Sole Source Special Notice for News Clips Project as published in PDF on March 22 2021.pdf

This notice is NOT a Solicitation.

This notice is instead a SOLE-SOURCE Special Notice concerning the U. S. Department of

Transportation’s (DOT’s) intention, to award, on a SOLE-SOURCE basis, to a company named

Cision, a 5-year contract (probably a FIXED-Price, stand-alone contract) for the following types of services: eNews print and internet monitoring; social media monitoring news reporting and monitoring; and provide curated reports as detailed in the Statement of Work (SOW) set forth below in this SOLE-SOURCE Special Notice.

Statutory Authority. The statutory authority for SOLE-SOURCE procurement is as follows: 41

USC 253 (c), as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)), “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.”

Immediately below is a Rationale Supporting Use of the Authority Cited Above:

Cision is the provider of Bulletin Intelligence services, having acquired Bulletin Intelligence in

2017. Bulletin Intelligence is the only source with the experience, knowledge and capabilities to deliver to senior US Department of Transportation (DOT) officials expert-edited news briefings that are written by highly-trained analysts who identify and combine together only the most important elements of news stories published and/or broadcast nationwide.

Bulletin Intelligence is the only vendor with multiple expert analysts with a deep and extensive understanding of DOT’s mission. Bulletin Intelligence is the only vendor that can provide access to a fully searchable archive of all historic DOT news briefings dating back to 2010.

Bulletin Intelligence has developed a unique tool for DOT, purpose-built to provide quality control and ensure timely publishing; comprehensive capture of news coverage; copyright compliance and prevention of including old or duplicate news. No other vendor has a similar system to ensure consistent, timely delivery of adequate product.

While specific aspects of the Bulletin’s deliverables may be described similarly by other media monitoring providers, only Bulletin Intelligence offers a comprehensive combination of the following as required by the DOT mission:

1. Proven knowledge and depth of understanding of DOT and its complexmission areas, having invented the DOT News Briefing in 2010 and provided it continuously since.

2. Use of expert analysts to:

a. Find and review articles and broadcasts from all major and the majority of smaller daily newspapers, national television and cable news, most local television markets, newsweeklies, relevant magazines and journals, Internet sites, and specialty press;

b. Apply nuanced understanding of DOT’s mission and interests;

c. Determine which aspects of each story are important to the various constituencies within DOT and its Modes;

d. Edit all information for relevancy;

e. For each topic in the briefing each day, combine the remaining key information together from multiple stories and source-types (i.e., print and television) such that it reads like a single story;

f. Provide a link to the original full-text source versions of each article when available on the publishers' websites and to streaming video of important television as originally broadcast;

g. Characterize the coverage so that DOT officials can quickly get a sense for how widely various story elements were run and for the general tone and sentiment of the coverage;

h. Ensure all content is fresh, with very low incidence of day-old news.

3. Ability to staff a team of expert analysts who can interact with senior staff and publish three distinct briefing products on defined deadlines throughout the day, including:

a. DOT News Briefing: A morning briefing, written overnight by US citizen analysts, that distills news coverage of interest to DOT officials from the previous

24 hours and includes a National News section, Wrap-up of Editorials from Major

Publications, Headlines from Major Publications and Network TV, and a

Washington calendar noting the important events scheduled on that day;

b. DOT Secretary’s News Briefing: A red flag briefing with a specific focus on key DOT stories for the day ahead delivered on a deadline set for the Secretary.

c. Major Clips For the Secretary: A companion piece for the previous briefing, with a full listing of all major mentions of the Secretary or the Department by headline and source link.

4. Daily delivery on deadline of 3 briefing editions:

a. DOT News Briefing: seven-day per week delivery for morning briefing at 6:30 a.m. EST on weekdays and 9:00 a.m EST on weekends excluding federal holidays and an additional day at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

b. DOT Secretary’s News Briefing: seven-day per week delivery for morning briefing at 4:45 a.m. EST excluding federal holidays and an additional day at

Thanksgiving and Christmas. The deadline can change at the needs of the

Secretary.

c. Major Clips For the Secretary: seven-day per week delivery for morning briefing at 4:45 a.m. EST excluding federal holidays and an additional day at

Thanksgiving and Christmas. The deadline can change at the needs of the

Secretary.

