Australia’s PR industry is failing to meet the needs of today’s media for online multi-media content, a national PR conference was told today.
New research, launched at the PRIA National Conference in Adelaide, shows that PR is falling behind the latest media trends in digital technology.
Warren Kirby, CEO of online newsroom provider Wieck Australasia, said the research showed startling disparities between what PR provided and what the media wanted.
“Our whitepaper, PR Perceptions and Media Realities in 2013, reveals that PR has not kept up with changes in the content required, and who qualifies as a journalist,” he said.
“In a survey of more than 770 media and PR people, journalists made it clear they need a daily dose of images, video and other multimedia content – and they are not getting it.”
Mr Kirby said media had significantly greater appetites than PR people believed:
- On the subject of supplied images, 78% of PRs supplied them sometimes, and just 51% all or most of the time – whereas 97% of media said they used them, and 79% did so at least once a week.
- For video, only 24% of PRs supplied it sometimes, and 2% supplied it all or most of the time – yet 82% of media used it sometimes, and 45% at least once a week.
- As for audio, only 21% of PRs supplied it sometimes and 3% all or most of the time – but 66% of media used it sometimes and 26% at least once a week.
“There’s a worrying gap between what we know and what we do,” Mr Kirby said.
“Our survey confirms that journalists want direct links to images, video and audio content for their stories, with no big emails and no cumbersome digging around.
“Today’s online newsrooms can meet all these needs, and quite economically too, but PRs are failing to deliver, apparently for lack of budget.
“If the PR industry is to retain its influence, it is time to catch up with media realities and feed the insatiable media appetite for multi-media content.”
More information:
Warren Kirby
0418 367 162
warren.kirby@wieck.com.au