2012 Media Survey - bbscommunications.com.au · L10, 144 Edward Street GPO Box 2902, Brisbane QLD 4001 Ph 07 3221 6711 Fx 07 3229 8704 [email protected] Gold Coast L4,

Media Survey 2012

BBS COMMUNICATIONS GROUP

BBS Communications Group Pty Ltd ABN 34 010 899 779 Brisbane L10, 144 Edward Street GPO Box 2902, Brisbane QLD 4001 Ph 07 3221 6711 Fx 07 3229 8704 [email protected] www.bbscommunications.com.au

Gold Coast L4, 7 Short Street GPO Box 1493, Southport QLD 4215 Ph 07 5528 5684 Fx 07 5591 2825 [email protected] www.bbscommunications.com.au

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MEDIA SURVEY BBS MEDIA SURVEY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

KEY FINDINGS

THE SURVEY

DETAILED FINDINGS

Prepared by: BBS COMMUNICATIONS GROUP Jane Edwards Executive Chairman Amanda Newbery Managing Director

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.bbscommunications.com.au/





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INTRODUCTION

BBS is a public relations industry leader with an exceptional reputation for understanding the media and achieving success for clients wanting to secure media coverage. The firm enjoys unparalleled relationships with journalists across the nation. As part of our commitment to the industry, BBS has conducted an annual survey of journalists working in print, television, radio and online media since 2003.

This year’s survey of 61 journalists from metropolitan and regional centres across Australia sought to understand today’s newsrooms and how traditional, online and social media environments interact. It also aimed to understand how journalists source and research news stories and how organisations could best meet their needs.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TABLE OF CONTENTS







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WHAT THE MEDIA WILL COVER THIS YEAR:

THE THREE ES

THE JOURNALIST’S DAY: AN AVALANCHE OF STORY IDEAS

Journalists nominated a mix of issues, some very specific to their media outlet or round, as those their media outlet would cover this year. However, the three top issues for 2012 were: 1. Elections

including local, state, federal and US elections (nominated by 45.9% of journalists)

2. The Economy Including the share market, interest rates, Australian dollar, jobs, retail, property, cost of living and European debt (nominated by 44.3% of journalists)

Journalists are inundated with story ideas on a daily basis, whether it is by email, phone or other communication. A key strategy to “cut through the clutter” is to understand the journalist and media outlet, and tailoring your story to suit. Due to the amount of news space which needs to be filled, radio and online journalists tend to work on more stories each day – presenting an opportunity for organisations seeking coverage. Conversely, television journalists work on the least number of stories each year.

3. Environment including weather, natural disasters, flood recovery, the environment and climate change (nominated by 18% of journalists)

Organisations which are involved in, or can be seen to be involved in, these issues have a greater change of cutting through the clutter to achieve media coverage.

Other common issues mentioned: London Olympics Carbon tax Federal Leadership Mining/resources Crime Boat people/refugees/ human

rights Half of journalists (52%) personally

receive between 6 and 20 story ideas each day.

Radio and Online journalists are

more likely to work on five or more stories a day, reflecting the fluidity of their news cycle and the volume of news space to be filled.

Print journalists generally work on

between three and five stories a day.

Unless working in a producer role,

TV journalists are unlikely to work on more than three stories a day, reflecting the limited news space and resources involved in filming and editing television packages.

KEY FINDINGS







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THE RISE OF ONLINE MEDIA: THE DEATH OF THE “DEADLINE”

For online media outlets, as well as traditional media outlets operating online, stories are published when they are finished. The pressure of online news has made “rolling deadlines” more common, even for media outlets which traditionally had a weekly or monthly deadline, but now have an online component. For organisations, it is important to understand the deadlines of the media you are proactively pitching stories to. For reactive media, the faster you respond, the faster your message is out there. Getting something to a media organisation by “close of business” may be too late. Those spokespeople who are most accessible will rise to the top of the story.

Journalists said the rise of online news and social media had meant: Shorter deadlines (41.4%)

More pressure to get story online

first (39.7%) Need to produce more updates to

their stories during the day (37.9%).

Deadlines vary dramatically between different media outlets, but generally:

Daily print deadlines are

concentrated in the afternoon, particularly between 3pm and 5pm

Daily television deadlines are concentrated in the afternoon, particularly between 3pm and 6pm

Daily radio deadlines are concentrated in the early morning (6am to 9am) and midday (11am to 2pm)

Daily online deadlines are spread across the day, with major concentrations at midday and 3pm, and minor concentrations at 8am, 10am, 11am, 2pm and 5pm.