5. Appropriate technology and infrastructure for distributing, hosting and searching the briefing content, including:

a. A secure DOT-specific, vendor-hosted, mobile-friendly website:

i. including a fully searchable archive of the DOT News Briefing dating back to 2010;

ii. capability to self-subscribe via weblink users who have a current DOT email address;

iii. Downloadable editions in Word, PDF or mobi (for Kindle).

iv. Automated audio reader with Alexa technology that seamlessly narrates the briefing.

b. Email distribution, including a mobile-friendly version for phones or tablets; and

c. Ensuring Section 508 compliance.

6. Competent, accessible customer service, including:

a. A dedicated account manager, who is an expert on DOT, its needs and mission, and is available to DOT 365 days a year;

b. Ability to execute rapid changes to scope, organization and delivery time of the briefings, according to the evolving needs of DOT, including changes in deadline to accommodate senior officials’ travel to different time zones.

7. A proprietary, patented, search and authoring workflow technology platform, purpose-built to provide layers of quality control that help ensure timely publishing, comprehensive capture of news coverage to be curated, copyright compliance and guards against including old or duplicated news.

8. Most recently, Cision entered an agreement with Lexis-Nexis to allow its clients the greatest possible access to the full text of numerous subscription-based publications.

Cision Next Generation Communications Cloud Capabilities Statement

The media-landscape continues to fracture as the lines between journalist and influencer blur, communicators outnumber traditional journalists but non-traditional influencers are exploding in both number and influence. There is more data, but teams are siloed, which prevents collaboration within Communications and with Marketing.

The next-generation Cision Communications Cloud empowers brands to scale, measure and optimize their storytelling in today’s fragmented media ecosystem. Specifically, the Cision

Communications Cloud was designed to enable communicators to do the following core objectives at scale:

1. Target the right journalists and influencers to tell their story to their audiences.

2. Engage the right journalists and influencers with the right message at the right time using modern tools.

3. Measure activity to attribute value, report on campaign activity, demonstrate earned media ROI, and guide future strategies and tactics.

4. Integrate paid, owned and earned media to understand earned media audiences, drive PR attribution, and customer engagement across multiple channels.

No other Cision platform vendor has rights to sell Bulletin Intelligence services, a unique service that provides key information to inform the Department of Transportation and its ability to reach its communications objectives.

Conclusion

As mentioned above, there are other organizations that will claim to be able to meet all of the

Department’s requirements. Extensive market research by

DOT’s cognizant program officer, in the

Internet, shows that while competitors may be able to meet pieces of the requirement, Cision and Bulletin Intelligence are uniquely qualified to meet the whole of DOT’s requirements.

The contract for these services has been competed multiple times in the past and competitors have not been able to provide the comparable level of service and performance required to meet

DOT mission requirements. Market research underscores that the other organizations cannot demonstrate the same quality that results from the combination of Cision and Bulletin

Intelligence’s unique technology, high-caliber staff, knowledge of DOT, and full suite of best-in-class services to deliver the combined services described above.

STATEMENT OF WORK:

DOT’s currently-ESTIMATED Statement of Work (SOW) for the SOLE-SOURCE Cision-contract envisioned in this SOLE-SOURCE Special Notice is as follows:

Section B – SCHEDULE OF PRICING

B.1. Base Period: June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021

CLIN Description of Services Qty. Unit Total Price

0001 Analyst Written Daily News Briefings 1 Lot $474,556

0002 Provide eNews Print and internet Monitoring. 1 Lot $20,500

0003 Provide Social Media Monitoring. 1 Lot $7,000

0004 Provide Access to North American and US

Territory Media Databases.

1 Lot $10,000

0005 Create an Analytics Tool for Tracking Progress and

Success of Media Campaigns.

