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Survey on Journalists' PR Preferences |
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| How do you prefer to receive information? | |
| 90% | |
| Fax | 43% |
| 30% | |
| Wire Service | 18% |
| Phone | 11% |
| Website | 10% |
| Personal Visit | 9% |
| PR Wire Service | 5% |
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Are You Online? 1998 |
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| Yes: Home & Office | 51% |
| Yes: Office | 29% |
| Yes: Home | 10% |
| No | 10% |
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Source: Bennett & Co. Marketing |
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A new survey shows that journalists have less help than they did last year so it's even more important that you meet their needs. And doing that often can be as simple as doing your homework: don't send the same press release to the same editor in three different forms (fax, snail mail and e-mail); don't send a press kit to an editor who left the publication years ago; and don't route news to the wrong person. (Twenty-six percent said they now have less help to do their jobs.)
As logical as this seems, journalists regularly gripe about this to us.
The Bennett & Co. study, a 12-part questionnaire, focused on a range of issues, including how journalists prefer to receive information (spanning Web sites to wire services) to how many stories journalists write per week (23 percent craft five to 10 submissions). Five hundred print, radio, TV and freelance journalists were polled.
The study also points to some changes in the news gathering field, most notably that 30 percent of journalists said they like to receive releases through e-mail - which was up 15 percent from last year. But 90 percent said they still prefer to receive information through snail mail.
But the study also pokes a little fun at how tough it can be to establish a relationship with a journalist and win his or her trust. In the interest of good-natured fun, one of the responses to the question: "What is the best way to attract your attention?" was "gold, frankincense and myrrh."
For 23 percent (the second highest rate) of the respondents, that tack was just fine. Straight news releases came in first, with a 68 percent ranking.
Other results included:
- Gimmick deliveries: 16 percent;
- Color photos or graphics: 39 percent;
- Use of color in releases: 4 percent
- Sequential mailings: 7 percent; and
- Postcards: 10 percent. (Bennett & Co., 407/425-6040)