In terms of when journalists are the busiest, responses varied greatly but afternoons are the busiest as print, television and online journalists finalise the stories they have been working on for the day. Radio journalists are busiest during

the morning and middle parts of the day because of their continual deadlines.

Across all mediums, mornings are busy for journalists are looking for the day’s news stories.

KEY FINDINGS







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ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA: BROADENING THE JOURNALIST’S JOB

DESCRIPTION

Regardless of the medium in which they primarily operate, online and social media is impacting how journalists do their jobs. Today, you are no longer just a “print journalist”, “television journalist” or “radio journalist”, as their roles now encompass online duties and they are increasingly required to produce written, audio and video material for a range of mediums. For organisations, this means a single journalist can be an avenue to coverage across multiple media. When pitching stories, consider what comments, photos, audio and video material you can provide journalists to make it easier for them to create a multi-media story. On the downside, organisations can expect and should prepare for a negative story about them to splash across many media. Individual journalists are increasingly being required to operate a Facebook and Twitter account to disseminate news and promote their outlet. Organisations can therefore conduct their own quasi media monitoring by following journalists and media outlets on social media.

Almost nine in ten journalists (87.8%) said the rise of online news and social media had impacted their working day.

Just over half of journalists (53.4%) said the rise of online news and social media meant they had to write for both online and traditional media.

Where stories end up:

Stories produced by print

journalists are also likely to appear Online (91.%), on Facebook (54.3%) and Twitter (48.6%).

Stories produced by television journalists are also likely to appear on Twitter (68.8%), Online (62.5%), Facebook (43.8%), YouTube (25%) and Radio (18.8%).

Stories produced by radio

journalists are also likely to appear on Twitter (100%), Online (75%), Facebook (50%), Television (25%) and Blog (25%).

Stories produced by online

journalists are also likely to appear on Twitter (80%), Facebook (80%), Print (60%) and Radio (20%).

About a quarter of journalists

(23.3%) write a blog, but only 8.3% do so in a professional capacity.

KEY FINDINGS







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THE JOURNALIST’S SOURCES: FORGET THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK, IT’S

FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE

YOUR ORGANISATION’S

WEBSITE: GET IT IN ORDER TO

MAXIMISE MEDIA RELATIONS

Social media has created a ready-made pool of content for journalists to freely access. Journalists across all media now use social media for story ideas, content and spokespeople. Quotes from Twitter are commonly used in stories, while images from Facebook accounts are published. Consider how your organisation uses social media and how it can be used to communicate to stakeholders, including media. Some organisations (eg Queensland Police) use Facebook and social media as a primary tool to disseminate timely information to the media and the public. News breaks through online media. In fact, many of 2011’s top stories broke on Twitter first. This means journalists are competing with the public and organisations to break news. Journalists expect organisations’ websites to be up to scratch, but are frequently disappointed. They expect an organisation’s website to feature up-to-date information, business and after-hours media contacts, and quality downloadable images. An organisation’s Media Release /

News section is the most commonly-visited part of an organisation’s website (84.5%), followed by the Contact Us page (77.6%), About Us page (55.2%) and Media Centre (51.7%).

It also makes it harder for organisations to keep “bad news” under wraps as everyone with a smartphone can now publish information, comments, photos and videos which journalists can access. Almost nine in ten (88.3%)

journalists have sourced a story idea or story content from social media.

Facebook (66.7%), Twitter (63.3%) and Blogs (41.7%) are the most commonly used social media for journalists to source story ideas or story content from.

Half of journalists (50%) said social

media had helped to improve their research, story ideas and available sources.

Journalists want the following from an organisation’s website: Easy availability of the contact

numbers for the organisation’s media spokespeople, including mobile and after-hours numbers

More up-to-date information on the website: “some websites haven’t been updated for years”

More photos of a professional quality.

KEY FINDINGS







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PEOPLE POWER: THE ANGLE WHICH IS OF MOST

INTEREST TO JOURNALISTS

GOVERNMENT LEADS: SOME DO MEDIA RELATIONS

BETTER THAN OTHERS

Even if you think your organisation is boring, if you can develop people-based story pitches you have a greater chance of the story being picked up. This means stories which are unusual, surprising, have human interest, or about something innovative and new. Journalists also like doing business with media talent they know and trust. Organisations need to upskill their spokespeople so they understand how journalists operate and how to phrase their grabs and quotes in a catchy, “media-friendly” manner. Journalists have cited Government and Tourism as two industries which are better at understanding media’s needs and disseminating timely and newsworthy information. Government and politicians know better than most how important media relations is. Organisations can learn from the good examples of others which demonstrate how timeliness and newsworthiness are paramount in proactive media. Conversely, the Information Technology and Education industries were labelled as among the worst – industries which can have difficulty translating news into relevant, human interest and jargon-free stories.

