jca’s Com blog-notes - communiquer.ch

While attending a seminar on Advanced Media and Public Relation (by Dr. Tom Watson at IUG), I had the opportunity to read about a study on blogs in corporations.
The “Makovsky 2006 State of Corporate Blogging Survey” is very interesting in many ways. Nearly all (96%) the Fortune 1000 senior executives were polled about blogs and their answer are summarized in the quote below :

The survey revealed that only a very small number of top executives are convinced to “a great extent” that corporate blogging is growing in credibility either as a communications medium (5%), brand-building technique (3%) or a sales or lead generation tool (less than 1%). In contrast, most executives are somewhat or not at all convinced of blogs’ growing credibility in these areas, (62%, 74% and 70% respectively). Moreover, nearly half of senior executives polled do not have corporate policies pertaining to blogging, although 77% believe that their organizations should have such policies. Clearly, we are seeing a snapshot of the beginning of a corporate activity and a medium which is set to grow rapidly and which will become increasingly important to corporations around the world. Companies that do not recognize this trend and take action to capitalize on it will miss out on valuable opportunities. They will also put themselves at risk of being blindsided by unfavorable publicity.

Then, another study is also relevant when writing about corporate blogs and that is “Weblogs and Employee Communication” (Wright and Hinson, 2006). This report explains how employee blogging has become a dynamic new medium to communicate with internal and external audience and has changed many aspects of employee communication. Below are a few quotes from this study (check out “why employees blog” and “Are employees’ blogs good or bad?”) :

The potential impact of blogs on public relations and corporate communications is phenomenal. [...] The rise of the blogosphere has the potential to empower employees in ways not unlike the rise of labor unions in the late 19th and 20th centuries. [...] Although employees who blog are writing both positive and negative things about their organizations, it appears that the positive outweighs the negative.

Following a Media/Zogby Interactive poll, we learn that two-third of Americans prefer getting information from Internet than from traditional sources of news like newspapers or TV. This shift is even more dramatic for people under 30 years old.

The following comment gives a good insight of the problem (from zogby’s site) :

“For the second year in a row we have documented a crisis in American journalism that is far more serious than the industry’s business challenges - or maybe a consequence of them,” said Andrew Nachison, co-founder of iFOCOS. “Americans recognize the value of journalism for their communities, and they are unsatisfied with what they see. While the U.S. news industry sheds expenses and frets about its future, Americans are dismayed by its present. Meanwhile, we see clearly the generational shift of digital natives from traditional to online news - so the challenge for traditional news companies is complex. They need to invest in new products and services - and they have. But they’ve also got to invest in quality, influence and impact. They need to invest in journalism that makes a difference in people’s lives. That’s a moral and leadership challenge - and a business opportunity for whoever can meet it.”

What has been commented in my previous posts makes sense in the light of the study reported above. I would personnally underline a few reasons, in my opinion, for this shift to Internet to get news :

- People get used to obtain more and more free material from Internet : music, movies and news are the most visible part of this phenomenon. Who will be willing to pay to be informed in the future ? And what consequences does it have on news departement financing ? Are we responsible, in a way, of the news production lack of financial independence ?

- As Internet allow a real interactivity between journalists and their audience, do “traditional journalists” have to quickly learn how to accept a new interaction with their readers or viewers in order to get their attention … and fulfill their needs for customized information ?

- When Andrew Nachison declares that news companies need to invest in journalism that makes a difference in people’s live, I am a little worried about media quality in the future regarding how they are financed by advertisers and investors. The latters’ interests are certainly not those of news citizen-consumers who need to be informed and not only entertained !