Gorkana Plans to Launch U.S. Site in September

London-based Gorkana plans to launch in September a U.S.-focused Web site for stateside journalists and PRs, according to a London-based Gorkana director. 

This means Gorkana will more directly compete with journo sites like Mediabistro and PR-centric sites like MyMediaLife on their home turf. 

So far, Gorkana has essentially been known, used and run as an international version of the Mediabistro model with a PR spin: The two sites compete directly in regards to industry tips, tools, networking and events they provide for PR and journalists, but Gorkana has focused more on the PR angle in addition to the journalists' one from the site's founding in 2003.

Anecdotally, journalist friends of ours who work overseas have sung praises for Gorkana regarding international coverage needs, although Mediabistro began to court international members too more seriously several years ago, and holds events like cocktail parties, panels and conferences globally. 

Gorkana has also been targeting both U.S. and overseas audiences for awhile: We started getting emails from "Gorkana U.S." in August of 2007, for instance, when we were based in Alphabet City; we're now based in Brooklyn. 

Gorkana U.S. will continue to reside in its offices at 2 Rector St. in New York, its stateside hub for the last five years, according to the London-based director. 

A Gorkana spokesperson described the new site to us as a relaunch. However, email alerts sent from Gorkana U.S. have referred users only to a Gorkana Twitter feed and Gorkana's London-centric site in the past. 

“The new look and feel will be similar to the UK site, with a community section as well as a products section, which is a significant update from our prior Web site,” the spokesperson says.  

Other sites that serve the journalists-PR nexus, including MyMediaInfo, primarily focus on PR, whereas many journalists-focused sites like JournalismJobs are essentially job listings for media, while others, like Poynter and the Society of Professional Journalists, add journalistic practice tutorials, such as how to best filter census data or how to optimize freedom of information requests. SPJ provides freelancer profiles like Gorkana and Mediabistro. But Gorkana and Mediabistro are somewhat unique in how they cover both journalists' and PR career needs overall, whether freelance or otherwise. Newcomers like journalists' tweets aggregator Muck Rack and marketing outfit Contently, focus on selling PR and "branding" via social networking, but they're essentially journalists' CV honeypots for PR. 

One example of direct competition is in the two sites' "industry tools" area for how to pitch magazines and other publications: "Gorkana Meets…[insert name of big-time editor from big-time publication]" is similar in content to Mediabistro's "How to Pitch: [insert name of big-time publication]." Differences: Gorkana's is a Q&A format that covers what editors want from PRs for pitches as well as what editors desire from journalists, while Mediabistro's is a narrative format that focuses mostly on what editors want from journalists, but will sometimes include pitching tips for PRs. 

Gorkana, though, leans more toward serving PR needs. 

For instance, when describing the launch to us, the Gorkana director cited only one side of the media vortex: "The U.S. site is launching in September and we will be looking for content that will draw PRs to the site, like in the UK…" 

But Gorkana and sites like it might do well by keeping content that services PRs and journalists separate.

Case in point: Gorkana's PR spin, for instance, lost Gorkana an interview for "Gorkana Meets..." with a VIP editor-in-chief of a major U.S. network news site, which we had first pitched to Mediabistro for its "How to Pitch" section before an editorial disagreement on style over a prior piece forced us to look elsewhere. 

Specifically citing Gorkana's PR angle, the editor of the news site for a "Big Three" network passed, saying: "The Gorkana story sounds like less of a good fit for us – we don’t actually want PR pitches... that would be a bit awkward." 

When we asked to keep the focus on journalists to try to save the piece, the Gorkana director balked, saying: "Ah, that's a real shame, because we can't change the focus. Gorkana is a connector between the journalist and PR communities and the 'Gorkana Meets' series was started to show this connection in action."

Fair enough. And actually, the difference in angling between the two sites may be one primarily of perception at this point: Mediabistro courts PRs too. The site has evolved from primarily boosting the networking needs of freelance journalists in its earliest days to catering to all types in the media business, including PR, but also those in the film, book publishing and technology industries. 

That shift has become more evident the past few years following WebMediaBrands purchase of Mediabistro on July 18, 2007 for $20.9 million in cash. (The agreement added a maximum of $3 million in earn-out payments if Mediabistro were to attain certain profit targets. But according to the corporate parent's SEC filings, Mediabistro was paid $900,000 in October 2008 based on the site's results from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008. We have yet to find another proposed earn-out payment in SEC filings based on the other predetermined period of the site's results from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. A paidContent piece paraphrases Alan Meckler, WebMediaBrands chairman and CEO, as saying that the economic downturn killed the remaining earn-out.) 

Mediabistro's corporate parent describes the site as targeting anyone who works with content, whether on the creative or business end, including those in "social media, new media, publishing, public relations/marketing, advertising, sales, design, web development, television and more," as well as editors and writers. Gorkana covets much the same; mid-market-focused, London-based private equity firm Exponent through its Durrants press clipping service purchased Gorkana for just under $40 million on April 8, 2010.

Regardless, both Mediabistro and Gorkana lost a great "get" - an editor heading the online news channel of a major broadcast network as the site undergoes a directional shift. Newsy, timely, interesting. Neither style nor spin - concerns that could easily have been assuaged with a bit of discussion and compromise - should get in the way of that good content. But it did. 

So tip. Word to your respective mothers. 

Addendum: Odd we received a mass email from Mediabistro regarding what it called "the constant debate over whether freelance writers and publicists should team up." A brief discussion followed on the etiquette and ethics of such dealings, alluding to the notion that the borders separating PR and journalists on stories can be fluid and undefined, if not made otherwise. 

Those borders seem porous as ever at these sites (in fact, that's been Gorkana's mission since inception). For better or worse, depends on who butters your bread. Even then, time will tell. One thing's for certain: It's tricky to pull off the diversification of a customer base without diluting the services provided to each segment of one's customers. At least one group's bound to feel shunted aside in the mission creep. 

To wit, this is how Exponent describes Gorkana in its portfolio of companies section after tricking it out with Durrants and sentiment analysis firm Metrica: "The Gorkana Group is the leading PR planning, monitoring and evaluation business for corporates, PRs and Government which helps deliver efficient PR and marketing campaigns and manage corporate reputations.  It is THE network for journalists and PRs embedded in their workflow with analytics increasingly used at board level." 

To put it plainly, sites like Gorkana and Mediabistro need to take special care in their second acts to prove they truly can optimally help the very different masters they deem to serve: journalism and PR. 

Oh,... and social media and new media and publishing and marketing and advertising and sales and design and web development and television and...

It'd be interesting to hear from journalists on whether they feel as fully served by these two sites lately, compared to before each site widened the tent to include so many other customers. 

Addendum, June 10, 2013: CJR.com recently profiled outfits like Newsmodo, Ebyline and Pitch Me, which purport to manage freelancers for publishers for a fee; 30 percent per transaction in the case of Newsmodo, in addition to a subscription/access fee. Yeah. Wow. No kidding.