Journalists said the top three types of stories organisations could offer them were: 1. Quirky / unexpected / unusual

stories (70.7%)

2. Human interest stories (63.8%) 3. Innovation stories – new products

& services (56.9%). BUT stories still need to have a strong angle and be relevant to the media outlet and its audience.

Government (49.1%) and Tourism

(43.9%) were identified by journalists as the industries which were comparatively better at getting timely and newsworthy information to the media.

Property (29.8%), Lobby / advocacy (21.1%) and Not-for-Profit (21.1%) were also identified as being better than average.

Education (5.3%), Information

Technology (5.3%) and Fashion (10.5%) were the industries journalists believed were not as good at getting timely and newsworthy information to the media.

KEY FINDINGS







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TODAY’S JOURNALIST: YOUNG & FEMALE

People entering a modern newsroom will notice there is not as much grey hair as there used to be. For organisations, don’t assume that the journalist you’re working with has the background knowledge and depth of experience. This may mean you need to invest time in providing journalists with the relevant background to help them connect the dots.

Of the 61 journalists surveyed, more than half (59%) were print journalists and just over a quarter (26.2%) were television journalists.

Almost three-quarters (70.5%) of journalists were female.

Almost two-thirds (60.6%) of

respondents were aged 35 years or younger.

Almost half of journalists (49.2%)

classified their news organisation as metro media.

More than two in five journalists

(42.6%) classified their news organisation as regional media.

Almost a third (31.2%) classified

their news organisation as industry media or online media.

KEY FINDINGS







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THE QUESTIONS

1. What news medium do you primarily work for?

2. What is your gender? 3. What is your age category? 4. How would you classify your news

organisation? 5. How many story ideas, including

pitches, emails, phone calls and media releases, do you personally receive each day?

6. How many stories do you work on

each day? 7. Have you ever sourced a story idea

or story content from social media?

8. For each major story you work on,

what platforms would it appear on?

9. Do you write a blog in either a

personal or professional capacity (either regularly or sporadically)?

10. What resources do you most

commonly use on organisations’ websites as part of your newsgathering?

11. What resources do you want to see organisations’ websites that would assist you as part of your newsgathering but which you often don’t find now?

12. What are the top three stories

organisations can offer which you find of most use?

13. In your experience, what industry

do you find is best at getting information to the media?

14. When is your deadline? 15. In your role, what time(s) of day is

busiest for you and why? 16. With the rise of social media and

online news over the past decade, how has this affected your working day?

17. What do you think the three

hottest issues your media outlet will cover in 2012?

Please note: some findings and statistics in the 2012 BBS Media Survey report are based on the total number of responses, rather than the total number of respondents (journalists).

THE SURVEY







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Q1. WHAT NEWS MEDIUM DO YOU PRIMARILY WORK FOR?

Q2. WHAT IS YOUR GENDER?

Of the 61 journalists surveyed, more than half (59%) were print journalists and just over a quarter (26.2%) were television journalists.

Almost three-quarters of

journalists (70.5%) were female.

DETAILED FINDINGS

Print59%

Radio7%

Television26%

Online8%

Male30%

Female70%







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Q3. WHAT IS YOUR AGE CATEGORY?

Q4. HOW WOULD YOU CLASSIFY YOUR NEWS ORGANISATION?

Almost two-thirds of journalists (60.6%) were aged 35 years or younger.

Almost half of journalists (49.2%)

classified their news organisation as metro media.

More than two in five journalists (42.6%) classified their news organisation as regional media.

Almost a third (31.2%) classified

their news organisation as industry media or online media.

DETAILED FINDINGS

25 and under18%

26 to 3543%

36 to 4521%

46 to 5513%

Over 555%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Metro media

Regional media

Industry media

Online media







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Q5. HOW MANY STORY IDEAS DO YOU PERSONALLY RECEIVE EACH

DAY? (INCLUDING EMAILS, PHONE CALLS AND MEDIA

RELEASES)

Q6. HAVE YOU EVER SOURCED A STORY IDEA OR STORY CONTENT

FROM SOCIAL MEDIA?

Only a quarter (25%) personally receive less than five story ideas each day.

Half receive between six and 20 story ideas each day, while almost a quarter (23%) receive more than 20.

Almost nine in ten (88.3%)

journalists have sourced a story idea or story content from social media.

