Source: Chapter 4
Chapter 4 PR, a public relations agency, conducted research with media representatives on co-operation with companies and agencies, the challenges they face in co-operation and opportunities to improve the relationship between the economy and the media.
Research results show that more than 30 percent of respondents believe that communication between companies and the media is one-sided, or rather based on the distribution of media statements and information coming from the private economic sector. There is especially good cooperation between the media and the private sector, and when it comes to industries the ones that stand out are IT, telecommunications, finance companies and the food industry. The media are establishing better and better cooperation with small and medium-sized companies, and especially emphasize the quality of information they receive from them.
When it comes to problems in cooperation, 24 percent of the respondents point out the lack of continuity in communication, 44 percent of them see the content that is delivered by companies too promotional and commercial, written in the language of marketing, and 27 percent of journalists think that they occasionally receive information that are not relevant to their medium.
When it comes to commercial cooperation, 16 percent of the respondents believe that cooperation is not possible unless the company advertises, while 71 percent say that the editors attach importance to commercial cooperation with the company. The existence of commercial cooperation is the main reason for coming to company’s events for as many as 46 percent of the survey participants, while only six percent of the media are coming to the event because of the creative concept of the event and 19 percent because of the relevance of the subject.
A growing number of journalists attach importance to information from social networks, including corporate and brand pages, as well as private profiles of management representatives, and as many as 49 percent occasionally use some of this information as sources.
The main advantages of cooperation with the PR agency from the media perspective are easier access to representatives of company management and other professionals, the experience of PR consultants in crisis communication, client counseling towards media needs – such as the exclusivity of information, selection of usefulness of data from various research, regional or global insights – then the dedication to finding mutually useful solutions, incentive to media development and better understanding.
93 percent of journalists see cooperation with PR agencies as useful and two thirds of the respondents see space for improvement through better profiling of information according to the orientation of the media, understanding the media needs in relation to the speed of responding to inquiries and avoiding commercial content without informational value.