1 Lot $10,000

Total Estimates Cost for Base Period $522.056

B.1.1 Option Period One: June 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022

1001 Analyst Written Daily News Briefings 1 Lot $488,793

1002 Provide eNews Print and internet Monitoring. 1 Lot $20,500

1003 Provide Social Media Monitoring. 1 Lot $7,000

1004 Provide Access to North American and US

Territory Media Databases.

1 Lot $10,000

1005 Create an Analytics Tool for Tracking Progress and

Success of Media Campaigns.

Total Estimated Cost for Option Period One $536,293

B.1.2 Option Period Two: June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023

2001 Analyst Written Daily News Briefings 1 Lot $503,457

2002 Provide eNews Print and internet Monitoring. 1 Lot $20,500

2003 Provide Social Media Monitoring. 1 Lot $7,000

2004 Provide Access to North American and US

Territory Media Databases.

1 Lot $10,000

2005 Create an Analytics Tool for Tracking Progress and

Success of Media Campaigns.

Total Estimated Cost for Option Period Two $550,957

B.1.3 Option Period Three: June 1, 2023 through May 31, 2024

3001 Analyst Written Daily News Briefings 1 Lot $518,561

3002 Provide eNews Print and internet Monitoring. 1 Lot $20,500

3003 Provide Social Media Monitoring. 1 Lot $7,000

3004 Provide Access to North American and US

Territory Media Databases.

1 Lot $10,000

3005 Create an Analytics Tool for Tracking Progress and

Success of Media Campaigns.

Total Estimated Cost for Option Period Three $566,061

B.1.2

Option Period Four: June 1, 2024 through May 31, 2025

4001 Analyst Written Daily News Briefings 1 Lot $534,118

4002 Provide eNews Print and internet Monitoring. 1 Lot $20,500

4003 Provide Social Media Monitoring. 1 Lot $7,000

4004 Provide Access to North American and US

Territory Media Databases.

1 Lot $10,000

4005 Create an Analytics Tool for Tracking Progress and

Success of Media Campaigns.

Total Estimated Cost for Option Period Four $581,618

B.1.2

Option Period Five: June 1, 2025 through May 31, 2026

5001 Analyst Written Daily News Briefings 1 Lot $550,142

5002 Provide eNews Print and internet Monitoring. 1 Lot $20,500

5003 Provide Social Media Monitoring. 1 Lot $7,000

5004 Provide Access to North American and US

Territory Media Databases.

1 Lot $10,000

5005 Create an Analytics Tool for Tracking Progress and

Success of Media Campaigns.

Total Estimated Cost for Option Period Five $597,642

Grand Total Estimated Value of Base and All Option Years $3,354,627

STATEMENT OF WORK

U.S. Department of Transportation Media Management Service and CUSTOMIZED

MEDIA MONITORING AND ANALYSIS SERVICE

B.1 BACKGROUND

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Office of the Secretary, Office of

Public Affairs (OPA), requires a service that provides a media database; real-time monitoring and search capability of broadcast, online and social media; and the ability to track the success of media campaigns from each of those mediums. This service must allow users to have quick, easy access to information necessary to ensure effective communication of the Department’s missions to the public.

Additionally, in order to effectively guide the U.S. Department of Transportation, the

Secretary and senior staff must start each day fully informed about important news on all transportation issues published and broadcast nationwide. OPA has the responsibility to provide the USDOT Secretary and Department and Agency leadership and staff with the latest analysis of what the media is reporting about Department-wide and Agency-specific priorities, initiatives, and programs. OPA seeks contract support to provide succinct, categorized, in-depth daily news analysis of national and local media coverage to the leadership and staff of the Department and its agencies.

The USDOT OPA would like to receive pricing as both a bundled service and priced individually so we can best determine which services can best meet office needs at the most advantageous price.

The USDOT OPA plans to be selective regarding the services requested as to obtain the best price.