Facebook (66.7%), Twitter (63.3%) and Blogs (41.7%) are the most commonly-used social media for journalists to source story ideas or story content from.

DETAILED FINDINGS

Less than 525%

6 to 1027%11 to 15

15%

16 to 2010%

More than 20

23%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

No

Yes - Facebook

Yes - Google+

Yes - Twitter

Yes - LinkedIn

Yes - Blogs

Yes - Other (please specify)







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Q7. HOW MANY STORIES DO YOU WORK ON EACH DAY?

Radio and Online journalists are more likely to work on five or more stories a day, reflecting the fluidity of their news cycle and the volume of news space they need to fill each day.

Print journalists generally work on between three and five stories a day.

Unless working in a producer role, TV journalists are unlikely to work on more than three stories a day, reflecting the more limited news space they need to fill and the time constraints involved in filming and editing television packages.

DETAILED FINDINGS

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

One story

Up to two stories

Up to three stories

Up to four stories

Up to five stories

More than five stories

All

Online

Television

Radio

Print







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Q8. WHAT MEDIA PLATFORMS DO YOUR STORIES APPEAR ON?

Primary medium: Print

Primary medium: Television

Stories produced by print journalists are also likely to appear Online (91.%), on Facebook (54.3%) and Twitter (48.6%).

Stories produced by television

journalists are also likely to appear on Twitter (68.8%), Online (62.5%), Facebook (43.8%), YouTube (25%) and Radio (18.8%).

DETAILED FINDINGS

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Print

Radio

Television

Online news

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

Blog

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Print

Radio

Television

Online news

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

Blog







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Q8. WHAT MEDIA PLATFORMS DO YOUR STORIES APPEAR ON?

(CONT.)

Primary medium: Radio Primary medium: Online

Stories produced by radio journalists are also likely to appear on Twitter (100%), Online (75%), Facebook (50%), Television (25%) and Blog (25%).

Stories produced by online

journalists are also likely to appear on Twitter (80%), Facebook (80%), Print (60%) and Radio (20%).

DETAILED FINDINGS

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Print

Radio

Television

Online news

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

Blog

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Print

Radio

Television

Online news

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

Blog







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Q9. DO YOU WRITE A BLOG IN EITHER A PERSONAL OR

PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY (EITHER REGULARLY OR SPORADICALLY)?

About a quarter of journalists (23.3%) write a blog, but only 8.3% do so in a professional capacity.

DETAILED FINDINGS

3%5%

15%

77%

Yes - in a personal and professional capacity

Yes - in a professional capacity

Yes - in a personal capacity

No







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Q10. WHAT RESOURCES DO YOU MOST COMMONLY USE ON

ORGANISATIONAL WEBSITES AS PART OF YOUR

NEWSGATHERING?

An organisation’s Media Release / News section is the most commonly-visited part of an organisation’s website (84.5%), followed by the Contact Us page (77.6%), About Us page (55.2%) and Media Centre (51.7%).

DETAILED FINDINGS

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

About Us page

Contact Us page

Media Release / News section

Media Centre

General information

Staff profiles

Other (please specify)







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Q11. WHAT OTHER RESOURCES WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ON AN

ORGANISATION’S WEBSITE TO ASSIST IN YOUR

NEWSGATHERING?

30 journalists provided suggestions

19 of the responses concerned the easy availability of the contact numbers for the organisation’s media spokespeople, including mobile and after-hours numbers.

Other themes from the response included: More up-to-date information on

the website “some websites haven't been updated for years” (four responses)

More photos of a professional quality (three responses)

Better navigation, particularly to media contact details (three responses)

Reader feedback form (one response).

DETAILED FINDINGS







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Q12. WHAT ARE THE TOP THREE TYPES OF STORIES

ORGANISATIONS CAN OFFER WHICH YOU FIND OF MOST

USE?

Journalists said the top three types of stories organisations can offer them were: 1. Quirky / unexpected / unusual

stories (70.7%)

2. Human interest stories (63.8%) 3. Innovation stories – new products

& services (56.9%).

BUT stories still need to have a strong angle and be relevant to the media outlet and its audience.

IN

DETAILED FINDINGS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

CEO or staff profiles

Growth stories

Innovation stories - news products & services

Quirky / unexpected / unusual stories

Photo opportunities

Human interest stories

Industry trends

Commentary on industry or other issues








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Q13. IN YOUR EXPERIENCE, WHAT INDUSTRY DO YOU FIND IS

BEST AT GETTING TIMELY AND NEWSWORTHY INFORMATION TO

THE MEDIA?

