Nearly 80% of journalists consider media relations and press releases as essential tools for carrying out their work and for writing articles. However, four out of five releases end up in the trash. This is the result of the Eye of Journalists on PR survey, conducted by Mediaddress and L’Eco della stampa, to analyze the state of the relationship between journalists and press offices for private companies, public bodies and associations.
750 interviews with European journalists
The survey, conducted at the end of 2024, involved over 750 European journalists and testifies to the value of the relationship between journalists and press offices in terms of mutual interest. In particular, journalists confirmed the usefulness of communications from press offices and various specialized agencies in order to work in a more accurate, fast and reliable manner. At the same time, the press office needs to get its content to the media audience and can only do this through the work of journalists.
From a quantitative point of view, the first finding from the survey is that the press release issued by the press office to spread news about its clients is considered a reliable source by 76% of journalists, even though 4 journalists out of 5 say they read less than half of the press releases received.
70% of Press Releases End Up in the Trash
Journalists discard 70% of press releases after a quick glance at the title. The main reasons are as follows:
● not relevant 73%
● useless for my work 51%
● don’t interest me 45%
The most significant finding from the research is that 90% of the journalists interviewed find less than half of the press releases they read useful. Indeed, nearly 70% of journalists find less than 1 press release out of 3 useful. Even more strikingly, 37% of respondents don’t save even 1 out of 10. To the problem of targeting, there seems to be added a problem of quality of the releases themselves.
The Achilles’ heel of press releases seems to be the quality of the content. The answers reveal 3 types of problems:
● Spam. For 77% of respondents, their email inbox is “polluted” with non-relevant content or content considered outright spam. Particularly under fire are titles, misleading and chosen to force opening (55%).
●Content quality. The second problem is content quality: information is often incomplete (65%) and the style too promotional (42%). So whoever writes apparently confuses the press release with a marketing tool.
● Timing. Finally, timing problems, with releases sent too late compared to newspaper deadlines (21%) and, even more alarmingly, the slow responsiveness of press offices (30%).
Last but not least, the red pencil notes: 11% of journalists complain about the absence of a link to the company or organization’s website from which the press release comes. Even worse, 22% can’t find the contact details of the press office that sent it. That means shooting yourself in the foot. And for those who pay for a press office service, it’s a warning to check the overall quality of the assistance. Because the profession of press office also requires attention, sensitivity and specific skills, which don’t sit well with amateurism.
