Vendor_Questions_12_9_2015.docx

1. Who is the incumbent and what was the contract number and value for the incumbent?

A: There is no incumbent for the type of news analysis EPA is requesting. However, Vocus (contract # GS-35F-0668S/EP-G14H-00869) has been providing EPA with a news clips report that contains the headline, date, media outlet, the state in which the media outlet is located, a “snippet” of the article, and links to the article on the media outlet’s website. The value of the Vocus contract is $233,822 per year. Please note that the RFP is not requesting this type of news clips report that EPA is currently receiving under contract #GS-35F-0668S/EP-G14H-00869. We are now requesting news analysis as outlined in the RFP.

2. What tools, if any, has the Government used to prepare news clips/briefs in the past?

A: See answer to Q1.

3. What tools if any, has the Government used to gather articles of interest on a recurring basis?

A: See answer to Q1.

4. If you have distributed the news clips, what tools have you used to distribute the news briefs?

A: EPA has used an internal listserv that EPA manages. However, as outlined in the RFP, EPA will want the selected offeror to manage the distribution for EPA.

5 If the Government had similar type of reports in the past would the Government share representative samples of each?

A: EPA has not had these types of reports in the past. See answer to Q1.

6. Paragraph 2.a. states, "U.S. newspapers... relevant magazines and journals" As the Government prefers U.S. newspapers how does this relate to international journals (e.g., International Journal of Environment and Pollution, Environment International)?

A: EPA is not looking for articles from international journals.

7. Paragraph 2.a. states, "relevant magazines and journals" beyond specifically environment themed magazines and journals; what is the Governments expectation of relevant, such as general magazines that carry environment related articles "Field & Stream," “Scientific American,” or "Discover Magazine?" What guidance will help us bound the tool selections that provide a cost-effective solution with the access the right magazine & journal complement?

A: EPA defines relevant magazines and journals as those most likely to contain general articles about EPA, such as “Scientific American,” “Nature,” “Time,” “Newsweek,” “Grist,” etc. However, some magazines such as “Real Simple,” “Parents,” and similar magazines do run articles about EPA on occasion. EPA does not expect to see articles from “People” or “Vogue” or from peer-reviewed, highly-technical, scientific journals.

8. Paragraph 2.a. states, “journals.” Please elaborate on the expectation for journal articles collected (e.g., scholarly publications of research extending the concepts of the environment, study of new tools in sensing environment changes within facilities, practical application of environmental practice, results of real-world environment studies and implications)?

A: EPA expects the journal articles collected to focus on more general information on EPA and its work rather than highly scientific articles. For example, we would expect articles similar to this article in Scientific American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/without-government-the-marketplace-will-not-solve-climate-change/) or this article in Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/debate-rages-over-herbicide-s-cancer-risk-1.18794) versus this highly technical article in Nature (http://www.nature.com/articles/srep15608).

9. Paragraph 2.a. would the Government describe the general expectation of the number of sources per topic or 0-6 sources per woven story?

A: In some cases, depending on the topic and the angles/differences in the source news articles, there could be 15 or more relevant sources for the analysts to weave into a story. In other cases, 5 or 6, and yet in other cases only 1 or 2 source articles.

10. Paragraph 2.d. states, “Edit out all information (not stories, but parts of stories) that is redundant or irrelevant.” Would the Government describe the expectation of referencing to the integrated partial articles in the woven story, for example, listing the related articles by number [listing of headlines] after each relevant theme in to story (articles 1, 5, 15), (link A, link E, link S), (links on key words to the related articles)? In the Government’s mind, what will this woven story and relationship to the associated media coverage look like?

A: EPA expects the offeror to indicate which media outlet supplied the relevant information in the woven story and include hyperlinks on the media outlet’s name with the reporter’s name and date of the article in parentheses. The link would take the reader to the original news coverage on the media outlet’s website. Depending on the issue involved, the woven story could be several paragraphs, especially if there are numerous original sources articles, or it could be just one paragraph if there are only 1 or 2 original source articles.

11. Paragraph 2.e. states, "reads like a single story," for which of the 3 briefings (deliverables) does the woven story apply?

A: The woven story applies to all three briefings.

12. Paragraph 2.e. states, "reads like a single story," would the Government clarify the expectation, for example, weave a story with links for the administrators coverage in online media (print), broadcast, and blogs, then weave an independent story for the topic of air, and then weave a story for the next topic?

