The report consolidates media analysis meta-data from more than three million press articles featuring 700 organisations over the last decade to enable industry trends to be identified. As well as top line findings, it looks at key breakdowns by media type, sector and specific media titles.  

Our hope is that the publication of such a set of data, on a regular basis, will help organisations and PR agencies to formulate meaningful performance targets which take into account changing sector and environmental factors. 

The benchmarking data from 2007 provides clear indication that today’s PROs are succeeding despite an increasingly complex media landscape. For example, on average, per month, organisations in 2007 reached 35% of the UK adult population 11 times. Add to this that only 8% of all coverage was classified unfavourable, just half strongly so, and the presence of a skilled PR industry at work can clearly be seen.  

We also identified a whole bunch of media trends from 2007 which are sparking some debate – see below – and feedback on these would be most welcome: 

Haste and paste: High message delivery and spokespeople mentions suggest the emergence of a copy and paste publishing trend in online media. Online featured the strongest message delivery of any media type with half of coverage delivering key messages, and an average of three message deliveries per article.There is also some indication of a similar trend amongst regional titles.   

Credit crunch: Despite fears over the economy in the latter half of last year, favourability improved in 2007 compared to 2006. That aside, the tough economic conditions did result in the Finance and Retail sectors experiencing relatively unfavourable coverage compared to other sectors in 2007. Indeed, finance experienced by far the most negative press, with 15% of articles being unfavourable. Much of this has resulted from a hostile environment following the global credit crunch and the increasingly difficult economic environment, in particular pressure on interest rates.   

National trust: Data relating to the favourability of coverage suggests a greater level of integrity at play amongst the UK media than cynics would want us to believe. National papers were twice as likely to feature unfavourable coverage than regional print media which, with the latter having an editorial bias towards local communities and businesses, is perhaps to be expected.  Likewise, the proportion of coverage delivering key messages was significantly lower for daily and Sunday newspapers than other media types suggesting they are less willing divert from their own agenda. The Sunday Times, Observer and the Daily Mail published the most negative coverage. Tabloids such as the Sun and Mirror tended to be more favourable than the broadsheets.  

Regional for the people: Despite a downwards trend over the last decade, the regional media type accounted for almost half of analysed media coverage in 2007. It was the strongest channel for eight out of 11 sectors featured and was particularly dominant for charities, government, not for profit and media. Regional coverage was generally very favourable and strong in terms of message delivery – regional press was 23% more likely to convey a key message than the national press.  

Tech no PR: IT, telecoms and internet organisations struggle to see their messages delivered and spokespeople quoted. This highlights the problem that tech PR often faces in translating marketing messages into PR stories that appeal to journalists. More than half of IT sector coverage appeared in the business press reflecting the strong B2B nature of this sector’s activity.    

Feature feasting: As well as being generally more positive, general interest magazines have strong message delivery with half of all articles delivering at least one key message – on average each article conveys almost three key messages. Not rocket science, but a noticeable trend and worth bearing in mind with regards to the quality over quantity debate.    

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT