The results from Bennett & Company's 14th Annual Media Survey will leave you no less conflicted than normal about how and why editors, reporters et al. pick and choose
stories they choose to cover. The survey, released last month, took the pulse of more than 400 print and broadcast reporters whose beats runs the gamut: business, entertainment,
real estate, features, fashion, sports and religion. Bennet tracked opinions from journalists working for some of the top media outlets, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Better Homes
& Gardens, the Los Angeles Times and USAToday. Although the majority of journalists (61%) said do not feel PR firms are getting more credible, 39% do, an 11% increase from
2002. Many miles to go, but it's a start.
In another indication that PR reps may eventually live or die by their e-mail subject lines, 58% of respondents chose e-mail as their preferred method of communication. Only
37% say they receive e-mail most often, followed by fax, wire service and telephone. E-mail began climbing back up the preference ladder in 1997, when 15% of journalists chose e-
mail as the number one way they prefer to receive information.
While 68% of journalists indicated they depend on PR firms for story ideas and content, 62% say that PR materials only account for 1% to 10% of their story content.
PR reps still operate at a fundamental handicap when pitching the press, as 51% of journalists believe that the main objective of a PR firm is to create or enhance the image of
a client. As Shirley Ragsdale, religion editor for the Des Moines Register, put it in the study, "PR firms should alert me of expert sources on current events or coming
events."