Quick Study: Agency Health Improves as Billing Rates Rise; Journalists Relying More on Industry Insiders for New Stories

â–¶ Agency Billing Rates Increase: If you’re a PR agency, the following is good news; for their clients, the jury is out. The nation’s PR agencies increased their hourly rates slightly in 2011 according to the second wave of a June 2012 survey released exclusively to PR News by StevensGouldPincus, the merger and management consulting firm specializing in the PR field (see 6/11/2012 issue of PR News for more findings). Based on responses from 105 PR agencies, billing rates are now averaging $517 per hour for CEOs of agencies with $25 million or more in revenues, and $300 among smaller agencies.

Other findings include:

• Among 13 categories identified, rates are the highest among agencies specializing in sports/entertainment, healthcare and public affairs.

• Account executives averaged $183 per hour in billings in 2011 versus $178 per hour in 2010.

• Productivity—measured by billable time utilization—was far below optimal levels for senior VPs, who billed out only 66% of their yearly capacity of 1,700 hours. However, account executives averaged in excess of 91% in every one of the 13 agency categories.

Source: StevensGouldPincus

â–¶ Digital Journalism Flourishes; Traditional Tactics Still Strong: Media brands around the world are carrying a wider range of digital content assets, supporting more devices and are drawing on digital sources in their reporting more heavily in 2012 than at any time in the past five years, says a global study of 600 journalists by Oriella PR Network. The study finds that the digital boom in the newsroom has heralded a return to a traditional journalistic practice: seeking trusted, influential sources for stories.

Study highlights include:

• About half of the respondents said their titles had Facebook pages (52%) and Twitter feeds (46%).

• Use of social media in newsgathering is now a majority pursuit—but only when the sources behind them are known to journalists.

• Online video use has nearly doubled since last year, with 36% of journalists saying their media brands publish videos, compared to 20% in 2011.

• 44% of respondents said they research blogs that include sources for their stories, but just 22% would use unfamiliar blogs in the same way.

• Reliance on industry insiders for new stories has grown from 54% in 2011 to 64% in 2012, and interviews with spokespeople have become journalists’ preferred first port of call for stories.

• In 2011, 50% of respondents said their offline print or broadcast outlet had the largest audience. In 2012, 47% held this view.

Source: Oriella PR Network