Inside Media Relations
Blacks Trust Black-Owned Media Most, Study Says
African Americans turn to local TV news as their most frequent information source, but it's the black press they trust most to provide reliable consumer information.
Black-owned magazines (87%), black TV news and newspapers (both 80%) and black radio (77%) are among the most trusted among African Americans, according to a study by Ketchum Public Relations Worldwide. Consumer Reports also ranked among the two best sources of corporate and product information among the 503 African American adults surveyed, with 80.8% saying they trust the magazine. Ranked least trustworthy were national magazines (72.2%) and national TV news (70%).
Black Americans with a high school education turn to local and national TV news as their most frequent sources of information; those with a college education rely on black magazines and local TV news.
Those with a graduate degree rely most on word of mouth and local newspapers. Only 26% of those surveyed say they use the Internet to seek company product or service information. (Ketchum, 404/877-1841)
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Media Preferences of African Americans For Company And Product Information (Top seven mentions) |
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| Local TV news | 85.5% |
| Black magazines | 82.3% |
| Local newspapers | 77.5% |
| National TV news | 76.9% |
| Word-of-mouth | 73.4% |
| Local radio news | 72.8% |
| Black TV news | 71.2% |
| Source: Ketchum | |
Basic PR Skills Not Manifest On Corporate Web Sites
It is said that the race is to the swift, but by that measure, many corporate Web sites are failing, at least when it comes to posting news in a timely fashion.
A study of Best Practices in Corporate Communication by the Public Affairs Groups found that although the majority (82%) of corporate Web sites contained press releases in some form, many of those releases were posted several days after they had already been made available on the wire services. In addition, only 41% of the releases found on corporate sites included media contact information.
Even worse was the finding that 75% of the sites failed to include information on the direction and vision of the corporation from the perspective of top officials.
Only 25% of the sites included speeches or testimony by top execs and only 28% posted executive photos or biographies. (PAG, 202-833-1808, http://www.tpag.com)
IABC Scopes Out Trends In New Report
A new report by the International Association of Business Communicators aims to equip PR practitioners with the statistics and insight they need to serve in a strategic role.
"Forces Shaping Business Communication: An Environmental Scanning Report," was produced by futurist firm Coates and Jarratt and sponsored by the IABC and its Research Foundation Topics include:
- Social trends
- Economic change
- Changing business practice
- Science, technology and the future
- Expanding roles of business communicators
A table of contents and executive summary are available at http://www.iabc.com/products. The cost is $150 for members and $175 for nonmembers. Call 800-766-4222.
Name That Source
Anonymous Sources Fail To Win Votes Among Electorate
Congressional candidates who failed to win a seat in the Capitol aren't the only ones doing a little post-election assessment.
According to an Editor and Publisher exit poll, newspaper editors across the nation said that the public is fed up with the use of anonymous sources by the press and the press is getting the message.
"We are participating fully in the spin cycle, and we should stop it," said Chicago Tribute president and publisher Jack Fuller. "Somehow or another, we in the newspaper business have not let everyone in on how that (spin doctoring) is done, and we have not stepped back from it enough ourselves to give people a way of assessing what is reality and what is not."
"The biggest lesson came from the electorate," said Detroit Free Press executive editor Bob McGruder. "I was impressed by the way, overall, that people appeared to separate their issues from the issues that were coming out of Washington." (E&P, 212/675-4380)