Beyond Impressions: Media Relying on Pitches for Stories
In the long run, the goal in reaching the media is to affect public behavior or opinion, which is what has made media relations such a difficult discipline to quantify or put into ROI terms. But if your goal is to increase credibility and get the media to hunt down a story, then you can retire the Napolean tactics and claim success.
A new survey from Orlando-based Bennett & Co. (its 10th ) shows that 73 percent of 1,000 print, broadcast and freelance journalists use information from PR pros for a quarter of their story information - a big leap from 58 percent a year ago. Additionally, 17 percent (down from 21 percent) said as much as half of their writing is "based on data provided by PR firms."
Part of the increase is attributed to media relations execs tailoring pitches for individual publications and journalists. Blind and boilerplate pitches have historically been a sore point with reporters.
For a rundown on how reporters prefer to get your information, see the chart above. (Bennett & Co., 407/425-6040)
To JPEG or Not?
JPEG and TIFF files may be all the rage, but only newspaper heads think these advances are techno gods in the newsroom, according to findings from a just-released survey.
A study by Roher Public Relations, New York, and its affiliated research house, Leibowitz/Roher Marketing Inc., shows newspapers generally want digital files instead of print or film while consumer magazines and trade publications lean the other way.
More than 90 responses from 475 editorial art directors revealed:
- 74 percent of newspaper graphic execs want art in digital format;
- 56 percent of consumer magazine art supervisors use color transparencies; and
- 46 percent at trade pubs prefer transparencies, 36 percent prefer digital format. (Roher, 212/986-6668)
Personnel Changes
- Adele Ambrose, an AT&T media relations exec who has guided the company through spin-offs, acquisitions and downsizings, has been promoted to VP of PR at company headquarters in New York. (AT&T, 908/221-2062)
- G.S. Schwartz & Co., New York, brings John J. Quirk Jr. on board as VP. He was VP with Robinson, Lerer & Montgomery LLC, a PR firm in Manhattan. (G.S. Schwartz & Co., 212/725-4500)