Memo for Chief of Staf

TO:

Parita Shah, Chief of Staff

FROM:

John R. Gagain Jr., Press Secretary

VIA:

Paul C. Weinberger, Vice President Congressional and Public Affairs

DATE:

July 3, 2014

RE:

Press Clips / Daily News Briefing Services

ENCLOSED:

Binder of Materials from News Analysis Service Providers

One of the first requests from our new CEO, Dana J. Hyde, was to revisit how CPA develops the
agencys daily press clips. She asked us to review the daily press clips circulated at the White
House and State Department. As a result of the CEOs request, we spent the last month speaking
with the federal agencies that compile daily press clips and receiving presentations from the
companies that provide this service to themincluding the White House and State Department.
Background
On average, we spend about 3-5 hours per day compiling the daily press clips. This process
includes receiving automatic Google Alerts for Millennium Challenge, our CEOs name, our
board of directors names and other MCC related keywords. We conduct manual searches for
partner countries and topics of interest. This process finds a list of articles covered in the press
throughout the previous 24 hours. Thereafter, we cut-and-paste the articles titles, hyperlinks
and full-text into a Microsoft Word document.
We also solicit and receive (almost automatically now) articles sent via email from MCC staff in
DCO, DPE, and in-country; to circulate relevant news links on their work and our partner
countries. CPA also recently added a New Media section to the daily news clips, which
includes relevant news tweets, YouTube videos, etc.
The completed daily press clips document is sent in the body of an email to all MCC staff. We
only send a list of relevant news articles; thus, no analysis is being done.

Memo for Chief of Staf

After consulting with other U.S. federal agencies over the last month, and receiving multiple
presentations, the following companies offer services pertaining to news analysis and daily
briefings that are more closely related to MCCs needs:
Meltwater,
Cision,
Bulletin Intelligence,
Vocus,
LexisNexis Publisher,
Muck Rack, and
Google Alerts.
Most of these services offer an alert function that is superior to Google Alerts, allowing for more
timely and effective notifications when MCC and/or related topics are mentioned in the news
media.
Only one service providerBulletin Intelligenceprocesses daily news clips in a format that
includes an analysis. An analysis of daily news coverage is important because it:

Ensures that staff, with busy schedules and limited time, can quickly understand the full
scale of what is important in the news,
Makes MCC aware of the drivers affecting our reputation and brand,
Tracks progress against the agencys Public Affairs goals,
Helps MCC fully understand conversations taking place in the news media,
Creates an understanding of issues in the news media that guide how we advise our CEO
and how we make recommendations to her on statements, interviews, speeches, travel,
public agenda, etc.
Takes into account the rapidly changing media cycle and how Social Media and
traditional media are evolving,
Provides metrics so MCC can invest in programs that work and divest in programs that
do not,
Alerts MCC of potential crisis situations, allowing quicker and more effective decisionmaking.

Memo for Chief of Staf

Although each company provides services in the fields of news analysis and daily press
briefings, the components of their service portfolio(s) may vary. Costs also vary widely.
Below you will find four (04) categories, which help MCC to determine the solution(s) it needs:
1. Media Lists are a compilation of contact information for relevant journalists and bloggers
and the issues they are covering. These lists must be constantly updated due to changes in
MCCs needs and journalists needs.
2. Media Monitoring includes keyword searches through the news media that determines
MCCs mentions and MCC relevant news.
3. Daily Distribution is the ability to accumulate relevant news coverage and deliver a
summary via newsletter for distribution to staff, senior management and specialty teams.
4. Media Analysis is done by analysts who sift through the news media to compile daily,
weekly and/or ad hoc analysis for the agency of important and relevant trending stories.
This service is only provided by Bulletin Intelligence.
Comparative Chart:
Company

Media
Lists

Media
Monitoring

1. Meltwater

2. Cision

3. Bulletin
Intelligenc
e
4. Vocus
5. LexisNexis
Publisher
6. Muck Rack
7. Google
Alerts

Daily
Distribution

Cost

$25,000/yea
r
$10,000/yea
r
$9,000$12,500/
month
N/A
N/A

X
X

Media Analysis

X
X
X

$3,588/year

Free

Memo for Chief of Staf

Service(s) Used By Other U.S. Federal Agencies:

Agency
The White House
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Transportation
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
U.S. Department of the Treasury
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Commerce
Federal Housing Finance Agency
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Federal Emergency Management Agency
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
United States Agency for International Development
Various members of the U.S. Intelligence Community
U.S. Institute of Peace
Department of Defense Inspector General
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Federal Emergency Management Agency
National Security Agency
Sandia National Laboratories
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Millennium Challenge Corporation
National Institutes of Health
Peace Corps
4

Press Clip Service(s)

Used
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Bulletin Intelligence
Cision
In-House
Google Alerts
LexisNexus
In-House
Vocus
Vocus
Bulletin Intelligence
Vocus
Vocus
Meltwater
Meltwater
Google Alerts
Cision
Muck Rack
In-House
In-House

Memo for Chief of Staf

ENCLOSED
See supplementary documents and information provided to MCC by each news analysis
company.