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How to get the most out of your SOURCES listing

Information for companies, organizations, individuals
creating or reviewing their Sources media listing

Maximize the power of your SOURCES listing

SOURCES is designed to give journalists, editors and researchers fast access to experts and spokespeople willing to be interviewed and quoted. You can maximize the power of your media profile:

• Make sure journalists see your name under all SOURCES topics relevant to your organization. Find handy lists of subject headings by category here.

• Make it easy for journalists to reach you by including full contact information, including phone and fax numbers, E-mail addresses, and at least one after-hours or pager number.

• Let us know when there are changes in your information so we can update your listing right away on SOURCES.COM right away. Call 416-988-9586. See our contact page for email and mailing addresses.

A format that works

One of the key factors making SOURCES the effective and much-used resource for journalists it is, is the fact that all listings are presented in a standard easy-to-use format. The format, style, and SOURCES INTELLIGENT SEARCH indexing system have been developed and refined over a period of more than forty years with the single goal of making it as easy as possible for journalists and researchers to find you when you have expertise or opinion in the area of the story, broadcast, research, article, news item or speech they're working on.

How your Sources listing works for you:

Your SOURCES listing includes a whole suite of media relations and publicity tools, including:

Your Logo: More than 80% of organizations listed in SOURCES raise their visibility online by including a logo, or photo for individuals. The cost is $99 a year.

Your Name: Your company/organization name.

Your Address: The address of your main office. List additional addresses in the contacts section.

Your Descriptive Paragraph: Tell the media who you are and what you do. 100 words are included in your standard rate. Additional words are $1 each.

Your French-language Descriptive Paragraph: Tell the French-speaking media you encourage their calls. Add a 100-word French paragraph for $10. You also have the option of adding a descriptive paragraph in Spanish or in other languages in which you are able to handle enquiries. The Sources site receives visitors from more than 100 countries.

Your Contacts: Vital! Include the names and numbers of all personnel and offices in your company organization who are able to field media calls in their area of expertise. Your basic listing entitles you to include 15 contacts; additional contacts are $25 each.

Your Communications Co-ordinates: In your contact information, list at least one after-hours or pager number to make it easy for journalists working in any of Canada's six time zones to reach you. Don’t forget your fax and other helpful numbers, such as toll-free, cell, and pager, as well as your E-mail address(es) and your website.

Your website: Whether you have one website or several, make sure to include the URLs in your listing. For $25 a year, a direct link can be set up from your Sources listing to your own website: a simple but powerful search engine optimization tactic that will raise the ranking of your site.

Video and Audio: Include video or audio clips with your profile so broadcasters, hosts, producers and organizations who book speakers can see and hear you in action. Give them more reasons to call you and put you on their show or hire you to speak at their events! Sample video from Sources member: #1

Sources Bookshelf: If you have written or published books, promote them in the Sources Bookshelf. Two titles are included free; additional titles cost only $5 per year. Sample book pages: #1 #2 #3

Sources Newsstand: If you publish a magazine, newsletter, newspaper or other peridical, promote it on the Sources Newstand. Two titles are included free; additional titles cost only $5 per year. Sample Newsstand pages: #1 #2

Speaker and Author pages: If you are a speaker or author you can promote yourself on the Speaker and Author pages at no extra charge.

News Releases: All of your news releases guide readers to your SOURCES media profile, and your profile includes a list of your news releases.

Sources Calendar: All the events you list in the Sources Calendar guide readers to your SOURCES media profile.

Sample Media Profiles: Here are some sample listings which may help you in setting up your own SOURCES profile: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5

The Subject Index: Helping journalists find you

Your subject index headings are the most important feature of your listing. Your choice of headings:

Tells journalists, editors and researchers you have expertise in the subject they are looking up, and;
Leads them directly to your company organization.

More than 20,000 carefully chosen headings reflecting an extremely wide diversity of topics are available to you in the Sources Subject Index. A Subject Index Advisory Board reviews headings to make sure they reflect recent developments as well as current norms in the information sciences.

To help you find the subject headings most relevant to your areas of expertise and concern, we have developed lists of headings arranged by broad category (e.g. Law, Health, Science and Technology) and by somewhat more defined sub-category (e.g. Criminal Law, Dentistry, Computers). You can look at and download the lists of headings from this Web site.

If you need more than 40 subject headings to fully describe your organization, you may list yourself under additional headings at $1 per heading.

Remember, the number of calls you'll receive from the media directly relates to the number, newsworthiness and specificity of your headings.

Sample Topic pages: #1 #2 #3 #4

If you’d like to discuss your headings further, call SOURCES at (416) 964-5735.

More information?

Sources is the online directory that helps journalists find knowledgeable experts and sources. Use Sources to reach the media with your message, send out news releases, publicize your events, raise your profile, spotlight your expertise, and get publicity. Sources.com is used by reporters and the news media, and also by the public to find reliable information and proven professionals, practitioners, and businesses. More information here; membership form here.