A: EPA expects each issue topic to be woven into its own story. For example, EPA would expect to see one woven story on the Clean Power Plan from multiple original sources (perhaps 10 to 15 or more). EPA would also expect one woven story on the Volkswagen air emissions violations issue (another 15 or more original sources, including print, broadcast, blogs, etc.) and then perhaps a woven story on radon from 1 or 2 original sources. All of these issue areas (Clean Power Plan, Volkswagen, and radon) fall under the Air category but are separate woven stories under that section of the briefing. Under a Water category, EPA would expect to see something similar, such as separate woven stories on issues such as the Clean Water Rule, nutrient pollution, WaterSense, etc.

13. Paragraph 2.g. states, "Characterize the coverage such that EPA officials can quickly get a sense of how widely various story elements were run." Would the Government further describe the expectation of characterizing the themes and subthemes by topic?

A: For certain highly visible issues that would generate a lot of media coverage, such as the Clean Power Plan, the Paris COP negotiations, Volkswagen emissions, the Clean Water Rule, etc., EPA expects the woven story to be several paragraphs that would characterize elements from the original source articles. For example, the woven story may say, “According to the NYT, blah, blah and blah. The Huffington Post and Reuters focused on the same issues and added in XYZ. However, the Wall Street Journal editorializes yada, yada, yada. Fox News focused on ABC and Politico similarly mentioned B&C as an issue.”

14. Paragraph 3. states, "summary listing of all headlines..." Would the Government elaborate on the expectation of the summary listing, such as simply list of headlines, headlines with first few sentences of each article, headlines with links to the article, headlines with outlet and author, or something else?

A: EPA views this as a table of contents for the briefings and the woven stories contained under each category and associated page numbers. For example, under the category of Air, some example headlines would be: EPA Moves Forward with Clean Power Plan; EPA Tests Audi and Porsche Vehicles for Volkswagen-type Defeat Devices; Radon Issue in Some Schools. If there are relevant stories but they aren’t linked from the woven story, the offeror may also list those at the end of the woven story. For example, in this woven story, “According to the NYT, blah, blah and blah. The Huffington Post and Reuters focused on the same issues and added in XYZ. However, the Wall Street Journal editorializes yada, yada, yada. Fox News focused on ABC and Politico similarly mentioned B&C as an issue,” the offeror may have covered every angle with the above-mentioned media outlets. But, articles also appeared in Greenwire, Inside EPA, and Bloomberg BNA. The offeror may list the headline and media outlet with links to the article on the media outlet’s website at the end of the woven story under “Additional Reading.” The number of articles listed as additional reading will depend on the issue and number of original source articles. Wire news articles used in the woven story should not be included in the additional reading area such as the Reuters reference in the example above even if it appeared in several newspapers.

15. Paragraph 3. states, "summary listing of all headlines..." Would the Government elaborate on the expectation for inclusion of the summary listing? Should the list include only the articles that are included in the woven story? Should the list include articles that carried in multiple forms, i.e. wire news reprinted in multiple publications. Should the list include related articles that weren’t selected for weaving into the story? Does the Government have a general expectation of 0-6 sources per woven story?

A: See answer to Q14.

16. Paragraph 4. states, "Provide links within the briefing to the original ..." How does the Government want the links as links with parentheses following the material similar to a citation or something else?

A: EPA would like the media outlet’s name hyperlinked to the article on the media outlet’s website and the reporter’s name and date of the article in parentheses after the name of the media outlet. In this example, “According to the NYT (Davenport, 12/7), blah, blah and blah. The Huffington Post (Levine, 12/7) and Reuters (Volcovici, 12/7) focused on the same issues and added in XYZ. However, the Wall Street Journal (12/7) editorializes yada, yada, yada. Fox News (Baier, 12/7) focused on ABC and Politico (Hopkinson, 12/7) similarly mentioned B&C as an issue,” the NYT, Huffington Post, Reuters, WSJ, Fox News, and Politico are all hyperlinked to the articles on their websites. Note that the WSJ does not list a reporter because it is an editorial written by their editorial board, versus an op-ed piece, which would list an author.

17. Paragraph 5. states, "track click rates on links in the briefs and provide a heat map," for which of the 3 briefings does click tracking and does heat map apply?

A: The click rates on links and the associated heat map applies to all three of the briefings.

