Journalists Increasingly Turn to PR, Social Networks: Study

Journalists may be relying on public relations more than ever before, says a new study.
Journalists Increasingly Turn to PR, Social Networks: Study
Journalists are increasingly incorporating social media into their work to keep pace with a changing media landscape. (Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images)
4/8/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/Facebook.jpg" alt="Journalists are increasingly incorporating social media into their work to keep pace with a changing media landscape.  (Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Journalists are increasingly incorporating social media into their work to keep pace with a changing media landscape.  (Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1782265"/></a>
Journalists are increasingly incorporating social media into their work to keep pace with a changing media landscape.  (Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images)
VANCOUVER—In today’s reality of budget cuts, shrinking newsroom staff, and the growing popularity of social media, journalists may be relying on public relations more than ever before, says a new study.

Sponsored by PR Newswire and CNW (Canada Newswire), the online survey asked 2,174 journalists, bloggers, and public relations professionals in the United States and Canada to provide insight into the changing media landscape.

While journalists are expected to develop timely and abundant content, PR professionals are finding a more receptive audience for their pitches—and more of these pitches are occurring through social media channels.

PR professionals offer journalists story ideas and access to subject matter experts with the end goal of promoting their clients through coverage in the media.

“Social media and convergence have fundamentally changed how the newsroom operates and the way content is created and delivered,” David Milliken, senior vice president, CNW Group, said in a press release.

“The PR professionals finding the most success are adapting and tailoring their pitches so they are relevant to multiple channels. They are learning to serve the needs of an evolving media.”

While journalists admit a slight increase in frequency of interaction with PR professionals, most report there is little change in the frequency of their use of PR professionals. However, just over one-third of PR professionals in both countries say they are receiving more proactive inquiries from journalists than in the past.

Although both U.S. and Canadian PR professionals report pitching to bloggers and going directly to consumers more often than two years ago, U.S. practitioners are doing so at the expense of traditional media, whereas Canadian practitioners report a slight increase in pitching to traditional media outlets as well.

Bloggers and Social Media

The survey also showed that journalists are penning more blogs, and more bloggers are characterizing their work as journalism.

About half of journalists use Twitter as part of their research, more so in the United States than in Canada. Most often used to track top issues of the day and to measure sentiment around a topic, 1 in 3 journalists report having quoted a Twitter post in a story.

Pitches received via social networks have also increased since 2009, specifically via Twitter. About 6 in 10 U.S. journalists say they welcome pitches via social networks. Canadian journalists were more likely than those in the United States to get the most information from conversations at 77 percent, 6 percent higher than their U.S. counterparts.

The majority of bloggers, 52 percent, now view themselves as journalists, up from just 1 in 3 in 2009. Despite viewing themselves as professional, only 20 percent derive the majority of their income from their blog work, a small increase from 16 percent in 2009.