PR Agencies And The Financial Press

In-house public relations officers are a more useful source of information to business and financial journalists than PR agencies, according to MORI's latest 'Key Audience Research' survey. This contrasts markedly with last year's findings, when business journalists found PR agencies most useful overall.

Three in four (73%) of the 37 journalists questioned said that company PROs are useful information sources - a similar figure to last year (71%). However, the perceived usefulness of PR agencies has dropped, with two-thirds of journalists (65%) citing agencies as useful, compared to well over three-quarters (79%) in 2001.

Business journalists find telephone conversations with company officials the most useful source of information overall (78%), followed closely by personal interviews with these officials - their single most useful source - and company PROs (73% each).

MORI conducted face-to-face interviews among 37 business and financial journalists between 10 June-5 July 2002.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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