18. Paragraph 5. states, "track click rates on links in the briefs and provide a heat map," as there are only 3 deliverables how will the heat map/click tracking be reported?

A: EPA would expect a link to the offerors website where we would be able to see the click rates and heat map tracking. However, offerors may also propose an alternative method to EPA for presenting click rates and heat map tracking.

19. For sizing purposes, what is the maximum anticipated subscription list for briefing #2 (e.g., 2,500, 12,000, 50,000)?

A: EPA expects the maximum anticipated subscription list for briefing #2 to be no more than 2,000 subscribers. The current listserv for news clips is approximately 1,000 subscribers.

20. Paragraph 5. states, "provide a heat map to see readership interest in reading the full article,” as products provide many types of heat maps, perhaps the Government may clarify the questions the Government wishes to answer when viewing a heat map?

A: EPA wants to know the numbers of people who click on the links to the full articles and which articles/links are the most popular.

21. For deliver purposes, which of the briefings will be delivered to non epa.gov addressees? What address domain(s) should be covered?

A: All briefings will be delivered to epa.gov email addresses.

22. For the first briefing 06:30 am access to 3rd party full text, do the 40 subscribers require licenses beyond simply reading the full text, e.g., independent research or reach into the contractor provided third party tool(s) for analytics?

A: The 40 subscribers will only be reading the full text of the article; no other information will be necessary.

23. To improve our ability to provide a comprehensive transition plan can we get, at minimum, a summary of the current effort?

A: There is no incumbent for the type of news analysis EPA is requesting. However, Vocus (contract # GS-35F-0668S) has been providing EPA with a news clips report that contains the headline, date, media outlet, which state the media outlet is located, a “snippet” of the article, and links to the article on the media outlet’s website. Please note that the RFP is not requesting this type of news clips report that EPA is currently receiving under contract #GS-35F-0668S. We are now requesting news analysis as outlined in the RFP. Also under this RFP, we are requesting that the selected offeror maintain the subscription lists for the three briefings instead of EPA maintaining those lists. EPA will provide the email addresses of the subscribers for the three briefings to the selected offeror.

24. Is there current infrastructure to track the click throughs? Is that owned and or managed by the incumbent?

A: There is no current ability to track click throughs to the media outlets’ websites. The current news clips service is completely different than what we are asking for in this RFP. See answer to Q1 and Q23.

25. There seems to be a discrepancy in the due dates provided. Page 2 of the SOW list the due date as November 27th while the instructions state December 18th. Please verify.

A: The due date for responses is December 18, 2015 and the sample briefings should be drawn from the same day as if you were the selected offeror and putting together the three briefings on a typical day.

26. Assuming some of the recipients will get more than one report can we get the overall, total number of recipients?

A: The total number of recipients of all three reports will be no more than 2,000 subscribers. The current number of subscribers who receive news clips is approximately 1,000 EPA employees.

27. What news clips service is being used now? Can you provide an example of one day’s reports? Access to this information would be helpful in addressing the requested Transition Plan.

There is no incumbent for the type of news analysis EPA is requesting. However, Vocus (contract # GS-35F-0668S) has been providing EPA with a news clips report that contains the headline, date, media outlet, the state in which the media outlet is located, a “snippet” of the article, and links to the article on the media outlet’s website. Please note that the RFP is not requesting this type of news clips report that EPA is currently receiving under contract #GS-35F-0668S. We are now requesting news analysis as outlined in the RFP. Also under this RFP, we are requesting that the selected offeror maintain the subscription lists for the three briefings instead of EPA maintaining those lists. EPA will provide the email addresses of the subscribers for the three briefings to the selected offeror. The transition plan should focus on how quickly the selected offeror can set up and start providing the three briefings, and outline the ability to set up and maintain the three separate listservs for the three briefings.

28. Paragraph 2, in addition to weaving the stories, what is the Government's expectation for analysis in each of the daily news briefings (full text, links, and national news)? Please characterize the analysis per topic or per news brief expected?

A: EPA expects news analysis on an issue as outlined in the answers to Q12, 13, 14, and 16.

29. Paragraph 2, as the articles are woven what is the Government's expected range for the numbers of articles per topic and per news brief?

A: EPA cannot anticipate how many source articles there will be for any given issue. There could be a couple on an issue such as radon but 20 or more for the Clean Power Plan and even more for the Volkswagen issue. Nor can EPA anticipate how many articles there will be per news brief. It will depend on whether EPA has a major announcement(s).

