The City of Kortrijk: A model for municipal communication

It’s half an hour before the press conference. Corrections to the news release arrive from four quarters. Four different documents; only one chance to get it right.

▴ Copyright: Kortrijk- Photographer: Bas Bogaerts

Before the local government of Kortrijk, a city of 81,000 residents in northern Belgium, started using PR.co’s software, this was the kind of stressful situation Seel Seynhaeve could expect to face.

“Our set-up was a bit chaotic and cost us a lot of time,” the city’s press officer explains. “We needed one central and secure place to store our press communication. The PR.co platform ensures we have much more control and peace of mind about our workflow.”

Seel and her team can also update the press release published in Kortrijk’s PR.co-driven newsroom with the official pictures taken at the event after waiting a couple of hours. This guarantees that the city doesn’t compete with press and freelance photographers who earn a living from these photos.

Best of all? Although Kortrijk residents receive a dedicated newsletter, some now also subscribe to media alerts, allowing them to receive city updates directly from the source.

“As a local government, we strive for wholly transparent and clear communication with our residents—and the local journalists, who serve as our news’ conduits,” Seel says.

“We believe in the power of a strong internal as well as external network. The newsroom ties in perfectly with this value. It’s truly user-friendly for municipal employees, but also an accessible and reliable tool for journalists.”

PR.co collaboration inspired by Ghent

Seel first came across PR.co when an acquaintance who worked in communications for the nearby City of Ghent told her about the software. Ghent was the first municipality to sign up with PR.co. Now, Ghent and Kortrijk are just two examples of governmental organizations that use PR.co to power their communications with transparency and efficiency.

Before switching to PR.co’s solution, Kortrijk’s communication employees could be tempted to take a peek at any of the upcoming press releases, which heightened the risk of information leaking out.

“Now, I’m the only person who has sight of all the press releases. For every new project, I allocate specific people to work on the document,” Seel says.

These individuals range from 40 writers in the organization to 10 subject matter experts who work on the political side of the municipal aisle.

PR.co integrates seamlessly with the city’s political and administrative processes, effectively bringing the two units together in a single system.

Efficiency, ease, and enhanced collaboration

Besides features such as the ease of version control and the chance to update or correct press releases after publication, Seel lauds PR.co for the following:

The first change the city’s press team noticed was how much faster they could respond when a crisis hit. 

“We often have to conduct crisis communication,” Seel says. “If there’s a major gas leak or big fire, the PR.co system ensures we can coordinate less in person and don’t lose time setting things up on the technical side. We just have our system, and everything fits together neatly.” 

At first, Kortrijk employees were hesitant about adopting yet another new system, but it didn’t take long for them to see just how intuitive PR.co’s software was.

In the extended team of administrative personnel and political employees, who often change with political cycles or have multiple software packages to master, this was a much-needed feature.

“With just a little bit of guidance, people can start working on the platform immediately,” Seel says. 

“You’d think that a colleague who only assists with a press release once every three months or so would have to start from scratch, but they easily get back into it.”

Thanks to feedback from Seel’s team, PR.co introduced an “out-of-office” function for users. 

“Sometimes, when you posted a message in the chat, there would be no reaction. And then it would take three days or so before you hear via a colleague that the person you were trying to reach is ill or traveling. Seeing whether someone is away makes it easy to decide who I should add to the team working on a release.”

Besides these big-ticket gains, Seel mentions other PR.co features that make a difference throughout the city’s communications ecosystem:

• Straightforward archive searches. The automatic archiving of news items makes it easy to locate historic pieces by year or search term. “I thought this feature was especially handy for journalists. However, we also use the tool internally quite often. I didn’t expect to use it so much.”
  
  
• Copy and paste with ease. Since journalists can copy the text of a press release with one click, Seel often sees her text appearing word for word in breaking news items. These serve as placeholders while journalists finalize their own reports.
  
  
• Clear copyright instructions. To avoid legal trouble, Seel and her team are careful to note the copyright attached to a specific image. Sources can easily be added to the caption or file name to ensure there are no misunderstandings.

Key takeaways

All in all, Kortrijk’s pressroom is a prime example of the versatility of PR.co’s software, from showcasing a steady stream of local government news to handling fewer but bigger media launches with ease. 

The city’s adoption of PR.co streamlined its press release workflow, improved collaboration and transparency, and made Kortrijk’s communications more efficient and secure. City staff, journalists and residents now all reap the benefits.

Ready to make press communication effortless for your team and community? Join the growing number of local governments that use PR.co. Request your demo today.