Government (49.1%) and Tourism (43.9%) were identified by journalists as the industries which were comparatively better at getting timely and newsworthy information to the media.

Property (29.8%), Lobby /

advocacy (21.1%) and Not-for-Profit (21.1%) were also identified as being better than average.

Education (5.3%), Information Technology (5.3%) and Fashion (10.5%) were the industries journalists believed were not as good at getting timely and newsworthy information to the media.

DETAILED FINDINGS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Government

Not-for-profit

Lobby / advocacy

Property

Education

Finance / Banking / Investment

Energy & Resources

Professional services (e.g. lawyers etc)

Tourism

Information Technology

Fashion

Consumer/Retail

Food








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Q14. WHEN IS YOUR DEADLINE?

Deadlines vary dramatically between different media outlets, but generally: Daily print deadlines are


Daily television deadlines are


Daily radio deadlines are

concentrated in the early morning (6am to 9am) and midday (11am to 2pm)

Primary Medium: Print

Daily online deadlines are spread across the day, with major concentrations at midday and 3pm, and minor concentrations at 8am, 10am, 11am, 2pm and 5pm

The pressure of online news has

made “rolling deadlines” more common, even for media outlets which traditionally had a weekly or monthly deadline.

DETAILED FINDINGS

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%







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Q14. WHEN IS YOUR DEADLINE? (CONT’D)

Primary Medium: Television

Primary Medium: Radio

DETAILED FINDINGS

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%







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Q14. WHEN IS YOUR DEADLINE? (CONT’D)

Primary Medium: Online

DETAILED FINDINGS

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%







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Q15. IN YOUR ROLE, WHAT TIME(S) OF DAY IS BUSIEST FOR YOU AND

WHY?

53 journalists provided a response.

Responses varied greatly, but generally afternoons are the busiest as print, television and online journalists finalise the stories they have been working on for the day.

Primary Medium: Print

Radio journalists are busiest during the morning and middle parts of the day because of their continual deadlines.

Across all mediums, mornings are busy for journalists are looking for the day’s news stories.

DETAILED FINDINGS

DETAILED FINDINGS DETAILED FINDINGS







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WHY? (CONT’D)

Primary Medium: Television

Primary Medium: Radio

DETAILED FINDINGS







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WHY? (CONT’D)

Primary Medium: Online

DETAILED FINDINGS







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Q16. HOW HAS THE RISE IN ONLINE NEWS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

AFFECTED YOUR WORKING DAY?

Only 12.1% of journalists said the rise of online news and social media had not affected their working day.

Just over half of journalists (53.4%) said the rise of online news and social media meant they had to write for both online and traditional media.

Half of journalists (50%) said it had helped to improve their research, story ideas and available sources.

Journalists said the rise of online

news and social media had meant: o More deadlines (41.4%) o More pressure to get

story online first (39.7%) o Need to produce more

updates to their stories during the day (37.9%).

DETAILED FINDINGS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

It hasn't

Now I write for both online and traditional media

I have more deadlines

I need to produce more updates to my stories during …

There is more competition for stories and interviews

It's harder to break stories

There is increased pressure to get my story out online …

It has helped to improve my research, story ideas and …








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Q17. WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE THREE HOTTEST ISSUES

YOUR MEDIA OUTLET WILL COVER IN 2012?

Q18. RESPONDENT CONTACT DETAILS

While journalists nominated a mix of issues, some very specific to their media outlet or round, the three top issues nominated for 2012 were:

1. Elections

including local, state, federal and US elections (nominated by 45.9% of journalists)

2. The Economy including finance, share market, interest rates, Australian dollar, labour market, retail, property, cost of living and European debt (nominated by 44.3% of journalists)

Journalists were from media outlets based in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

Journalists were from media outlets such as: Television

o Channel Seven o Channel Nine

Newspapers

o News Limited publications o Fairfax publications o APN newspapers

3. Environment including weather, natural disasters, Queensland flood recovery, the environment and climate change (nominated by 18% of journalists)

Other common issues mentioned: London Olympics Carbon tax Federal Leadership Mining/resources Crime Boat people/refugees/ human

rights.

Magazines

o Business magazines o Independent community

magazines

Industry media

Radio o Radio, including ABC

Online news websites.

DETAILED FINDINGS





Documents

2012 Media Survey - bbscommunications.com.au · L10, 144 Edward Street GPO Box 2902, Brisbane QLD 4001 Ph 07 3221 6711 Fx 07 3229 8704 [email protected] Gold Coast L4,