B.2 SCOPE OF SERVICES

The contractor must demonstrate systematic capabilities, staffing, and management experience to (a) aggregate news from national and regional print and broadcast media outlets; (b) apply human judgment in reviewing those stories to isolate information

USDOT should be made aware of each morning; and (c) weave those story elements together into new multi-source stories that inform completely but in a fraction of the page count represented by the original full-text articles or broadcast transcripts. The contractor must be extremely flexible in its operations; able to change the types of stories included in the daily briefings, the length and format of the briefings, even the daily delivery time on short notice. The daily briefings will be produced by the contractor at its own site, delivered electronically to USDOT Monday through Sunday, excluding federal holidays and an extra day at Christmas and Thanksgiving.

The contractor shall provide an integrated database of journalists that allow the USDOT

OPA to develop comprehensive media contact lists for markets, both large and small, across the United States to include the U.S. territories. This should include national and local, both traditional and new media, print, online, radio and broadcast. The contractor should also provide the ability to locate journalists based on keywords searches of their previously published articles or social media posts.

The contractor should also provide an integrated tool that allows the USDOT OPA to send out and track the receipt of press releases and media advisories.

The contractor should provide integrated Social media management tools: publishing, scheduling content, conversation analysis, and influencer engagement.

The contractor should also provide media monitoring capability for television, including local, national and cable outlets; online radio, print, blogs and microblogs, and social media entities; to include Twitter Firehose, Facebook, Blogs, Forums, and Youtube.

News stories should be able to be shared without incurring copyright violations or fees.

The contractor should also provide social media analysis, using graphs and charts to demonstrate the reach/coverage of the Department’s messages. The Department should be able to search for coverage and create reports on coverage that may have occurred before the inception of the contract.

B.2.1 Analyst Written Daily News Briefings

TASKS

Task 1

Ability to staff a team of analysts that can publish two distinct briefings on deadlines, including:

• A 6:30 am briefing, written overnight by US citizen analysts, that distills news coverage of interest to DOT officials from the previous 24 hours and includes a Washington calendar noting the important events scheduled on that day;

• A 4:45 am briefing with a specific focus on highest level coverage to serve as the first read for the Secretary.

• Due to the variety of topics and nuance of coverage, analysts leading the project must have 3 years’ experience in DOT or related issues and a college degree.

Task 2

Monitor, at a minimum, all of the nation’s national and major regional/local newspapers; television news from the broadcast networks, major cable networks, and local television coverage in the top 210 DMA markets; major domestic news wires; appropriate specialty press; and appropriate online news sources (e.g.

blogs); all for coverage of matters of potential interest to USDOT.

Task 3

Focus the briefings and the majority of the news included in them on USDOT and its core mission, supplemented by news about the 10 agencies within

USDOT . More explicitly, use of expert analysts to:

i. Apply proven, extensive understanding of DOT’s mission and interests;

ii. Determine which aspects of each story, if any, are important to the various constituencies within DOT, including its modes FAA, FHA, FMCSA, FRA, FTA, Maritime Administration, NHTSA, PHMSA, and St. Lawrence Seaway.

iii. Edit out all information (not stories, but parts of stories) that is redundant or irrelevant;

iv. For each topic in the briefing each day, weave the remaining

(important) information together such that it reads like a single story rather than what it really is, subsets of myriad stories on the same topic;

v. Interweave news from all sources including online print and television;

vi. Characterize the coverage such that DOT officials can quickly get a sense for how widely various story elements were run and also for the general tonality of the coverage.

Task 4

Include a national news section highlighting major news of the day on topics not directly related to transportation issues but nonetheless helpful to USDOT and agency officials from the standpoint of general awareness.

Task 5

Provide flexibility on topics of focus for briefings.

Task 6

When available through proper licensing, provide copyright compliant full text to at least 25 members of the DOT communications team. Vendors must explain how they are providing full text with copyright compliance and which sources they are unable to include.

Not rely exclusively on “keyword” searching of electronic databases. The contractor must use human surveillance of print and electronic sources to identify stories of potential interest to USDOT and its agencies even if those stories do not use keyword combinations that would identify them as such to a computer.

Task 7

Ensure each briefing is current; based on stories appearing that morning in the nation’s newspapers and broadcast in the preceding 24 hours by the nation’s national and local television news outlets.

