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BBC plugs corporation news with RSS feeds

Posted: 10/04/06 By: Jemima Kiss

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The BBC's press office has introduced RSS feeds for its public relations material, it was announced on Friday.

Journalists and BBC watchers can subscribe to feeds for 21 different departments across the corporation including TV drama, new media, children's and sport.

Feeds are updated four times each day at 9am, 11am, 2pm and 5pm.

Many news sites and an increasing number of corporate press offices publish RSS feeds of their latest content. Web users can sign up to feeds from all their favourite sites to receive new information as soon as it is published, without needing to visit the site. See journalism.co.uk's three-minute guide to RSS for more information.

• Search engine optimisation is having a detrimental effect on news headline style, reports Steve Lohr for the New York Times.

Thirty per cent of new site traffic is generated by search engines, Mr Lohr writes, but the algorithms used by search engines won't pick up "wit, irony, humour or stylish writing".

CBS Digital Media president Larry Kramer told Mr Lohr that all news organisations are struggling with this issue.

"There's nothing wrong with search engine optimisation as long as it doesn't interfere with news judgment. It shouldn't, and it's up to us to make sure it doesn't. But it is a tool that is part of being effective in this medium."

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