Everybody recognizes the tremendous impact of the Internet on the practice of public relations. News doesn't wait for tonight's broadcast, much less tomorrow's newspaper. Press releases can be read by anyone with a browser. A client's confidential documents are routinely leaked in Yahoo! forums. And nobody mails press kits anymore.

However, the myriad problems cited in the report might not exist if corporations routinely assigned the day-to-day management of the "press room" section of their corporate web presence to their public relations managers or agencies.

In general, they don't. Public relations agencies often do not have the technical and Internet expertise to run a web site. And corporate IT departments are not willing to cede responsibility for a portion of their companies' web presence to an outside vendor.

But every agency has suffered through the nightmare of posting an important press release for a client on the wire, only to be told that the text could not be added to the corporate web site for hours, days, or even weeks due to IT scheduling difficulties or other excuses. Unfortunately, the timely posting of media materials is not a priority within the overall context of many corporate web sites. Nor is the design and functionality of these sections, as convincingly demonstrated by this study.

Nielsen Norman Group's research and recommendations conclusively prove that the time has come for public relations managers and their agencies to take control of the way a company presents itself to the media on the Internet.

But storming into the CIO's office waving a printout of this study and demanding a password to gain FTP access to the root server of the corporate web site is not the answer. Several steps must occur before you can even request a meeting with IT, much less get a satisfactory response.

First, buy the full copy of this report, and assess whether your or your clients' present online newsroom is up to par. Then, summarize the findings in an action plan that makes specific recommendations on how to make both short- and long-term improvements. For example, adding PR contact information beyond a "press@company.com" email link can be accomplished immediately. Adding a search engine that allows journalists and other users to research past news releases and other information may require significant changes to a corporate web site's architecture.

However, it's doubtful that a company's PR manager wants to take on the responsibility of managing the content, if not the design and architecture, of the online newsroom. Like so many PR functions, this task should be handled by the company's PR agency.

But how many agencies have account staff who are sufficiently knowledgeable to handle this assignment? This isn't about coding in HTML, or developing graphics for a web site. On the other hand, it's not rocket science, either. The biggest challenge is developing a system that allows for the corporate web site to be updated from a remote location. In addition to press releases, other content should also be accessible for updates, including PR contact information, photography and links to current articles about the company.

In some cases, a company's IT department may be more than amenable to developing this system on your behalf. However, experience often proves otherwise. And it's hard to fault the people in charge of a corporate website for not wanting to relinquish control to amateurs.

If an agency does not have this interactive capability in-house, you can partner with an outside vendor who will provide the back-end technical capabilities, as well as training and development, to make the process of updating a client's online newsroom as transparent and painless as possible.

For example, Mainsail Web Development Group offers a complete suite of interactive PR solutions, including an enhanced online newsroom that can be easily modified to fit the technical requirements of any corporate web presence. Mainsail also offers MainsailU, a series training and development seminars to help teach PR professionals understand and effectively manage interactive programs.

Once the recommendations have been developed, and the PR manager and agency have assembled the technical know-how and personnel to run the online newsroom, then the meeting with IT can be scheduled to discuss how best to address the situation and make appropriate changes to ensure that journalists' basic information needs are met so the PR agency can continue to deliver the results for which it has been hired.

Based in Brussels, Chris Clark is senior vice president of strategic services for Mainsail. He is also the author of "Byte Back," a monthly humor column for Adweek Magazines' Technology Marketing.

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