The Hoosier State Press Association has launched a comprehensive media monitoring service.
Through an agreement with Allison’s Press Clipping Service owners Jessie and Glenn Viefhaus, HSPA officially opens Indiana News Tracker on Dec. 21.
The Viefhauses decided to retire. HSPA’s service will serve the current clients of Allison’s clipping service and seek new ones as well.
“We hope that entities tracking information through newspapers and broadcast or social media will find that Indiana News Tracker can offer even better options than the excellent service they received from the Viefhaus operation,” said Steve Key, executive director and general counsel for the press association. “I know if they didn’t believe that, Jessie and Glenn would not have entered into an agreement to allow us to succeed their clipping service.”
The HSPA Board of Directors intends to share the net income from this media monitoring service with its member newspapers.
HSPA member newspapers enabled the association to launch the service by publishers’ willingness to upload PDFs of their print product to an FTP site. Tecnavia Press Inc. operates the site for HSPA to process the PDFs so they are word-searchable.
The pages populate HSPA’s statewide public notice site – www.indianapublicnotices.com – and can then be used to operate Indiana News Tracker.
Income from the clipping service will help cover the costs of operating the public notices website, in addition to adding revenue for HSPA members, Key said.
Indiana News Tracker customers will have options as to the extent of media monitoring they receive.
They can limit themselves to electronic clippings of Indiana’s paid-circulation newspapers that are members of HSPA. Or they can opt for services that include radio, television or social media.
Key said services are not limited to Indiana outlets. Customers can customize their coverage to include multiple states, regional coverage or nationwide.
With advances in technology, customers won’t be receiving paper copy clips through the mail but will have them delivered electronically.
“This service, combined with HSPA’s Midwest Advertising Placements and GistCloud Indiana news release options, allows corporations, nonprofits, and advertising and public relations firms to place newspaper advertising, distribute news releases and monitor media’s use of that information in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” Key said.
Besides Tecnavia, other partners in the Indiana News Tracker project include the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and Universal Information Services.
The Wisconsin press group will handle client searches for Indiana News Tracker. In addition to its own state’s media monitoring service, WNA also operates similar services for press associations in Utah and Oklahoma.
Universal Information Services will provide broadcast and social media monitoring for Indiana News Tracker customers.
