Last summer we put together a list of links for registered lobbyists in Pennsylvania:
https://www.kesslerfreedman.com/2012/07/pennsylvanias-lobbying-firms-on-the-web/
I was curious: how many of those lobbying web sites provided “news” content on their web sites in the public area – so that search engines and other sites could link to that content?
Answer: 44 lobbying firms. Now, this isn’t 44 that are doing it necessarily in the best fashion or even very regularly. There were a couple with news that was as recent as 2010, which really isn’t news. And there some that are only including Twitter feeds, including some that really don’t have complete control of their Twitter feed search results. This includes some that bury their news on an almost hidden navigation link, or three screens down on the front page (and only there).
Still – 44 lobbying firms provide news on their site of some sort. And after all, lobbying firms are in the information and news business.
There are 76 lobbyist business links on the above page, which means that 32 firms have static web sites. They do not provide any real “news”.
That seems counterintuitive to their business model – and to efforts to become more visible on the Internet.