Council Online Newsrooms Not Optimised For Mobile

A recent study has claimed that although local authorities have invested in providing a good newsroom service, they have failed to optimise it for mobile.

The research also discovered that local government struggles to connect its media to social networking, in spite of substantial efforts to build a good news infrastructure.

Although central government has made moves to improve the accessibilities of its online services – for example the redesigned GOV.UK website – it seems that local authorities are falling behind, according to the study.

The What’s The Story? 2014 Newsroom Report was compiled by digital PR agency Mynewsdesk and it found that UK councils score an average of 23.75% for newsroom best practice, in comparison to last year’s 38% average.

The analysis says that little has been done to aid visitors in finding and navigating round a media centre, with half of those polled failing to link to their newsroom on their homepage.

Meanwhile, only one council participant in the study had a newsroom that was actually optimised for mobile devices.

This is not the first time local authorities in the country have come under fire for a lack of mobility.

In March, Socitm, the professional body representing people in public services IT, claimed that councils were finding it difficult to match the quality of their desktop websites to their mobile site.

CEO Urges Local Government To Work Harder

 “Local authorities need to work harder to engage with their citizens and the diverse range of audiences they serve,” claimed Peter Ingman, Mynewsdesk CEO.

“It’s clear councils are investing in the tools needed to do this but simple things like updating their newsrooms regularly with interesting, useful content and connecting them to social media channels could possibly reduce calls to their contact centres and put less of a strain on resources,” he added.

© 24N.biz