University Communication & Marketing (UCAM) recently launched the UNM Newsroom as the University’s new centralized hub for communication content. The UNM Newsroom will provide a platform to tell the UNM story through a variety of internal and external voices, building both the visibility and credibility of the UNM brand.
Using integrated analytics, the platform will also enable the institution of performance benchmarks and metrics in the areas of audience reach, engagement and media outreach. The UNMToday print publication was retired this summer and has been transitioned into Inside UNM for news of interest to the campus community as a part of the Newsroom.
“Our primary goal has not changed,” said Chief Marketing & Communication Officer Cinnamon Blair. “It’s to create great, compelling news content and get that news out to our audiences. We want people to visit our newsroom on a regular basis – to do that we have to provide content that is fresh, searchable, and sharable.”
The secondary goal in developing the UNM Newsroom is to create a valuable resource for the media to access and receive the latest news and announcements, and also serve as the media response center in a crisis situation. The third goal is to empower all of our campus communicators to distribute their news – about UNM’s ground-breaking research, community impact, student success, health sciences discoveries, Lobo athletics and other campus-related news – directly through a centralized online news portal.
The UNM Newsroom, which is powered by the iPressroom service platform, is linked from UNM's homepage and incorporates all the features one would expect to find on a professional news gathering organization's website including featured content sections by subject area, scrolling headlines, subscription feeds by subject area, email news alert subscription options, advanced search capabilities, embeddable online video, multiple image galleries, as well as integrated measurement, content syndication and a faculty subject-matter experts database.
“This platform allows us to post our news online, reaching endless media and constituent audiences,” said Steve Carr, managing editor, UNM Newsroom. “It will increase distribution of news, photos, video and audio content in social media, news wires, news aggregators, search engines and the Associated Press.”
For the media, the UNM Newsroom will provide online press release and updated press kits, updated campus-wide media contacts, source advisories for current trending media topics, a faculty experts database, as well as multi-media content.
In today's new media environment, news content must reach not only traditional media outlets, but online news sites and social media as well. UNM’s social media engagement has been climbing significantly, and offers a real-time and cost-effective way of not only distributing news, but also engaging in bilateral communication and sharing content. Managed by UCAM, UNM currently has more than 31,000 Facebook fans and @UNM Twitter followers have increased to over 17,000 from 9,000 this time last year.