Press unhappy with PR people. Again.

Tom Murphy points to a new survey of journalist's opinion of PR professionals. Shorter version, they are unhappy with us-

Journalists believe the Internet is the most effective 'reach' channel.  PR managers believe face-to-face is best

Why do PR managers think that way? Is it because PR pros still don't get the Internet? Or is it because face-to-face meetings have consistently produced superior results? Technoflak does not have an opinion, except to say for initial contact email has no equal.

32% of journalist say that less then 10% of the press releases they receive are of genuine interest

Online mastheads with detailed beat lists would reduce this problem.

The most popular reasons a journalist will read a press release are that it comes from a trusted source and that it originates from a company they follow. The third reason is an interesting subject line.

This is a huge problem for small business. In an ideal world journalists would follow industries, not companies.

One of our challenges is explaining to clients why not every press release should be sent to every reporter. If you want to be a trusted source you cannot inundate reporters with marginal material.