Nuts And Bolts And More Nuts
(What we do, how we do it,
and how we differ from traditional clipping services)
Who Is CompetitivEdge?
CompetitivEdge is a provider of customized, confidential monitoring
and research services to a wide variety of companies, institutions and
organizations.
Information gathering presents a real challenge to any organization.
Literally thousands of documents are published each day, in print and
on the web. More news is moving over television and cable. And with
the growth of a true world-wide economy, even the smallest of
companies can be featured in international publications not readily
available to them.
Many public relations professionals and executives have an overflowing
'in-box' of publications they need to cull through. Worse still is the
knowledge that there are significant articles that they may miss
entirely in publications they do not subscribe to, or on web sites
they don't check routinely.
CompetitivEdge uses electronic research techniques to obtain
information from these thousands of sources, searching through
computerized libraries to extract the data our clients seek.
By combining sophisticated research techniques and the power of
computerized on-line databases, CompetitivEdge enables its clients to
focus on current published articles of interest.
CompetitivEdge custom designs each electronic clipping program to meet
the specific individual needs of each client. As a result, our clients
recognize measurable cost savings and time savings. The greatest
benefit of a CompetitivEdge Electronic Clipping program is without
measure - - the competitive advantage of having the right information
at the right time.
How Does CompetitivEdge Get Its Information?
CompetitivEdge has signed contracts with the country's leading
suppliers of computerized database services. Our contracts allow us to
dial up these services using a computer modem, search electronically
through their libraries of publications using criteria we specify, and
download the results of our research onto our office computers. We
then translate these results into a word processing document to
provide you with crisp professional clippings.
The services we subscribe to are constantly expanding. We expect that
your coverage will grow increasingly more comprehensive as time goes
on.
What Are The Sources For My Electronic Clippings?
Your clippings can come from a wide variety of published news sources.
Your clipping program includes five major sources for comprehensive
coverage:
1. Wire Services
Wire services provide text of press releases and reporter coverage of
stories of national/international interest. Wires are widely
distributed to subscribing newspapers, television and radio. Our
sources contain independent wire services, paid wire services, and web
content provider services.
2. Major Newspapers
Newspapers provide text of news stories, feature articles and
investigative reporting. Sources include virtually every large
circulation newspaper - worldwide, and include both print and web
editions.
3. Major Magazines
Magazines provide in-depth news and feature profile stories from
periodicals with a national distribution. They are also an important
source of consumer news and results of product evaluations, studies
and surveys.
4. Trade Journals
Trade journals provide special interest information in a wide variety
of industries. Sources include thousands of periodicals of limited
circulation in virtually hundreds of fields, including legal,
advertising, banking, new product, government regulation, engineering,
computing, automotive, healthcare, etc. Trade coverage includes both
print and web publications, and covers daily bulletins, newsletters,
e'zines, glossies and trade newspapers.
5. National Broadcasts
National broadcasts provide written transcriptions of nationally
broadcast television, cable and radio science, political, business and
lifestyle programming.
What Should We Expect From Electronic Clipping?
Expect your clippings to provide comprehensive coverage:
National and
international newspaper mentions including your quotes, hard news,
local interest/color stories . . . .
Mentions in various
trade journals covering your industry . . . .
National rankings,
comparisons and product/service reviews . . . .
Confirming press
releases and wire releases . . . .
Expect your clippings to
be very timely:
Sources are generally available to us within 0-48 hours of
publication. (Some magazine and trade journals are available in
advance of their publication dates; others may lag by up to six
weeks.) As a result, your clippings will include articles through the
closing date of your clip period.
Expect your clippings to make good use of your valuable time:
All clippings can be
laser-printed on standard size paper, so your clippings arrive in
an organized, professional report format.
Key words are printed
in bold to assist you in locating key paragraphs and references.
Each clipping provides
a masthead, indicating the publishing source, date of publication
and headline, followed by the text of the publication.
We purposely provide
clippings in a format you can use and place no restrictions on how
you use your clips. (Please consult your legal counsel prior to
reproducing or redistributing clips to ensure your compliance with
copyright laws.)
What Can't Electronic
Clipping Do?
The majority of smaller-circulation newspapers and weekly newspapers
are not available electronically. If local coverage of this sort is
important to your efforts, we recommend that you consider
supplementing your CompetitivEdge Electronic Clipping service with a
traditional clipping service for such coverage.
Actual graphics are not yet available electronically. Your clippings
will include a description of graphics run with any story.
Advertising is not yet available electronically.
How Does CompetitivEdge Differ From Traditional Clipping Services?
CompetitivEdge Electronic Clipping provides three distinct advantages
over traditional newspaper clipping services.
1) Scope of Coverage
CompetitivEdge recognizes that monitoring print in the United States
is just one piece of an ever expanding puzzle. CompetitivEdge is the
first clipping service to provide coverage of print, online, wires,
content providers, international news and national broadcasts - - all
for one low monthly fee.
CompetitivEdge puts the power of a computer to work, enabling us to
accurately search through millions of news sources in all news mediums
in a matter of minutes.
2) Quality of Results
Traditional clipping services provide their readers with a pair of
scissors. Clips may arrive as odd-sized pieces of newsprint or as
photocopies. (Online services may provide you with full-text from a
limited number of sources, or a summary listing with URL addresses.)
We do things a bit differently.
CompetitivEdge results are full-text articles, translated into a word
processing document and printed on a laser printer. Alternatively, you
can take delivery on disk, CD-ROM, or via e-mail. In all cases, your
clips are fully formatted to work with your word-processing software.
Your clipping results look professional; suitable for distribution,
inclusion in a presentation, photocopying and organized filing. At
CompetitivEdge, we can categorize your clippings by topic and provide
you with an index. As a result, your clippings arrive ready to go to
work for you immediately.
Using skilled researchers, CompetitivEdge delivers timely results free
from false hits, missed clips, and duplications.
3) Clipping Cost
Traditional clipping services and online clipping services typically
charge a set monthly reader fee and a per clip fee surcharge. As a
result, costs can run quite high, and accurately budgeting your costs
is near impossible.
At CompetitivEdge, we quote you a custom developed, all inclusive
price, reflecting your institution's volume, complexity, delivery
frequency and special needs. There will be no surprises on your
invoice. The only surprise is that we are offering an increased scope
of coverage and increased quality of results at a cost that is
probably less than a traditional clipping service!
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