In recent years, the first point of contact for journalists looking for information about a travel company or tourism organisation has been the online media centre. But companies at the cutting edge are recognising that journalists are no longer the only channel to reach their audiences and rolling out a supercharged version accessible by all – the social media newsroom.

Swiss International Airlines is one company in the travel sector which has recognised that access to news is no longer controlled by gatekeepers in the print media, such as travel writers and commissioning editors. In the past, getting your story out meant nurturing relationships with these print journalists. Old-school web-based media centres were often run on an invitation-only basis with access to things such as press releases and, particularly, high-resolution images very carefully controlled.

The social media newsroom is a recognition of the fact that anyone with access to networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Pinterest or a blog is a publisher. The barriers to entry have come crashing down and anyone can share their thoughts with anyone else around the world. What some cutting edge companies have realised is that restricting access to media centres means restricting the opportunities to share their success stories.

In the UK, the bank First Direct was one of the first to launch a social media newsroom back in 2009. At the time, the company’s PR said that one of its goals was to promote positive aspects of the company beyond the standard press release. “A lot goes on at First Direct which would not necessarily be newsworthy but says a lot about the business,” she said at the time. “It allows me to say someone has been sitting in a phone box all day to raise £3,000 for Childline. It gives people more insight into how we operate.”

The Swiss airline’s social media newsroom brings together press releases, posts from the airline’s blog, its latest tweets, photos from the company’s Flickr and Instagram accounts, content form Google+ and LinkedIn and video from YouTube. Interestingly, it also makes it very clear that content within the newsroom is licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons – it is saying ‘Go ahead. Share our content wherever you can.’ How different from the gated communities of old.

Other travel and tourism companies would be well advised to take note. There was always the argument that they should restrict access to press releases and photos in order to retain control of the flow of news and how the company was portrayed. What companies like Swiss have realised is that social media has already meant that control of the news process has already been handed over to the crowd.