Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the more common questions people have about our service.
What is a Web clipping service?
The State Clips web clipping service uses proprietary technology to monitor the websites of news sources for each individual state where we offer services - including newspapers and television stations. This powerful technology then creates a custom news report from those sources based on your keyword subjects and sends it to you each day
What kind of websites do you monitor?
For each state where we offer services, we index newspaper sites, college newspaper sites, news service sites and television station sites
What websites do you monitor?
You may contact us for a current list of the sites.
What is a keyword?
A keyword is a word or phrase that our clipping engine uses to define a search.
Where can I see a sample report?
A sample report for Kansas Clips is available at www.kansasclips.com/sample.html. The other states will have a shightly different look and feel, but the content will be formatted in a similar manner.
Why do people use an online clipping service?
There are a number of reasons why people choose to use an online clipping service. Many PR professionals use clips to evaluate news to measure the effectiveness of their public and media relations efforts. Many corporations monitor the news to gain information about how their company, products or services are being presented in the media. Many people use clipping services not only to monitor their interests, but for competitive intelligence purposes or to keep track of public trends.
Why should I use the State Clips service and not a public search engine?
Accuracy and timeliness are the most important reasons not to rely on public search engines. Public search engines (Google, AltaVista, Lycos, etc) are not able to provide updated information on all the news sites to you on a daily basis. In addition, because they crawl millions and millions of websites all over the web, they don't index every site every day. State Clips focuses on finding you exactly the news you want, delivered to you daily, freeing you up to focus on other things. We deliver top-notch service at an affordable rate.
How often can I change my search terms?
You can change your search terms as often as you need to and there is no extra charge for doing so.
Why do I need to monitor newspaper websites if I am already using a traditional clipping service?
By using both our Web clipping service and a traditional clipping service you will get daily feedback and more thorough coverage. Because many news companies do not put all of the same content in both their printed and online editions, using both a web and traditional press clipping service will give you more thorough coverage. Also with our service, you can get daily feedback about the progress of your public relations efforts. By using both, you get the thoroughness of a traditional press clipping service, combined with our speed of delivery.
Why should I hire State Clips to search my state's news websites, when I can do it myself?
You could spend all day looking for news on all of the news websites and still miss something important. We will save you a great deal of time and deliver the results right to your In box.
Can I get articles from papers on the day they are published?
We index the news sites around 6:30 a.m. to catch the most recent news. You will receive links to all of the stories posted on those sites by that time that contain your search terms.
I found a story my State Clips service missed, how is this possible?
There are a variety of reasons this might happen. The story might have been posted after we indexed that site, you may need to work with one of our customer service representatives to help fine tune your saved search criteria or we may need to adjust how we index that particular site.
There is no standard way news sites are set up, and they utilize a variety of technologies and are changing constantly. Despite all of those factors, we try to monitor all of those changes to provide the best and most thorough service we can offer.
Typically, we do a "light" scan of each news website to index the site's new content, while minimizing the chance of indexing their archives. In almost every case, we catch every new news story, but there is an occasional exception. If you notice we are missing an area of the site important to you, there are things we can do adjust how we index that particular site. Contact us with your concern, and we can take the appropriate steps to ensure you receive the best service possible.
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