75% of Journalists Get Story Ideas from Blogs

A new survey by Brodeur and MarketWire, shows that 75% of journalists use blogs to get ideas for stories. Journalists may not comment but they are reading…in fact, four in five say they read blogs at least two to three times a week. Almost 30% of journalists in the survey say they have their own blog.

Journalists consult blogs for story ideas, angles and insights:

• Over 75% of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue.
• 70% of reporters check a blog list on a regular basis.
• 21% of reporters spend over an hour per day reading blogs.
• 57% of reporters read blogs at least two to three times a week.

Journalists are getting more savvy not only utilizing social media, but as participants:

• 16% have their own social networking page.
• 48% say they are “lurkers” – in that they read but rarely comment on blogs.

The survey was conducted among a random sample of reporters and editors. There looks to be 177 participants (here is a link to the PDF file of the survey). If you want to increase your visibility or PR, starting a blog is worth the investment.

Not only do blogs provide good visibility for journalists, a blog will increase your search engine visibility (recent numbers showed that about 75% of people find your business through a search engine). For that reason, I think new businesses should launch a blog along with their web site. As for me, I found this story on Twitter (thanks Scoble).