When Web site usability guru Jakob Nielsen tested how well major corporate sites met needs of reporters, he gave them a "D" grade. Journalists who tested sites for him located basic information such as companies' financials, management team, commitment to social responsibility and a phone number for a PR contact only 60 percent of time.

An excellent way to meet reporters', editors' and producers' needs is online press room, collecting what they need to know about your organization in one place. Some sites offer this as a subchoice under "About Us," while others have a major link called "Press Room," "For Press" or "For Media." By providing press-friendly materials on demand 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, you increase odds of someone writing about you, using photos you've supplied and doing so with accuracy.

Your online press room should contain, at a minimum:

* An organizational profile

* Names and bios of principals and executives of your organization

* A PR contact with name, email address and telephone number

* Press releases, presented with most recent first

Optional extras for your press room include:

* Online versions of recent annual reports or white papers

* Downloadable photos of products or key personnel

* Statements about relevant controversial issues currently in news

* Suggested angles for feature stories including your organization

* Sample questions for talk show hosts

* Links to pertinent studies, statistics and news stories

Economic concerns.

Poor business.

Unemployment.

It sure looks bad, doesn't it?

But I also want to remind you that we have lived, survived and prospered though far worse times.

For example:

In 1780 George Washington said, "We are without money; and have been so for a great length of time..."

He went on to create an estate worth three-quarters of a million dollars when he died.

In 1840 a traveler wrote, "So great is panic, and so dreadful distress, that there are a great many farms prepared to receive crops, and some of them actually planted, and yet deserted, not a human being to be found upon them."

But we got over that problem, too.

In 1857 an editorial stated, "It is a gloomy moment in history. Not for many years---not in lifetime of most men who read this newspaper---has there been so much grave and deep apprehension."

That passed, as well.

In 1873 this country had a panic that shook nation. A newspaper wrote:

"All over country manufacturers are closing their works and discharging their operatives, simply because they can neither sell goods they make nor borrow money to carry them until demand for them revives."

Yet we survived that panic, too.

In 1893 one man wrote of troubling times he saw:

"I have been through all panics of last thirty years, but I have never seen one in which distress was so widespread and reached so many people who had previously not been affected as this panic of 1893."

And we got through that one, too.

We also got through Great Depression of 1929, two World Wars, and even Y2K panic.

What appears to be gloom and doom is often just focus of media. Consider what Gandhi once said: