98% of journalists think it's important for a company or public relations firm to have an online newsroom. Plus, 97% of journalists use an online newsroom at least once a week. Bottom line: if your company or firm wants press coverage, an online newsroom can be the difference in news coverage.

Lucky for you, setting up an online newsroom is easy, and we have the fastest, most efficient way to update your newsroom and keep it hip. To keep it as simple as possible, we're going to set up our how-to season in a classic journalist style: the 5 W's.

What:

In case you don't know or just need a quick reminder, an online newsroom is an online media room or press center. An online newsroom provides journalists and writers with all the inside info they'd need to write a stellar article about your garden client or company. This newsroom will have audio, video, press releases, data, and images that could be used in your article. Content, tools, distribution, and analytics are the four foundations for any online newsroom.

Who:

Media or Public Domain? Your garden business has to chose just the right format for your company. Is this information you want to be easy to access, or do you want it to be more hidden?

Where:

Your online newsroom can be hosted proudly on your main website, or you can create a separate website designated specifically for the media. If it's on your main website, journalists will have an opportunity to see who your brand really is, but the information is then easily accessed by anyone. If it's on a separate site, your public relations team is able to cater directly to the media's wants, but the information on your main site will require some hunting to get to.

Why:

Journalists use newsroom so frequently because they streamline how they do their job. It's a major pain for a journalist--on an impending deadline-- to be reliant on you for this information. Maybe you're not at your desk, by a computer, or able to answer the writer's question in a timely fashion. Article abandoned, but if you have a newsroom, the journalists can feel in control. Best of all, you've already hand selected the best aspects of your article, so you know the information they have to work with. Patience is dwindling in the information age, and if your business doesn't have an online newsroom, you may be out of the press for good!

When:

Your online newsroom should be updated frequently. After all, this is NEWS, so it has to be timely. However, specifically how often will depend on your company. At Garden Media Group, whenever we are pitching or have just published a new story, we update our online newsroom. Sometimes it's a few times a week while other times of the year it's once a month. The height of the garden season is the busiest for us!

How:

As promised, setting up your newsroom is easy. Granted, the creation of anything does require some time, but the time invested in the creation of a newsroom will be significantly less than answering oodles of journalists' every question. Wiki-How is a go-to for me, so here's Wiki's version of easy-peasy online newsroom creation.

Need more inspiration and guidance? Check out Garden Media's online newsroom!

We host it on Pinterest! This medium works best for us because users and journalists alike are able to interact with our news directly. Not to mention, we're Pinterest fanatics at Garden Media Group.

Learn why we love Pinterest SO much and how it can boost your business!