TO what extent journalists get irritated by PR agencies phoning to confirm whether an emailed media release has been received is just one of the areas of enquiry in an online survey posted by a former Scottish Sun, Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalist.
Iain Fleming, who has also spent 15 years working as a PR manager in both the public and private sectors, now works as the business development director (media) for secure messaging company, Wirefast, which has the Newslink text and picture wire service as one of its services.
It provides news agencies, freelance journalists and photographers as well as PR departments and agencies with secure, managed and guaranteed delivery of their material straight into the editorial ‘baskets’ of most of the country’s media outlets.
And as part of his part-time studies for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Post-Graduate Diploma, at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, he is carrying out a research project looking at the type and volume of material sent to newsdesks by PR practitioners.
He is looking for mainly editors and news and picture desk staff who handle incoming content to complete the survey.
