SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A majority of reporters indicate that digital metrics are now the primary internal metrics used to evaluate the success of their stories, according to results from the 2014 Business Wire Media Survey.
As a result of their digital platform and needs, reporters look to press releases to provide them with breaking news (77%), supporting facts (70%) and interesting story angles (66%). They also overwhelmingly want photographs (73%) included with press releases.
“With the 2014 Business Wire media survey, we sought to identify the story development practices, content needs and performance metrics of today’s journalists,” said Tom Becktold, Business Wire’s senior vice president of marketing. “This insight helps us and our clients develop and present content that is more meaningful and more impactful to reporters and news organizations.”
-
Download
the free 2014 Business Wire Media Survey Guidance Report
The report and analysis are from a Business Wire survey of 300 U.S. journalists that answered 30 survey questions online between March and May 2014.
Other survey highlights:
Text-only press releases are slowly being phased out
While an overwhelming majority of journalists want press releases to include photos (73%), a significant number also prefer graphics (43%), infographics (32%), logos (29%) and videos (27%) to round out their reporting.
Don’t pitch reporters via social media
This survey clears up one major misconception as well. Despite the importance of social media within the research, news creation and distribution process, the survey shows that reporters don’t want to be pitched on any social media platform, only 10% wanted pitches via Facebook, 12% on Google+, 17% on Twitter and 25% on LinkedIn.
Reporters Are Evaluated by Story Shares and Views
With more journalists working for online publications and blogs (44%) than for traditional mediums like magazines (28%) and newspapers (16%), the digital metrics most frequently cited include number of page views (53%), social media activity (42%) and comment activity (24%).
Journalists Research Your Company on Your Site
When reporters need to research a company, the first place they look is the company’s own websites (92%), online newsroom (77%) and social media channels (42%). Reporters prefer websites with a range of usable content, in easy to find, easy to use formats.
Reporters Need Specific Content and Look to Online Newsrooms to Find it
With online publishing moving faster than ever, it was no surprise to find that survey respondents are relying heavily on press releases to meet reporting deadlines. 89% of journalists who responded used press releases in that week.
Understanding the challenges and goals of today’s reporters is paramount to today’s communicators. As reporters and news organizations strive to provide more robust, more compelling coverage and content to their readers, they are relying more heavily on companies to provide this content. Today’s successful PR and marketing communicator must understand these challenges and provide the information and assets needed to meet these needs.
Click here to share the survey results via Twitter: http://bit.ly/BWMediaSurvey
About Business Wire
Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure. Investor relations, public relations, public policy and marketing professionals rely on Business Wire to accurately distribute market-moving news and multimedia, host online newsrooms and IR websites, build content marketing platforms, generate social engagements and provide audience analysis that improves interaction with specified target markets. Founded in 1961, Business Wire is a trusted source for news organizations, journalists, investment professionals and regulatory authorities, delivering news directly into editorial systems and leading online news sources via its multi-patented simultaneous NX Network. Business Wire has 32 offices worldwide to securely meet the varying needs of communications professionals and news consumers.
Learn more at BusinessWire.com and the BusinessWired blog; follow updates on Twitter: @businesswire or on Facebook.