Task 8

Capture national and television news as it is broadcast. USDOT and its agencies are interested in news as it is broadcast to the public, not in stories appearing on the websites of media outlets that may not have ever aired. For broadcast stories in which reviewing the actual audio/video would be particularly useful, the vendor will provide a link to available “video clips” that stream to the reader’s desktop.

Task 9

For each story write-up, identify each source publication, author, and date and include a hypertext link to the full-length story on the Internet when available.

Task 10

Organize each briefing by story and subject, and include a customized index divided by subject matter in printable form for distribution.

Task 11

Provide an IP-protected website that can be accessed by USDOT and its agency employees without requiring usernames or passwords; support by email notification. The site shall include a searchable archive of the briefing documents as well as PDF and Word versions for easy printing.

Task 12

Provide full access to the daily briefings on mobile devices, including but not limited to iPhone®, Blackberry®, Android® and Windows®

Task 13

Provide searchable access to an archive of USDOT’s briefing dating back to

February 2010.

Task 14

Provide a dedicated client manager to handle service, distribution, editorial and technical questions.

Task 15

Provide 24/7/365 live availability of key contractor staff to accommodate late breaking requests and to provide urgent customer support needs after normal business hours.

Task 16

Provide access to a database that shows the open rate of different briefings and the click rate of different articles within those briefings

B.2.2 eNews Print and Internet Monitoring

Task 1.The contractor shall provide a tool that monitors at least 4,500+ print publications in text format.

Task 2. The contractor shall provide eNews North American media monitoring from at least 20,000+ internet and online print.

Task 3. The contractor shall provide information from online broadcast, news related websites.

Task 4. The contractor shall provide unlimited articles and search folders.

Task 5. The contractor shall provide text only with URL for online content.

B2.3 Social Media Monitoring Capability

Task 1. The contractor shall monitor blogs, microblogs, and forums and social media entities; to include but not limited to Twitter Firehose, Facebook, and

Youtube.

Task 2. The contractor shall capture data in real time and deliver it to a dashboard, integrated with traditional monitoring coverage.

Task 3. The contractor shall set up email alerts and search terms, sort coverage dynamically, filter results by country and media type, analyze and compare volume of coverage, score the quality of engagements, rate influential sites, easily share reports and coverage with key stakeholders, and more.

Task 4. Upon request, the contractor shall produce reports on social media coverage of specific campaigns including conversation analysis and influencer engagement.

B.2.4 North American Media Database

Task 1. The contractor shall provide access to North American and US Territory

Media Databases.

Task 2. The contractor shall provide the ability to send press releases and media advisories to targeted media lists.

Task 3. The contractor should provide the ability to track open rates, click through rates and bouncebacks to help the USDOT be more targeted in follow-up.

Task 4. The contractor shall ensure the media database remains current and up-to-date. The contractor shall not rely on technology alone to keep the media database up to date. The contractor shall employ human analysts to ensure accuracy of the media database

Task 5. The media database shall work interactively with the briefing to align by-lines in briefing articles to align to journalist information in the database.

B.2.5 Analytics Tool for Tracking Progress and Success of Media Campaigns

Task 1. The contractor shall create charts, graphs, DMA maps with selected coverage to determine campaign publicity values, tone and frequency.

Task 2. The contractor should provide Validated reach statistics so that USDOT can understand the actual amount of people that have read USDOT content.

Along with validated reach, the contractor shall provide demographic and firmographic details of the earned media audience.

Task 3. The contractor shall provide the ability to generate graphics that compare current and historic coverage.

Task 4. The contractor shall provide tone of coverage.

B.2.6 Real-time monitoring for broadcast media

Task 1. This service will provide the ability to search, track and view content in a number of common video formats (Windows Media, MPEG, QuickTime) in either broadcast (HD/UHD/4K) quality resolution for a period after broadcast. USDOT users require the ability to set automatic email alerts, perform keyword searches, and email clips to colleagues.

Task 2. A comprehensive web-based television search engine application licensed to end-user and available 24 hours a day and seven days per week.

Task 3. Searchable full-motion video (30 frames per second) at bit rates of 240 kbps or higher

Task 4. Real-time integration of Nielsen's estimated audience size and publicity values. A report building tool for building web pages to include cumulative sums of audience estimates and publicity value.

