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Executive Summary
2004 Worldwide
Market Survey on
Media Monitoring
Issued: October 2004
Introduction
The 2004 Worldwide Market Survey on Media Monitoring is designed to determine the needs and expectations of purchasers of media monitoring services. To that end, the survey is designed to:
- Assess current use of various types of media monitoring services
- Assess market perceptions of strengths and weaknesses of:
- Major categories of media monitoring services
- Specific media monitoring suppliers
- Determine market satisfaction with current services
- Identify end-user expectations of current media monitoring services
Methodology
The research consists of 1,443 surveys among public relation and marketing professionals. CyberAlert, Inc. sent out 100,000 email invitations to prospective respondents with a link to the online survey. Respondents were entered into a drawing to win either $500 or a one-year subscription to CyberAlert's news monitoring service (a $3,600 value).
Invitations were sent to prospective respondents starting on July 27, 2004. The survey field period closed on August 23, 2004. With 1,443 usable surveys, the overall response rate was 1.44%.
The margin of sampling error is 2.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Respondent Profile
Table A shows the profile of respondents participating in this research:
| Table A Respondent Profile |
|
|---|---|
| Characteristics: | Respondents % |
| EXPERIENCE | |
| >20 years | 27 |
| 11-20 years | 33 |
| 6-10 years | 24 |
| 5 or fewer years | 16 |
| TITLE | |
| CEO/COO/Other C-Level | 12 |
| VP Or Higher | 11 |
| Director | 25 |
| Manager | 26 |
| Other | 26 |
| EMPLOYER LOCATION | |
| United States | 71 |
| Outside United States | 29 |
| EMPLOYER DESCRIPTION | |
| 5,000 or more employees | 13 |
| 500 to 4,999 employees | 15 |
| Fewer than 500 employees | 26 |
| Government or non-profit | 12 |
| PR/Ad Agency | 27 |
| Other | 8 |
Executive Summary
The number of ways people get news continues to expand and news cycles are shorting. The Internet, 24-hour cable news networks and the proliferation of online news sources, electronic newsletters and Web logs ("blogs") all mean that more publishers - especially non-traditional publishers - are disseminating more news stories in more locations and formats. As traditional news publications lose circulation, non-traditional media are expanding rapidly with growing numbers of viewers/readers. Recent surveys have found, for instance, that young people and business executives now favor the Internet as the preferred source of news. Moreover, criticism of corporations and products often originates in non-traditional media sources - and then migrates to the traditional press and TV. As a result, today's PR professionals must monitor far more news sources in many more media much more aggressively and in a more timely way in order to protect corporate and brand reputation.
As a consequence of these changes, it would be expected that the market for news monitoring would change - adapting to the changes in news content and distribution channels. However, changes in media monitoring seem to be lagging changes in news distribution.
The 2004 Worldwide Market Survey on Media Monitoring reveals that the media monitoring market is fragmented, uncertainty is prevalent throughout the marketplace, and older types of media monitoring services requiring human reading and editing continue to maintain a major market share of media monitoring services.
PR professionals are not confident that any single news monitoring service can meet their monitoring needs. Consequently, the typical end-user is monitoring news via three or four different means.
Despite recent advances in news monitoring services, traditional services like paper-based clipping and in-house monitoring remain the primary tools used by PR professionals to monitor the news. In fact, nearly seven in ten (69%) professionals still use in-house monitoring, with 22% of professionals indicating that in-house monitoring is their primary tool. A similar pattern is evident for traditional paper-based services, where 62% of professionals purchase the service and 28% say it is their primary source of news monitoring.
Given the changes in news distribution, we expect the proportion of PR professionals who rely on paper-based clipping services and in-house monitoring as their primary source of news monitoring to decrease during the coming years. For example, the relatively new online news monitoring services already are used by 42% of professionals, with 13% saying it is their primary tool.
Additional indications of future changes include the expectations regarding clip delivery. The majority (50% for print, 72% for broadcast and 85% for online) of professionals expect clips from all media by the next morning, which is a difficult task for paper-based clipping services. Additionally, many (39%) professionals indicate that having access to digitally stored clips is very important, a service that is usually only provided by the digital services like electronic news monitoring and online news monitoring.
