Public relations practitioners who want insights regarding journalists’ use of online newsrooms, blogs, RSS and social media now have research to guide their media relations practices. The second annual study conducted by Bulldog Reporter and TEKgroup International, Inc., indicates that journalists’ usage of these technologies continues to be more extensive than believed by PR professionals.
Those findings again reveal that the greatest change in journalism practices due to new Internet technology is the ability to access corporate news and contact information online 24 hours a day. Nearly half of all journalists report visiting a corporate Web site or online newsroom at least once a week, while almost 87% visit at least once a month. Other interesting findings:
• While approximately 25% of journalists do not cover blogs, more than 29% report regularly reading five or more blogs to research desired topics, compared with only about 26% a year ago. Nearly 75% follow at least one blog regularly, compared with only about 70% a year ago;
• More than three-fourths of journalists use social media to research stories, compared with about 67% last year. Almost 38% of journalists now say they visit a social media site at least once a week as part of their reporting, compared with only 28% last year. More than 53% of journalists now say they visit a social media site like FaceBook or YouTube at least once a month, up from about 44% last year;
• Nearly 19% of journalists receive five or more RSS feeds of news services, blogs, podcasts or videocasts every week, compared with only 16% a year ago, and about 44% receive at least one regular RSS feed; and
• A large majority (76.4%) of journalists report that they use local newspapers to follow news, while nearly 63% check the New York Times, 51% run through Google News, and about 32% employ Yahoo! News to stay abreast.
The survey results reflect practices of 2,386 respondents, of which approximately 48% were editors or editorial staff and 34% were reporters or writers.
Source: Bulldog Reporter and TEKgroup International, Inc