Task 5. The ability to download HD resolution in all video markets and full broadcast quality (HD/UHD/4K) clips in selected markets.

Task 6. Immediate access to a broadcast content catalog that includes a minimum of 5 real-time radio stations (NPR, Bloomberg, WABC, WCBS, POTUS)

B.3 DELIVERABLES

The contractor shall provide the following deliverables as follows:

DELIVERABLES SOW

REFERENCE

Tasks Delivery

Dates

Analyst Written Daily News

Briefings

B.2.1 Tasks 1 - 16 Daily eNews Print and Internet

Monitoring

B.2.2 Tasks 1 through 5

Ongoing

Social Media Monitoring

Capability

B.2.3 Tasks 1 through 4

Ongoing

North American Media

Database

B.2.4 Tasks 1 through 4

Updated regularly/as journalists move or update their information.

Analytics Tool for Tracking

Progress and Success of

Media Campaigns

B.2.5 Tasks 1 through 4

Ongoing

Real-time monitoring and

E-mail alerts for real-time broadcast media

B.2.6 Tasks 1 through 6

Ongoing

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

The contractor shall perform services electronically.

CAPABILITIES STATEMENT

Any response to this SOLE-SOURCE Special Notice must demonstrate the responder’s understanding of this requirement sufficient to provide media management services in all functional tasks areas of the statement of work in adequate detail to clearly and fully demonstrate that the offeror understands the requirement. A capabilities statement must demonstrate technical capability in the following areas:

1. Analyst Written Daily News Briefings

a. Provide two daily briefings on deadline, notably:

▪ A 4:45 am briefing with a specific focus on highest level coverage to serve as the first read for the Secretary.

▪ A 6:30 am briefing, written overnight by US citizen analysts, that distills news coverage of interest to DOT officials from the previous 24 hours

b. Responders may include a sample Analyst Written Daily News

Briefing for the previous 24 hours for DOT.

2. eNews Print and Internet Monitoring

a. Provide eNews print and internet monitoring services that can monitor up to 4,500 print publications in text format.

b. Provide eNews in North America media monitoring from 20,000 internet and online print

c. Provide online broadcasts, news related websites

d. Provide unlimited articles and text only with URL for online content

3. Social media Monitoring Capability

a. Provide media services to monitor micro-blogs and sites

b. Provide services that capture data in real time and deliver to a dashboard, integrated with traditional monitoring coverage

c. Provide media services that set up email alerts and search terms, sort coverage, filter results by county and media type, analyze and compare volume of coverage, score quality of engagements, rate influential sites, share reports and coverage with key stakeholder

4. Northern American Database

a. Provide access to North American and US Territory and media databases

b. Provide the ability to send press releases and media advisories to targeted medial lists

c. Provide wire service web distribution

d. Provide updates to developed media databases to remain current

5. Analytics Tool for Tracking Progress and Success of Media Campaigns

a. Create charts, graphs, DMA maps with selected coverage to determine campaign publicity values, tone and frequency

b. Provide user controlled and user assigned tone

Any capabilities statement should also demonstrate a strong management approach such that the company will be able to ensure quality and coordinated performance of all work requirements under the scope of the contract.

Notwithstanding DOT’s SOLE-SOURCE-intentions as announced above, any entity, OTHER

THAN Cision, which believes that it could meet ALL of DOT’s needs as set forth above, at the

HIGH level of quality indispensable to DOT, may e-mail, to james.mowery@dot.gov and

Lori.Irving@dot.gov, and Benita.Harris-Clarke@dot.gov, and to Gregory.Cate@dot.gov, not later than 11:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time April 9th, 2021, a Statement of Qualifications satisfying all of the requirements specified above and attempting to prove the submitter’s full

CAPABILITY for performing the project described in this SOLE-SOURCE Special Notice.

mailto:james.mowery@dot.gov mailto:Lori.Irving@dot.gov mailto:Benita.Harris-Clarke@dot.gov mailto:Gregory.Cate@dot.gov