ABSTRACT
New technologies emerge, new companies appear and disappear in the industrial landscape, companies reorganise, merge and spin-off at a fast pace. All these changes make it very difficult to keep long track records of consistent public relations (PR) results. In order to shorten lead times, many agencies have decided to offer their analysis reports online rather than compiled in a long document sent by e-mail. Online services often allow for an additional comfort factor. The online service complemented the on-going reporting services. While the ongoing reports continued to provide data in a consistent way allowing for long-term trends analysis, the online service gave immediate access to customised one-time reports. The most obvious one is simply to do the basic evaluations on the outcome level the number of impressions over a longer period and observed trends. In 2000, media analysis at HP showed that the company was about head-to-head in press coverage with one of their main competitors for a certain topic.
