Survey Results: Media Relations in Practice
February 26, 2008
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PR News conducted a survey of PR professionals the week of May 14, 2007 gauging their media relations practices, from measurement to outsider partners they use. We received 713 responses. Look for an article on this topic in an upcoming issue of PR News.
|
| |
Response |
| We internally track and quantify our public relations |
433 |
60.8% |
| We use outside services to track and quantify our PR |
118 |
16.6% |
| We don’t measure our PR |
84 |
11.8% |
| Other: |
77 |
10.8% |
| (responses include Internal Tracking; Both Internal & External; By Memberships; Not Sure) |
|
|
| (Rank in order of importance, “very important;” “somewhat important”; or “not important at all”. ) |
| |
|
| a. Reaching the right journalist |
Response
|
| very important |
644
|
89.1%
|
| somewhat important |
74
|
10.2%
|
| not important at all |
5
|
0.7%
|
| |
|
|
| b. Tracking news about my organization |
|
|
| very important |
543
|
75.1%
|
| somewhat important |
170
|
23.5%
|
| not important at all |
10
|
1.4%
|
| |
|
|
| c. Tracking competitor news |
|
|
| somewhat important |
407
|
56.3%
|
| very important |
198
|
27.4%
|
| not important at all |
115
|
15.9%
|
| No Response |
3
|
0.4%
|
| |
|
|
| d. Measuring and analyzing my PR initiatives |
|
|
| very important |
454
|
62.8%
|
| somewhat important |
255
|
35.3%
|
| not important at all |
13
|
1.8%
|
| No Response |
1
|
0.1%
|
| |
|
|
| e. Tracking conversations with the media |
|
|
| very important |
358
|
49.5%
|
| somewhat important |
323
|
44.7%
|
| not important at all |
41
|
5.7%
|
| No Response |
1
|
0.1%
|
| |
|
|
| f. Producing clip books and reports |
|
|
| somewhat important |
375
|
51.9%
|
| very important |
267
|
36.9%
|
| not important at all |
81
|
11.2%
|
| (check all that apply) |
| |
Response
|
| Excel and/or Outlook |
498
|
34.3%
|
| Web-based Media Directory |
414
|
28.5%
|
| Media Directory (Phone book style) |
257
|
17.7%
|
| Rolodex |
210
|
14.5%
|
| Manage media contact relationships? What’s that? |
73
|
5.0%
|
| (check all that apply) |
| |
Response
|
| Emergence of blogs and other social media |
492
|
22.9%
|
| Increasing importance of public relations in the overall marketing mix |
491
|
22.8%
|
| Impact of the internet on the news cycle |
437
|
20.3%
|
| Blurring lines between PR and marketing (e.g. search engine optimized press releases) |
414
|
19.3%
|
| Increased pressure from management to measure impact of public relations |
316
|
14.7%
|
| (check all that apply) |
| |
Response |
| Google and/or Yahoo |
562
|
32.1%
|
| Outsourced clipping service (please list) |
327
|
18.7%
|
| Web-based news monitoring service (please list) |
304
|
17.4%
|
| Scissors and the local paper |
300
|
17.1%
|
| * Suppliers being used (below includes only those that received at least 5 responses) |
|
| Vocus |
18
|
|
| Cision |
16
|
|
| BurrellesLuce |
44
|
|
| Factiva |
22
|
|
| Bacon's |
14
|
|
| Lexis Nexis |
18
|
|
| VMS |
6
|
|
| In House |
14
|
|
|
| |
Response
|
| Daily |
397
|
54.9%
|
| Hourly/real-time |
129
|
17.8%
|
| Weekly |
108
|
14.9%
|
| Monthly |
46
|
6.4%
|
| Never |
20
|
2.8%
|
| Quarterly |
15
|
2.1%
|
| No Response |
7
|
1.0%
|
| Annual Report |
1
|
0.1%
|
|
| |
Response
|
| Daily |
225
|
31.1%
|
| Hourly/real-time |
160
|
22.1%
|
| Weekly |
126
|
17.4%
|
| Monthly |
106
|
14.7%
|
| Never |
47
|
6.5%
|
| Quarterly |
40
|
5.5%
|
| No Response |
11
|
1.5%
|
| Annual Report |
8
|
1.1%
|
|
| |
Response
|
| No |
481
|
66.5%
|
| Yes, one |
136
|
18.8%
|
| Yes, more than one |
91
|
12.6%
|
| No Response |
15
|
2.1%
|
|
| |
Response
|
| No Response |
477
|
66.0%
|
| OK |
130
|
18.0%
|
| Very well |
93
|
12.9%
|
| Poorly |
23
|
3.2%
|
(check all that apply)

* BurrellesLuce was inadvertently left off the survey. PR News apologizes for the oversight.
(please list)
a. More than 100 responses:
- PR Newswire
- Business Wire
b. Between 50 and 100 responses:
c. Between 25 and 50 responses:
- BurrellesLuce
- VMS
- Marketwire
- Magenta (now Melwater)
- PR Web
- Lexis Nexis
- Cymfony
|