For the 13th consecutive year, Cision surveyed journalists* around the world to take stock of the evolution of their profession and issues.
Between fake news, lack of resources and financial pressure, have their priorities changed?
Has two years of the pandemic produced new sources of information and what are their expectations for communicators?
The fight against fake news: the first difficulty for journalists worldwide
” Maintain their credibility as a reliable source of information and fight accusations of fake news » comes in the top 3 of the difficulties that journalists encounter, taking first place (32%).
In fact, this year 57% of journalists believe the public trusts the media less than last year. A number that increases again after 3 consecutive years.
With percentages half as high and very close together, journalists cite further difficulties, lower advertising and broadcasting revenuesattached to Lack of staff and resources (16%).
Journalists appear to be overburdened with work in this context: 29% of respondents say they write at least 10 articles a week and 36% between 4 and 9.
comes next Competition from e-influencers bypassing traditional media (14%).
This drop in income is leading editorial teams to monitor both sales and content, relying on statistics (views, clicks, shares, likes, engagement).
These metrics at their disposal also influence 59% of journalists in their choice of information.
After a constant increase for 3 years, this number is stabilizing.
Social networks: primarily to publish or promote their content
Almost all journalists are professionally present in social networks today. They mainly use it for to post or promote content (20%).
But they also use them for interact with their audience (18%), e.g network (16%), e.g monitor other media (16%) and even for Credits (fifteen%).
On the other hand, less than a quarter of them (23%) find it acceptable to be contacted through these channels and 12% are willing to block a spokesperson who does so.
Her top three networks are: Facebook (63%), then Twitter (59%) and finally Linkedin (56%).
Instagram is fourth (44%), followed by YouTube, tied with WhatsApp (28%).
Networks with a very young audience such as TikTok and Snapchat receive very little investment from journalists (5% and 1% respectively).
Journalists’ expectations of PR
The biggest expectation that journalists have of press officers is that the latter ” know their audience and the topics they cover (63%).
This is far from the case as 91% of them believe so less than half of the CPs they receive are relevanta nearly stable figure: 93% in 2021.
Then comes the fact of having accurate dates and sources by spokespersons when needed (57%). 43% want spokespersons stop spamming them.
In the race against time that journalists have in daily newspapers, 29% of them expect communication attachés to respect theirs deadlines.
Always useful press releases
When asked about the sources they find most useful for writing stories or finding ideas, journalists name those first press releases (37%), but are significantly below the previous year (41%).
Then they come specialists and experts (23% vs. 28%). You dethrone them major press agencies AFP type (which has fallen from 23% to 15% this year).
Company spokespersons (13%) and short email pitches (12%) are preferred over company social media (7%), websites (7%) and blogs (2%).
The 2022 edition of our global State Of The Media study confirms the emerging trends of the past two years and the passing of the crisis.
The media are looking for trust and do everything they can to counteract fake news. The use of social networks by journalists seems to be stabilizing, be it at the platform level or at the metrics level, which tends to show that journalists have full control over these tools.
In conclusion, the communicators and the leading press attachés can be reassured: the KP remains the darling of the journalists! Content that they find reliable and useful, even if it’s used too often by communicators for their liking.
Lacking resources and manpower, journalists expect even more from spokespersons for a truly successful partnership.
Cyndie Bettant – Head of the SOTM France study.
*3,890 journalists from 17 countries representing more than 2,160 media companies were interviewed between January and February 2022.
