Bacon's Announces Growing Customer Base in the Higher Education Market.

CHICAGO -- Universities gain new level of media intelligence to drive more strategic, results-oriented campaigns

Bacon's Information today announced its growing momentum in the higher education market with over 400 universities and schools currently using its MediaSource services portfolio, including eight of the top ten business schools in the country. This change in the marketplace reflects the steady demand for better media intelligence that helps organizations achieve their strategic communications goals. Universities that have adopted Bacon's strategic communications services include the MIT Sloan School of Management, Boston University and the University of Nevada, Reno.

Many top university administrators such as presidents, provosts and trustees are beginning to view public relations as a more strategic function with increased accountability. They are seeking tangible results that will directly impact their initiatives involving applicants, donors and alumni. At the same time, small PR departments are grappling with an enormous amount of news content, and are often required to spend much of their time simply handling media inquiries.

Bacon's MediaSource services portfolio addresses these needs by increasing productivity and providing strategic insights into the impact of campaigns and the state of the competition. With automated resources for planning, executing and measuring strategic communications initiatives, university PR staff can devote more time to meeting and exceeding the expectations to which they are held accountable.

"Like many schools, BU's PR team faces tighter budgets and increased accountability," said Joel Seligman, Executive Director for University Communications, Boston University. "We require tools that help to raise the school's level of visibility and demonstrate those results to a more media-savvy administration. Bacon's suite of PR tools will enable us to streamline daily tasks and focus on strategic initiatives that will generate more meaningful coverage over the long term."

"PR is typically handled very reactively within a university, due to limited staff and the large volume of news to communicate," said Cindy Pollard, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, University of Nevada, Reno. "In my view, Bacon's introduces the next frontier in media relations for higher ed, with tools that help to manage PR in a much more strategic, proactive and accountable way. Bacon's is absolutely essential to our efforts in implementing best practices throughout the university's communications program."

Added Paul Denning, Director of Media Relations at the MIT Sloan School of Management, "We work with a wide range of reporters across both business and technology sectors, and rely on Bacon's to help us identify and connect with the most influential contacts. Bacons' excellent research content provides information that helps us improve our relationships with the media, and ultimately generate higher quality coverage. We also have a limited staff and Bacon's provides a huge productivity boost with its tools for managing large outreach efforts."

Bacon's MediaSource is a portfolio of services that follows the natural progression of the Communication Cycle(TM), Bacon's proprietary model for maximizing media relations workflow. The MediaSource platform provides integrated services that streamline daily tasks of generating press coverage, and helps achieve the strategic goal of influencing a targeted audience to a specific course of action. The MediaSource platform consists of four software modules: Research, Contact, Monitoring and Evaluation.

About Bacon's Information - Bacon's helps communications, marketing and PR professionals maximize results in media relations. Bacon's is the first provider of integrated service solutions designed to give its clients the ability to research the leading media information to efficiently target their messages; distribute press communications according to contact preferences; monitor all media including print, broadcast and internet; and evaluate media coverage to determine to what degree PR objectives have been met. Bacon's Information is an Observer AB company.

About Observer AB - Listed on the O-list (Attract 40) of Stockholmsborsen, Sweden, Observer is a global industry leader in business and communication intelligence, offering media and market monitoring, analysis and communication evaluation as well as target group identification and distribution of information for PR and IR purposes. Observer AB has an annual turnover of nearly SEK 1,5 billion, and has 2,500 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, Germany, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.