne van Bokhoven, EVP Europe and APAC at Team Lewis

- Sam Hall, Senior Director, Corporate Communications at Samsara

- Sebastiaan Laurijsse, Strategic Advisor and Owner at Communicon

- Daan Reijnders,  CEO & Co-founder at Foleon

We’ll introduce each member of the Advisory Board more in-depth in the next coming weeks.

Welcome on Board!

Top Rated Corporate Communications software

G2, the world’s leading B2B software and services review platform, regularly awards Presspage with user review leader badges in different communications software categories. Presspage has been included in G2's reports since summer 2019, ever since the Presspage team has been thrilled to see that its customers are happy with the quality of the platform, the support, and the care put into their needs.

The world has shifted into a digital age, where our data (personal or corporate, internal or external) is constantly under the threat of cyberattacks. Dealing with the consequences of cybercrime can cost a company up to USD 13 million (we’ll let that sink in). Aside from being costly, it also disrupts business and erodes trust – you would think twice before giving any personal data to an organization that has gone through public data breaches, right? This is why managing Information Security practices should be a top priority for most organizations, businesses, and teams around the world.

Most successful cyberattacks can be traced back to human error – the larger your team, the bigger the risk. Typically, enterprise-size companies tend to be more concerned about data breaches. Team size, risks, and reputation management all play a role in explaining why a lot of global enterprises consider security as a key factor when choosing a partner or service provider for their businesses.

At Presspage we are continuously striving to be a trustworthy and reliable partner to our customers. As a software solutions provider, protecting our customers’ data and information is of utmost priority for us. We strive to achieve a high level of data protection and strong information security management by adhering to strict policies and constantly assessing risks. Here are some examples of how we’ve implemented this in our work to best support communication professionals: from development and maintenance to software and services.

Industry recognized certification

Presspage has attained an ISO 27001:2022 certification issued by DEKRA Seal (an independent certification body). This certification is verification that Presspage’s ISMS (Information security management system) complies with the meticulous international standards in ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its data and data processing - the three key aspects of information, identified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

DEKRA Seal performed an audit on the development, integration, maintenance, sales, and technical support of our software and services. Being awarded this ISO 27001:2022-certification means amongst others: that we’ve ensured that information is not available to unauthorized people or entities, that information is accurate, complete, and is accessible and usable when authorized people are requiring it.
 

Security in the Presspage platform

From an upgrade to our text editors to multi-factor authentication - information that goes in and goes out of our platform is protected by multiple security measures.

MFA

MFA stands for Multi-Factor Authentication. This extra security layer drastically reduces the likelihood of a successful cyber attack by requesting a security code generated by an authentication app (such as Google Authenticator) on top of your password. Since one-time passcodes generated by an authenticator app are much harder to intercept or spoof than text messages or emails are, Presspage only supports MFA by authenticator apps.

Single sign-on

SSO is an authentication capability that lets users access several applications using a single set of login credentials. It simplifies login, reduces the number of passwords used (and therefore vulnerabilities), and improves security and compliance. Presspage users are able to set up single sign-on for their accounts knowing that their passwords will be safe.

Data security at the user level

Internal vulnerabilities can also be exploited by hackers, cybercriminals can misuse privileges to access the core files of an application. We try to give teams the tools needed to close those gaps – implementing user permissions is another way to make sure people have access to the right level of information.

GDPR compliance

Aside from being transparent with our customers about what data we use and for what purposes, we must also ensure that any personal data uploaded to Presspage is secure. Presspage not only communicates this by means of its privacy statement but as the processor of personal data it also ensures that a DPA (data processing agreement) is concluded with its customers, as required by the General Data Protection Regulation.

Coming soon

We are continuously monitoring our platform with the help of various audits and tests. From an upgrade to our text editor to multi-factor authentication - information that goes in and goes out of our platform is protected with multiple security functionalities.

The text editor update will not only simplify and upgrade the user experience but will minimize the risk for potential exploits as it includes built-in content filtering and offers full control over allowed content.

To sum it up

With digitalization and remote work taking hold, investment into information security will likely see a global increase. As a software provider, we recognize its importance and hope our cross-cutting approach to security fosters trust and open conversations around the topic.

Interested in learning more about how Presspage manages information security? Get in touch!

First off, congratulations on the success of this funding round!