30. Paragraph 2.g. states, "Characterize the coverage such that EPA officials can quickly get a sense of how widely various story elements were run." Beyond a high-level characterization of themes, would the Government elaborate on the expectation of analysis beyond weaving the stories?

A: See answer to Q13.

31. The SOW refers to a "topical index" as required for the 6:30am briefing, what does this index include?

A: EPA expects a topical index or table of contents for each briefing that lists a broad category, such as Air, and then a list of headlines of the woven stories within that category and corresponding page numbers to the woven story.

32. The SOW identifies "a summary of stories" as required for the news briefing service, can the Government describe the key components of this summary?

A: See answers to Q12, 13, 14, and 16.

33. In Part II, Section A, Bullet 3 of the Statement of Work, the Government refers to a “summary listing.” Is this different from the “topical index” referenced in Section C? Please elaborate on any differences.

A: See answer to Q13, 14 and 31.

34. Several sections of the SOW reference an analysis or narrative, can the Government elaborate on the anticipated length and structure of this requirement? Is this a single narrative that includes all categories, a compilation of narratives by category, or a combination?

A: See answer to Q12.

35. In the SOW, the news briefing service must be available via "internet-connected computer and mobile device." Could you specify which mobile devices will typically be used to access the news briefings?

A: EPA staff use a variety of government issued mobile devices, including laptops, iPhones, iPads, tablets, and Windows phones. We would expect the offeror to be able to deliver the news briefing to a variety of these devices. However, there is always a possibility that EPA could expand its government mobile devices to include Androids and/or any other mobile devices in the future.

36. Is there a minimum or maximum amount of news stories expected in the 6:30am or 7:00am briefings? If not, what is a current daily average number of news clips?

A: The daily average of news clips that we currently receive range from around 40 up to 125 “snippets.” However, please note that the RFP is not requesting this type of news clips report that EPA is currently receives. EPA cannot anticipate how many source articles there will be for any given issue. There could be a couple on an issue such as radon but 20 or more for the Clean Power Plan and even more for the Volkswagen issue. Nor can EPA anticipate how many articles there will be per news brief. It will depend on whether EPA has a major announcement(s).

37. Does the Office of Public Affairs at EPA want the vendor to treat press releases and congressional testimony as media?

A: EPA does not want to see news releases or congressional testimony treated as news stories. However, if there are source news stories about the EPA Administrator testifying in front of Congress, we would expect to see a woven news story about her testifying.

38. There are two ways to handle television. The first is to reference stories if, and only if, they appear on the broadcasters’ websites. That is a subset of everything they air. The other is to capture all news as broadcast, including broadcasts not appearing on the web. What is EPA’s preference?

A: EPA expects to see reference to broadcast stories that appear on the media outlets’ websites. Offerors may also propose how to capture broadcasts that air and are not on the media outlets’ websites.

39. The SOW states that the reports will be electronic, can you provide the email address for where the samples will be sent?

A: Send sample reports in response to the RFQ to Tricia Lynn, Contract Specialist, at lynn.tricia@epa.gov.

40. Can you provide guidance on the 1PM report regarding content, number of stories, your criteria for what makes it a top story?

A: The content for the 1 pm report would be unfolding news stories of the day and other stories of interest in Washington, DC, usually involving other federal agencies, the White House, or an unfolding story in a state. In some cases, an unfolding news story could be an international story that has implications for the U.S. Best advice to offerors is to look at breaking news of major media outlets. In addition, the offerors should look for major stories from the White House or other federal agencies. Most of these stories would be quick bulleted items but others may be longer woven stories. EPA will refine with the selected offeror the types of stories to cover in the 1 pm briefing. EPA cannot anticipate how many stories the 1 pm report will contain; it will depend on the breaking news of the day from major media outlets and the White House. In addition, the 1 pm report will only go to approximately 20 people, who are the top leadership of EPA.

41. What is size of the recipient list for the 7AM report?

A: The total number of recipients will be no more than 2,000 subscribers. The current number of subscribers who receive news clips is approximately 1,000 EPA employees.

42. What is the expected start date for this work?

A: The anticipated start date for this work is March 1, 2016. However, EPA will work with the selected offeror to determine if the work can start earlier.