Here is a report of the distributions sent by GMT members during the first 8 days of August. We combined the text of the distributions and created a word cloud to show the most common words used in the press releases.

Distribution data clouds provide a visual representation of your target messages for the given period of time, and shows what key issues a reporter will see when they scan the press release. These can be used internally to analyze recent releases and plan subsequent messaging.

The 43 releases sent in August were predominantly on Shell's Beaufort Sea lease, the debt ceiling crisis, democracy movements, endangered species, and clean air and water policies.

Here are a few ways in which you can use these tag clouds:

1. Take the articles that were generated from news outreach during these three months, put that data in a tag cloud, and then compare to see if the messages you sent are the messages that made it into the news.
2. Use that tag cloud to find key words that you and your staff used in your messaging. Locate those words in the GMT cloud and see if other groups sent news and how predominant that news toopic was in the news cycle for the past week or month.