Thank you. We were quite happy to receive additional funding from our existing investor, Capital Mills, because it shows they also acknowledge our potential for growth. Their experts know our business and have seen how we’ve been expanding. They share our confidence that we have a good team, a solid product-market fit and a strong value proposition to help our target audiences and that we have the ability to strongly and securely scale up.

Can you please tell us a bit more, why do you believe in that growth potential? 

There’s a huge need for what we’re doing. The work we help facilitate is key to businesses today. The 2021 European Communication Monitor (ECM) survey showed that a digital transformation is in progress, but no comms department is operating with a consistent level of technological maturity. In fact, over 80% of respondents indicated that building a solid digital infrastructure is important to them. Communications professionals are on the front lines for their companies. They need to be able to react swiftly, and they need time to plan proactively. As indicated in the ECM survey, they’ve been missing the kind of field-specific digital infrastructure that other sectors have. This is where we can help with what we offer: the ability to streamline and automate parts of the communication workflow, so these experts have time to excel at the heart of their jobs.

Communications teams are really at the core of Presspage's work. Would you say that they are our driving force?

Yes and no. On the one hand, our customer-centricity is so core to our teams. It’s ingrained in everything that we do. And I find our customers’ enthusiasm amazing. I have a background in Marketing, but I think it’s only here that I’ve realized the extent to which communications professionals have been put into a bind by the rapid expansion of channels and the even swifter pace of modern communications. I speak to a lot of our users, and they tell me how the platform is helping them on a day-to-day basis. On the other hand, I believe what we do is crucial for companies as well. We believe accuracy, consistency and velocity in communications have a huge impact on reputation. Customers like Booking.com rely on our platform to get their work done consistently, on a global scale. Brands only stand out when their communications are clear, and they can respond quickly in a uniform way. We help them do that.

So, why is this investment so important?

It will fuel our growth at a time when communications technology, or the core functional digital infrastructure, is becoming pivotal to businesses around the world. In the past couple of years, we’ve entered a new reality, one in which companies are facing new, complex challenges and communications professionals' role in solving these is growing. According to CIPR, 85% of PR and comms professionals believe that the value and reputation of their profession have increased. 

Presspage is growing fast, but this will help us grow faster and make our mark by supporting more and more companies who are looking at communication technology, or a digital infrastructure, to solve their inefficiencies. The opportunity is growing, and we want to be ahead of the curve to help them become successful. There’s a lot of work, however, that we need to do to get out there. This investment will help us grow our markets and expand our solution offering. Communications professionals are struggling, but they don’t yet know that there’s a solution.

Could you share more insights on our goals and plans for the future?

It all boils down to this: corporate comms teams are our heroes. We want to make them successful in their jobs by making it easier for them to achieve their goals. As for Presspage, our goal is to help more and more companies manage the growing complexities of corporate communications. By 2025, we want to be helping more than a thousand companies and corporate comms teams with their day-to-day work.

Exciting times ahead! Looking back, tell us how your first year at Presspage is going?

The image I had in my head when I joined Presspage was that of a box with a 1000-piece puzzle. I thought, “Cool. I like to think about solutions and puzzles.” Then, I opened the box and there weren’t 1000 pieces, only 200. When we started to put pieces together, more popped up out of the blue and gave new insights or directions on how to progress with the next challenge - or puzzle pieces, if you will. It’s an exciting process. Together, piece by piece, we are finding out ways to put everything together and complete the puzzle. Which, of course, will never be complete, since our ambitions grow with our progress!

It sounds like you really enjoy your work.

I do! I feel so grateful that I was able to participate in an opportunity that I believe in, as well as for the way that the current shareholders have supported my participation. It feels good to know that both the team and the investment team are bound by trust and vision. I have both personal and professional gratitude because we have a strong belief in what we’re doing, building on a solid foundation laid down by the founders of Presspage. I also feel fortunate to work with such a great team of talented professionals at Presspage. Not only do they have the right passion for making our customers successful, they are also breathing our company culture of trust and performance. A winning combination in our scale up ambition.

Thanks Jan-Willem and we'll check back in with you to hear more about the progress following the investment.

Absolutely, thanks for the interview and let's chat again soon.

PressPage’s mission is to automate parts of the external communication workflow to free communications teams so they can invest more time in strategy, relationships, and creative development. The platform began by automating the workflow from content creation to distribution and has expanded to support other parts of corporate communication management, including crisis comms.

One successful communications team using Presspage to streamline its workflows is Booking.com. Kristofer Barber, Senior Manager Global PR and Communications, explains a crucial PressPage benefit: “Presspage is a truly valuable partner to us, providing us with an easy-to-use, scalable platform that enables us to share our story consistently and in an engaging way with media around the world. The team's responsive and creative approach is vital in supporting our unique and ever-evolving communication needs.”

The investment round illustrates the potential Presspage has for growth. Day one investors, Capital Mills, have given a concrete show of faith in providing Presspage with this latest investment. “It is great to invest alongside management and support Presspage in its mission to help communication professionals maximize their impact on long-term corporate reputations,'' says Gijs den Hartog, partner at Capital Mills. “Presspage is a perfect example of the win-win for customers, organization, and investors that results from capital efficient growth – a strategy we strongly believe in.”

Presspage CEO Jan-Willem Schalkwijk is confident that the company continues to solve complex workflow challenges for its expanding client base. “Presspage puts the power back in the hands of corporate communications teams allowing them to build and preserve brand reputations while sharing brand stories. These teams operate on their companies’ front line and deserve a technical solution that is tailored to their needs. I am proud to see us give corporate communications teams the platform that will gain them time and space to proactively plan and instantly react when needed.”

Top-rated communications software

G2, the world’s leading B2B software and services review platform, regularly awards Presspage with user review leader badges in different communications software categories. Presspage has been included in G2's reports since summer 2019, ever since the Presspage team has been thrilled to see that its customers are happy with the quality of the platform, the support, and the care put into their needs.

Presspage communications software at a glance

Presspage provides a purpose-built Corporate Communications platform that enables organizations to create, publish, host, and distribute company news. Presspage empowers communications professionals by providing worry-free efficiency and effectiveness in their workflow with direct insight into results.

Save time and draft statements beforehand

Having a draft holding statement virtually ready to publish can save you time when you most need it. All you should have is a template, leave some blanks for the specifics (what happened and when, some details about what you know so far, who is involved, and when you expect to communicate the following update), and you’re set to go. Additionally, you can manage the user permissions of sensitive content so only specific members of your team have access to it before it gets published.

The entire process can be done in a matter of minutes: head to the manager and create a draft custom case, copy your holding statement and add all the modules you need: contact details, live feeds, social media plug-ins, or any other information you can publish about what’s happening and what your company is doing about it. Some of that might already be in other pages of your newsroom, but centralizing it can avoid unnecessary confusion and make covering your news easier.

Turn on emergency redirects and send your visitors to a crisis 'hub’

Once you have your custom case as the page to go to when a crisis calls for it, PressPage also enables you to redirect all newsroom traffic to that specific release. The emergency newsroom can come in especially handy at the early stages of your crisis response, but consider the following before pressing publish or switching on the redirects: 

• Timing: How long has it been since the news broke out? Is it enough time that people would start going into your website anyway or would it be causing unnecessary panic? Have journalists started to get in touch with you about it? 
• Level of transparency: As a rule of thumb, transparent communication during a crisis is a must. However, your audiences also need to feel like they can trust you to manage the situation, and there is a fine line between being brutally honest and appearing unknowledgeable. Make sure you agree internally about the approach and messaging before turning on an emergency newsroom. 

Please note this feature is only available upon request, talk to your Customer Success Manager to learn more.

Use Live News to keep your audiences updated at all times

Live news is our latest crisis communication feature. While creating it, we took into account a series of factors PR teams have to deal with during a crisis – particularly urgency, a need for almost immediate responses (even when the full story is not yet clear), and maintaining trustworthy relationships with multiple stakeholders. 

Swift and clear communication can go a long way during a crisis. With live news, you can quickly publish updates as information arrives, include images, external or internal links, day and time stamps, and pin updates to the top to make sure they don’t get lost.

Focus on your crisis plan while our platform handles the traffic spikes

Throughout March and April 2020, we saw a dramatic increase in the traffic of our customer’s newsrooms – nearly thrice the number of visitors compared to previous months – due to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was particularly the case for companies in the aviation or healthcare industries. 

When a crisis hits, it’s vital that your newsroom stays up so the media can have access to your statements – sudden traffic spikes can overwhelm and crash your site. PressPage newsrooms have auto-scaling capabilities to ensure uptime during sudden spike traffic incidents. Additionally, if configured correctly, it will launch instances in new geographical Availability Zones. In other words, if one physical server park is compromised, it will automatically switch to servers in a different geographical location.

