By Jeannette Bitz
…. that reporters and bloggers agree; talking with end-user customers is one of the best possible resources a PR professional can offer to improve a client’s chances for coverage! Engage PR recently surveyed 60 top technology media and bloggers to get a better understanding of the evolving requirements of tech reporting and blogging. The response rate was almost 40 percent. Note: Thank you to the reporters and bloggers who took time out of their busy schedules to respond.
As PR practitioners, we get input and feedback every day from our reporter and blogger friends about the impact that the constantly changing media landscape has on their coverage. Our survey questions focused on better understanding the constraints and pressures reporters and publications face in today's publishing industry and economy, and on the best practices that PR people should implement. If you’ve been in PR for more than a couple of years, or if you’re a client and you’ve seen your favorite newspaper or tech publication either go away or cut its pages in half, these results might pique your interest.
The results depict an industry that though hampered by fewer ad dollars for the print editions and an expanding breadth of coverage, is incredibly adaptive and resourceful.
- 64 percent of respondents said that talking with end-user customers is a must.
- 94.7 percent of respondents write over two stories a week, and 42.1 percent write six or more.
- 68.2 percent cover multiple beats for publications with multiple audiences in different areas of technology.
- 17 percent are accountable to write more than 10 stories per week.
- 83 percent of respondents said they leverage technical experts or business executives from vendors for their stories. 47 percent of reporters and editors get their story ideas from industry blogs.
- A couple of respondents also credited technical groups, industry standards bodies, and trade shows, as well as “picking out huge gaping holes in other people's reporting,” as other valuable sources for stories.
- Respondents noted that the number-one resources for their stories were product news/vendor announcements and creative PR pitches.
- Respondents said that “click throughs/page views” and “the shift from print to online content” were the biggest concerns in their jobs.
These results show the need for and value of well-executed and creative PR, especially in a down economy.
So what advice did reporters, bloggers, and editors offer?
- The most important and helpful characteristic PR professionals can have is an understanding of their publication and its readership.
- Second was responsiveness and timeliness to their needs and tight deadlines.
- Third most important was the ability to offer interesting and insightful resources.
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