Low satisfaction levels with current providers also indicate significant shifts in the news monitoring marketplace. Only one in five (19%) professionals says they are very satisfied with their current primary provider. Among those professionals who are not very satisfied, the majority expects to either change news monitoring suppliers, or add additional suppliers in the near future.
These anticipated changes suggest that news monitoring providers need to improve the services they provide. Providers who are able to meet the changing needs of news monitoring professionals will capture a greater share of the expanding market.
Professionals who rely on electronic news services (32%) and online news (26%) monitoring are more likely than their more traditional counterparts to say their suppliers are doing an excellent job with the types and number of news sources monitored. Only one in six (16%) professionals who use paper-based clipping services as their primary service say these services do an excellent job with the types of news sources covered.
While the results of the survey clearly indicate that service providers need to do a better job in terms of coverage and clip delivery, the findings also suggest that buyers of media monitoring services need to do a better job in selecting services appropriate to their needs and in reviewing the news clips they receive. For example, nearly half (45%) of all respondents say they receive fewer than 10 clips per day. Many (29%) respondents also say they only check their clips at most once per week, with 41% of those using paper-clip services checking this infrequently.
The survey findings on desired attributes of news monitoring services are at odds with what the respondents are actually doing. While the survey shows that respondents want their clips quickly, and will only tolerate missing 5% or fewer of the clips they want to see, many respondents continue to rely on paper-based news monitoring services that typically miss up to 35% of news clips and often take two or more weeks to deliver clips.
Survey results reveal that the median spend for outsourced news monitoring is $808 per month, or just under $10,000 per year. Given that these firms also use three to four services, although search engines and in-house monitoring could be considered "free" services, the typical spend on any single service is between $3,000 and $5,000 per year.
Additional conflicting responses regarding services and budgets occur when looking at cost and value propositions. Respondents indicate that the cost/value proposition of news monitoring services is comparatively very important. However, many organizations are relying on services that charge per-clip fees as their primary source of news monitoring. Paying these fees seems at odds with the stated desire of high value/low cost.
In order to receive the services professionals expect, budgets will have to increase, or the price structure of news monitoring will have to change. For example, in order to provide what end-user customers desire in terms of coverage and timeliness at a price that fits their budgets, per clip fees are likely to become a thing of the past. A harbinger of this trend is evident in online media monitoring services, most of which offer an "all you can eat" monthly subscription fee with no per clip fees.
One way to control costs is to eliminate human editing. This feature does not rise to the top of the list in terms of importance to end-users. In fact, only 23% of all respondents say this feature is very important. Even among those who use paper-based clipping services as their primary service only 29% say human editing of clips before delivery is very important.
Clearly, the news monitoring market is ripe for significant changes, both from the end-users perspective, as well as from the supplier perspective. We anticipate these changes occurring during the next three years as organizations complete what appear to be pilot tests of a variety of monitoring services. Additionally, we anticipate significant headway being made by monitoring suppliers with regards to timeliness and accuracy of clip delivery.
These changes will reshape the way professionals react to news about their organizations. Additionally, the transition to digital formats will enhance organizations' abilities to create meaningful and measurable results and strategies around news distribution and management.
We anticipate the 2005 version of this survey will show some trending in this direction and look forward to being able to refine our estimation of when the changes from focusing on traditional services to more technologically advanced services will occur.
The complete report with 47 pages and 34 tables of detailed data is available now for immediate download at http://www.cyberalert.com and is priced at $99.95 until November 30, 2004. Thereafter, regular retail price is $195.
Upon request, Slipstream Group will create customized reports based on the entire body of data in the media monitoring survey.
For more information, please contact:
John Leggett
Managing Member
Slipstream Group, LLC.
128 Dover Point Rd.
Dover, NH 03820
603.502.0555
surveys@slipstreamgroup.com
OR William J. Comcowich
President and CEO, CyberAlert, Inc.
http://www.cyberalert.com
Foot of Broad Street, Stratford, CT 06615
Phone: 203-375-7200 Fax: 203-375-6699
comcowic@cyberalert.com
Nobody monitors the media better than CyberAlert.
