The Myth: “News monitoring can only happen in English and only big publications are monitored.”
If a company’s news monitoring strategy is limited to the processing of English content and scrolls through just the digital headlines, that company is basically eavesdropping on a global conversation with some noise-canceling headsets on.
The Truth: Real news monitoring is a multiplatform process that could timely capture the side-eyes on obscure online and print media channels in multiple languages.
Although a great chunk of consumers still scroll through digital news regularly, 26% of US-based consumers still prefer the crisp rustle of a newspaper over the digital glow of a screen.
A comprehensive news monitoring service isn’t just aimed at skimming headlines from the top-tier websites; it’s about keeping track of all the latest insights, whether through screens or paper. This is essential as the brand’s next big moment or crisis might appear in a magazine before it circulates on the web.
Let’s understand what exactly is news monitoring and why it acts as a critical constituent in the brand’s reputation management.
What is News Monitoring?
News monitoring is the process of seamlessly analyzing and tracking the global news coverage. It offers immediate alerts relevant to the breaking news, market changes, and competitors’ strategic movements.
Some of the renowned and most iconic brands are hardcore believers of news monitoring as it’s not just about catching false tweets and examining the ongoing trends.
On a daily basis, brands come across approximately 2 million news articles, and it is crucial for them to sift through all this noise to ensure the extraction of relevant data. This is where the news monitoring solutions serve their purpose. Here’s how news monitoring is usually tackled:
Media Mentions/ Keyword Search
In the past, several brands have found themselves struggling to find the exact news source. Comprehensive news monitoring solutions assist the brands in identifying the exact news source, whether through online or print media, in tracking down the exact keyword.
The automated news monitoring solutions enable brands to evaluate all the included and excluded keywords thoroughly. From extracting data against specific brand mentions, campaign mentions, and entity names, news monitoring services make the keyword searching and media mention monitoring credible and time-effective.
Sentiment Synopsis
Assessing the overall media mentions across different platforms isn’t enough. Additionally, brands curating the overall opinion on unclear data can significantly shift the public sentiment for the campaign.
Therefore, sentiment synopsis boosts the company’s news monitoring practices by flagging the potentially damaging and emotionally charged articles (both positive and negative). Through the compelling sentiment analysis optimization, brands can detect the negative sentiment shifts in a timely manner to prevent PR nightmares in the long-run.
Country & Language Filters
Isn’t it so disappointing when you come across a news site that represents data in a language that you don’t even understand, right?
Automated news media monitoring allows businesses to never miss an update, as it ensures the extraction of relevant information in the desired language so that no relevant news piece goes unnoticed.
News or Noise? Why News Monitoring Solutions Matter?
Think of your brand as a celebrity walking a red carpet with a camera flashing, people cheering you up, or booing down your efforts. Now, imagine walking the same carpet but with a blindfold on.
That’s exactly what it’s like running your business without comprehensive news monitoring services. To understand its significance, here are the reasons why news monitoring matters:
- Brand Crisis Management: Real-time news monitoring assists businesses in responding timely to the negative news mentions before they damage the brand’s reputation. The online news monitoring tools guide brands in understanding how other media sources and the press present the news.
- Real-Time Business Intelligence: By incorporating automated news monitoring modules, business analysts can gain insights regarding the future marketing trends, the ongoing controversies, and product strategies that are profitable in the long-run.
- Competitor Analysis: News monitoring not only counters reputational crisis, but it also keeps the brands informed of the competitors’ activities. Companies can identify which brands dominate among the audience and the entire industry in general. By doing so, brands can tailor their messaging to their audience’s needs.
The Strategic Objective of Online News Monitoring
Through news monitoring, the emerging brands can gain comprehensive industry knowledge on the basis of the examination of the latest trends and competitors’ actions. This service optimizes the monitoring of the following key metrics:
- Anomaly Detection: Automated news monitoring measures help businesses identify anomalies and unusual coverage patterns regarding the brand mentions. These solutions guard the brands by providing timely alerts in case of a sudden spike in the negative sentiment related to the brand.
- News Tracking: News monitoring facilitates the news tracker facility as it examines how the overall news coverage affects the brand and its relevant industry. It ensures the monitoring of various metrics, including volume of mentions, potential impressions, geographical distribution, and sentiment synopsis.
- Share of Voice: Companies are able to track how their brands are being talked about vs. their competitors by regularly monitoring the news. This metric has a lot of value as it gives the brands a competitive edge in the complex media environment.
- Non-Social Reach: The latest AI-powered news monitoring solutions keep track of the media mentions on non-social platforms, such as brand keyword mentions in blogs, podcasts, or other print media news channels.
The Watchtower Effect – Mechanics of News Monitoring Services
Every monitoring strategy operates within certain guidelines. Therefore, it is critical to analyze the working mechanism of how the news monitoring process functions, which is briefly examined below:
Step 1: The news monitoring process begins with the establishment of clear goals. Here, business analysts must refine the metrics against which the news is to be monitored.
Step 2: The second step is to refine the media sources that align with the company’s goals. The business analysts can focus on the media outlets that capture the most relevant industrial insights, expertise, and niche-specific news coverage.
Step 3: Once the goals are defined and the sources are decided, the next step is to specify the critical keywords and terms against which the news tracking is to be prioritized. This extracts the most critical data sets based on the latest and ongoing industrial trends.
Step 4: In the next step, data filtration is done to rule out the sources that are irrelevant and are not associated with the brand’s niche in any possible way.
Step 5: Finally, brands need to maintain regular audit reports of the metrics to keep track of how the brand is perceived in the industry. Additionally, it helps formulate effective campaign strategies in the future.
Leading Brands Mastering the Art of News Media Monitoring
For decades, brands have been the central target of controversies, and before they know it, they go from media heroes to hashtag villains. However, the smart brands have learned the art of media foresight, known as new monitoring.
Here is the breakdown of three case studies, showing how brands have utilized news monitoring to respond to controversial arguments:
Walmart’s Cultural Misstep
In 2024, Walmart came under fire due to the launch of its new clothing line featuring a Hindu deity. The company faced alot of criticism due to the mockery and religious disrespect. During this controversy, the fake profile contributed 46% to the circulation of negative feedback on the online channels.
By incorporating comprehensive news monitoring activities, Walmart examined the intensity of the negative comments, issued a public apology to please its target audience, and removed the controversial items timely to counter future reputational crises.
Jaguar’s Go Woke Go Broke Backlash
Recently, Jaguar’s “Copy Nothing” campaign sparked an online debate, leading to the circulation of a derogatory hashtag #Faguar. People expressed that “Jaguar is now promoting woke aesthetic over luxury and performance.”
In addition, it was found that 20% of those individual profiles supporting the #BoycottJaguar hashtag were fake. The identification of these profiles was made possible by the incorporation of news monitoring services. Eventually, Jaguar adjusted its public relations strategy to address the genuine concerns and understand the overall audience sentiments linked to that specific campaign.
Future-Proof Your News Monitoring Play With Media Watcher
When it comes to identifying the most authentic and relevant news sources, brands must consider outsourcing of news monitoring solutions from credible service providers. Media Watcher is the ultimate news monitoring powerhouse, designed to assist organizations in staying informed of global developments in real time.
With over 1 million articles from more than 50,000 sources, Media Watcher scans the diverse articles in various languages extracted from thousands of regions.
Not only that, Media Watcher facilitates sentiment scoring ranging from -5 (highly negative) to +5 (highly positive) to seamlessly identify the tone and impact of different news. It offers:
- Regional and Multilingual Monitoring
- Global News Sourcing
- Customizable Alerts
