Report: Middle East media frustrated with PR practices; some reporters say they receive up to 20 press releases a day

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April 4, 2007

The PR profession in the Middle East needs to improve how it approaches the media, a report released this week has found. An online poll of 139 journalists in the region found 70 percent deleting e-mails from PR agencies without reading them.

Conducted jointly by Insight, a media training consultancy, and by MediaSource, the poll canvassed opinions from journalists working for Arabic and English-language newspapers and magazines in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Asked to identify “the most irritating practice that PR professionals engage in,” both Arabic and English-language press were unanimous: PR people sending materials that have no relevance to the publication. The “scattergun” approach was called highly counterproductive. One editor said he blocked e-mails from PR agencies that engaged in the practice.

Nearly two-thirds of the journalists polled said they received up to 20 press releases a day. Fifty-five percent said they used less than 10 percent of the press releases they received. On-the-record briefings were the top PR source of stories for the region’s journalists, the poll found.  — Compiled by Greg Beaubien for Tactics and The Strategist Online

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