Media Monitoring Gets SaaSy
This is a first in a semi-regular series called “We talk to vendors so you don’t have to.”* Often our clients ask us to vet PR related products and services such as media monitoring, metrics packages, and media research. This usually inlcudes listening to sales pitches or trying the services. So we thought it would be enlightening to bring readers reports from the front lines of PR and technology.
Recently, I was listening to a sales presentation from a media monitoring service. In the middle of presentation, the sales person mentions that the press clippings are hosted on servers of the monitoring service. This led to the following exchange:
Me: Can the client’s press clips be downloaded?
SalesGuy: No
Me: What happens to the press clips if the client terminates the service?
SG: Well, they will be very happy with our service. So I don’t think it will be an issue.
Me: That did not answer my question. Is there a way for the client to get its own clips?
SG: Well they can e-mail a copy of link of an individual clip.
Me: In other words, no.
This is a big downside of SaaS (software as a service). It is really important to make sure that any media monitoring service provides you with the ability to get hard copies. For example, some services do allow a download – typically to an Excel spread sheet. After all, it is your coverage and someone providing you a service should not be in a position to hold your coverage hostage.
* Yes, this is an adaptation of the name of the popular Valleywag “Twitter” tag.
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Tags: media monitoring, press clips, SaaS, We talk to vendors so you don't have to
January 16th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Getting copies of articles requires a license and/or permission from the publisher because it is covered under copyright law. I don’t think it’s caused by SaaS as you mention in this article.
January 16th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
That would be true for hard copies and web clips behind a firewall. But in most cases (and for the service in question), all that is provided are links to the actual articles. So I don’t think that copyright or permission is involved.