Earlier this month, Cision revealed the findings of its 2024 State of the Media report. The report – now in its 15th year – surveyed more than 3,000 journalists worldwide to better understand their greatest challenges, top priorities and what they mean for PR professionals.
To dig deeper, Cision held a webinar with a panel of leading journalists to discuss their takes on the results, what they want from PR partners and what it takes to build effective, long-lasting relationships with journalists in 2024.
On the panel was Manori Ravindran, London Correspondent for Ankler and UK Chair of the Broadcasting and Press Guild; Megan Olani-Warrington, a regional reporter for the Denver Post; and Olivia Morley, Senior Agencies Reporter at AdWeek.
Maintaining credibility as a trusted source of news
According to Cision’s survey, maintaining credibility as a news source is the number one concern for journalists (42%) for a second consecutive year.
In the context of the recent UK and upcoming US elections, the webinar’s panellists agreed that this is incredibly important but an ongoing struggle, as they try to maintain neutrality as a trusted source of news and avoid bias, whilst fighting the tide of ‘fake news.’
Adapting to changing audience behaviours and consumption habits
Coming in as the number two challenge was the need to adapt to changing audience behaviours and media consumption habits (41%). The panellists pointed to the rise of social media and the need for outlets to rethink and revise their social media strategies as platforms like TikTok continue to grow.
For Megan, the buy-out of Twitter marked a significant turning point in how she and her peers share their content and engage with their audiences. Since Elon Musk’s new policies came into effect, the platform has seen a mass exodus of users in favour of other social media sites.
Negotiating the tradeoff of subscription-based content
The rise of the subscription-based, gated content model has also presented a challenge for journalists in promoting their work. Substack, which allows authors to share content directly with their audiences and monetise their work by putting it behind a paywall, has become increasingly popular since its launch in 2017.
Manori highlighted that when people can’t automatically access an article or afford a subscription, there’s a trade-off that needs to be factored in.
Newsroom downsizing and the lack of staffing and resources
The third greatest challenge is the lack of staffing and resources, flagged by over a third (36%) of journalists. T Last year saw a record number of media layoffs. According to FastCompany, almost 22,000 jobs were cut in the US alone.
For Manori, there’s an upside for PR professionals here that is often overlooked; the flexible nature of freelance work means that journalists working on this basis have more capacity to take on time-intensive, deep-dive pieces of writing – more so than they’ve been able to as a staff writer. With this in mind, she encourages PRs to make a strategy for freelance reporters as a way to secure high-quality pieces of coverage.
What are the most valuable ways PR professionals can support amidst these challenges?
- Know your reporter – For 68% of journalists, the number one way is simply to understand their target audience and what they find relevant. Read the outlet and the work.
- Personalise and localise – Check the journalist’s socials and use what’s being shared to make pitches personalised and tailored.
- Be mindful of schedules – Take into account that you may be working with reporters in different time zones. This feeds into the above, but check their socials where it might say where they’re based if they report internationally or if they’re travelling.
- Reshare stories you’ve worked on together on social media – It’s a small gesture, but promoting the final article you’ve worked on with a journalist can go a long way.
- Be prepared to move quickly – After the initial response, make sure you’re able to respond promptly and take action on what you’re pitching the journalist.
- Build a personal connection – When trying to arrange a face-to-face, be persistent but never pushy. Sometimes it’s not a ‘no,’ just a ‘not right now’.
