As PR professionals, we are constantly trying to get into journalists’ heads to determine what they’re looking for from us. What kinds of multimedia elements are most helpful? How in-depth should our pitches be? Should we engage reporters on Twitter? Luckily Business Wire might have some of the answers. It recently conducted a media survey in which it asked a wide range of journalists 30 questions to determine the latest trends in media relations and provide a better understanding of journalists’ preferences around working with PR professionals.
The survey starts off with some unsurprising information around the shift toward digital media – results show that the majority of journalists now work for an online publication, which aligns with the trend toward moving everything online.
It then dives into some interesting insights into reporters’ preferences around press releases. Press releases are still widely used by journalists, with almost 90 percent of the responding journalists using a press release within the past week. Since journalists still commonly use the tried-and-true PR tool, it’s important for PR pros to continue polishing their press-release writing skills. But what kind of information do journalists look for in a press release?
According to the survey, the most sought after type of story information in a press release is breaking news, followed by supporting facts, interesting story angles, quotable sources, company background and trending industry topics. Interestingly, the least important type of information for responding journalists was supporting multimedia. This contradicts a number of other sources that tout the importance of including multimedia in press releases, including a study from PR Newswire stating that multimedia content drives nearly 10 times more visibility than text.
The survey resulted in a number of other compelling findings around media trends. To learn more, download the full report or take a look at the following infographic from Business Wire summarizing the results of the survey.
