MEDIA MONITORING AND ITS VITALITY IN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PAKISTANI LANDSCAPE
PROLOGUE
Media monitoring has become an effective tool for monitoring and analyzing the coverage of a particular brand, individual, or issue in the media. It helps organizations to track mentions and discussions in various forms of media, such as news, social media, blogs, and forums. This information can be used to:
- Stay informed about public perception and opinions
- Track and respond to negative or false information
- Measure the impact of public relations and marketing efforts
- Monitor competitors and industry trends
However, the effectiveness of media monitoring depends on various factors, including the quality and breadth of the monitoring service, the clarity of the goals and objectives, and the ability to analyze and act on the collected data.
WHY IS MEDIA MONITORING IS VITAL?
In line with global trends and fast-changing means of digital communication, Pakistan’s media scene has taken giant leaps over two decades. Since the arrival of social media soon after the turn of this century, also called alternative media, the global and domestic media scene transformed swiftly. The outreach and accessibility of traditional (print and electronic) as well as alternative media enhanced immensely amid new concepts and trends like electronic and online editions of newspapers and citizen journalists taking root over these years. Today, there is a compelling need for all, corporate, public, private, and development sectors as well as news businesses to keep an eye on what is being said or discussed on these platforms. The media monitoring provides those working in these areas with a dynamic vision and insight to achieve their goals and help further their businesses, services, objectives, etc. Through effective media monitoring, one can build an informed view of the impact of certain steps or policies, etc.
The media monitoring capabilities have been part of APEX Consulting’s line of services for quite some time now. These include print, TV, radio, and social media monitoring, ad tracking, etc. We have the capacity to identify, archive, and analyze content both qualitatively and quantitatively from all these contemporary media sources based on specific/customized keywords or topics of clients’ interest/requirement. With over 50 years of collective experience, our experts have gained deep insight into the media landscape of Pakistan and the political, economic, and social trends prevailing in the country which enables them to provide in-depth media analysis and recommendations to the clients as per their given requirements and standards.
Print Media Monitoring:
The question “Why monitor print media?” might come to the minds of many amid the rise of digital media, over the last two decades but print media remains extremely important and powerful because of several reasons. It is still considered the most credible and tangible as the print media clippings can be kept for years, displayed on notice boards, included in annual reports, and used as a reference. Print is considered the media of record because printed words become part of written history. It also helps establish a brand or concept more effectively than other types of media and the message it publishes can be targeted to consumers in a niche market or the general public. Print media articles are linked on social media and get repeated and reprinted on internet websites etc.
In today’s fast-paced world, the need for outsourcing print media monitoring becomes obvious as monitoring newspapers and magazines every morning is a time-consuming task. It needs to be done seven days a week without any breaks so outsourcing the task saves time. Secondly, cutting out press clippings from physical newspapers or PDF editions is complex and challenging and it is very easy to miss press clippings. Archiving, tagging and indexing the coverage requires resources and professional expertise. So, it is cheaper to outsource than to monitor print media yourself. Outsourcing is dependable as you have one less thing to worry about.
At APEX Consulting Pakistan we procure newspapers soon after they get published in the wee hours every day, our professional readers manually scan all pages for items matching your keywords and requirements. The select news items are cut out and tagged. With some newspapers published in PDF format, some having images and some scanned from hardcopies, all the clippings are converted into a common format. Our network of regional offices enhances our outreach and access to gather, monitor, and translate news published in local and regional language newspapers.
The print media section routinely sifts through 60 mainstream English, Urdu, Sindhi, and Pashto daily newspapers (including the hardcopy editions brought out from different cities in addition to the online and e-papers) seven days a week throughout the year excluding the newspapers holidays. After identifying the content catering to clients’ requirements it provides tailor-made solutions (both qualitative and quantitative) as and when required besides producing various types of reports on a daily, monthly basis, etc. A 12-member team of expert monitors eight at the head offices in Islamabad and one each at Quetta, Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar accomplishes the task daily.
In order to reach out please write us at info@apexconsulting.biz.