Two hundred and thirteen journalists participated in our recent survey. They came from all media types, with newspaper (46%) and magazine (34%) journalists most prevalent.  We found many similarities with the responses we received last year. However, this year, in addition to questions about how they wanted to receive press releases and what they like included in them, we asked about how new media is changing the landscape of newsrooms across the country.  Here is what they told us…

How they want it
Email is clearly the preferred method of receiving releases with a whopping 85% saying that email is how they “prefer” to receive releases.  About 11% said they prefer regular mail but all other delivery options (fax, wire service, RSS feed, in person delivery) ranked under 2%.

What they want
We also asked journalists what they wanted in releases.  The most important component was graphics with 82% of journalists responding that graphics were very important or important.  Verbiage from releases also ranked high with 73% noting it was (very) important.  And, 80% of journalists said that biographies, backgrounders and other related data was (very) important.  Audio, video and logos, on the other hand, were deemed unimportant (although it must be noted that the survey is highly tilted towards print media and if you narrow responses to radio and TV then audio and video become much more important to our respondents).

Since many of our clients are interested in adding animation to their electronic press kits (a habit we try to avoid since it causes delivery problems), we asked journalists how they feel about animated emails.  About 10% of journalists said they were “very likely” to open an electronic press kit with animation and 31% said they were “likely.”  However, 45% of journalists said they were “unlikely” to open an animated email and 14% said they would “never” open one.

How they use new media
We wanted to know how new media was changing the work habits of journalists so we asked what new media resources they used when researching stories.  Electronic press kits received via email were the most popular resource by far, with 80% of journalists saying they used EPKs in researching stories.  Blogs also ranked high, with 51% of journalists reporting they were useful followed by social media sites which are used by 26% of journalists.  Fewer journalists are using RSS feeds, only 20%, and videocasts and podcasts, 16%.

Additional comments
Finally, we asked a single open ended question: “Please tell us if you have any comments on how you receive press releases.”  Most respondents noted that they really like email as long as it doesn’t include attachments.  There is a strong preference for links to images and background info since those emails don’t clog up the inbox.  Many journalists told us that faxed or mailed releases are useless since they now need information in a digital format.  Some journalists offered advice to PR professionals. In a nutshell, the advice was target your lists, keep it concise and newsworthy, don’t call too much and timing matters.  You can read the unedited responses here. To see the responses to last year's survey, click here.

We are planning follow up calls to many of the journalists who responded.  We will release a podcast of our conversations at a later date.  If you have questions you would like us to pose please let us know.