Crisis communications tools you can activate in seconds

New to PressPage and curious to learn how our suite of PR tools can help you prepare for and respond to a crisis? Explore our crisis features or get in touch. 

As PR teams adapt to these new challenges, the tools they use should too – live news is the latest addition to a list of PressPage tools that help PR teams prepare for and navigate a crisis. 

Aside from autoscaling capabilities to handle traffic spikes, emergency sites, and redirects, teams working with PressPage will now be able to publish live feeds with short updates (saving time when there’s little to spare) and create topics to keep coverage well organized, complete, and easy to find for the media.

Keep information centralized during a crisis

Communicating everything you know from one single place can help bring clarity and avoid unnecessary confusion. Since live news is a module, you can add it to a release and pair it with as much information as you need (our advice: emergency contacts, links to other important statements, FAQs, photos or videos, relevant downloadable documents). This way, the media, customers, and other stakeholders will have access to the full picture. Plus, timely and transparent communication will help build trust in your company.

Start threads and publish real-time updates as events unfold

To any newsroom visitor, live news will look just like any other live blogging or live update feature you’ve seen. For anyone working with the new feature behind the scenes, it’s just as easy to use as the rest of the PressPage platform.

Once in the manager, you can add a live news module to your case, start a topic, and keep adding updates (with date and timestamp) as you go. Add images to each update to populate it with engaging content, help readers find more information by adding a link, and pin one or more updates to the top to make sure they don’t miss key information.

Don’t need to cover a specific topic anymore? All your topics will be neatly organized in the Topic Manager, accessible from the case menu > Live news, where you can search for, delete, or rename any of the items in the list.

We’re proud to continue to build a platform that helps PR teams in their day-to-day to build their brand and reach their goals. Live news is part of our Premium and Enterprise plans (see the full list of features per plan).

Crisis communications tools you can activate in seconds

New to PressPage and curious to learn how our suite of PR tools can help you prepare for and respond to a crisis? Explore our crisis features or get in touch.

What is an organization to do so that a crisis – whether of human life or of reputation – enables, and does not destroy, that support and trust?

However, not every crisis is predictable. A crisis is a point in time. It should not define the organization. Yet how an organization responds certainly can leave the public – and anyone hurt in the process – with feelings ranging from extreme clarity, confusion, or contempt for who the organization is and what it stands for.

The modern online newsroom has become a strategic tool for communicators. Journalists, bloggers, customers, partners, employees and other stakeholders and influencers use the online “pressroom” – or “newsroom” – to find information, or stay updated about a company.

In light of this, organizations would do well in implementing a systematic approach to a seamless and smarter online newsroom strategy. The presentation reviewed a systematic --and hands-on-- approach to seamless, smarter crisis management, specified per phase:

Pre-crisis: How to prepare your online newsroom for when the unexpected happens.

During: How to systematically use your newsroom and leverage social channels to get the message out.

Post-crisis: the role and importance of your newsroom's SEO benefits in the aftermath of a crisis.

What a journey it's been so far! From the early days of challenging the PR and media relations industry with a fresh view on simplifying workflow efficiency, effectiveness, and measurability. To today with a solid foundation and hundreds of the best-known global brands who use PressPage daily for their corporate comms and PR work.

Last week, Jan-Willem Schalkwijk officially took the helm at PressPage as our new CEO, and he will drive the next phase of PressPage growth.

 (Sebastien Willems, co-founder and Jan-Willem Schalkwijk, CEO)

We – myself and co-founders Tim and Bart – are convinced that this is the best for PressPage. We are certain our company has reached a phase where it needs a more experienced leader to scale and move it forward.

Jan-Willem is an energetic, team-oriented, humble, and focused leader who brings a wealth of software industry, scale-up, and commercial experience to PressPage. Our team is excited to have him on board.

At PressPage, we have always been driven by our customers and how to make their work easier and more impactful for them. Together we created a customer and team-focused work environment, and it is the perfect time for a new CEO to come in and build on this using their experience and fresh perspective. 

As for myself, I will support Jan-Willem in the coming period and remain an actively involved shareholder. 

I am looking forward to our next phase with Jan-Willem and the PressPage team!

Seb