Primary research and traditional media decline in influence as blogs and social media make gains
Almost three in four investors and analysts say digital media is likely to play an increasing role in their investment-related decisions while traditional media is becoming less influential, according to a survey by corporate communications consultancy Brunswick Group.
Forty seven percent of the respondents say that digital media will ‘probably’ become more important to their decisions in the future while 23 percent say it will ‘definitely’ rise in importance, according to the Brunswick data. About 21 percent said it will ‘probably not’ become more important.
The increase comes at the expense of traditional print media and primary market research, both of which declined in importance in the last four years, according to the survey. Using a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being the highest score, investors’ rating of the importance of analyst research fell to 3.9 this year from 3.7 in 2010 and print media dropped to 5.3 from 5.0.
The number of investors and analysts who say they read blogs for work increased to 59 percent in the 2014 survey from 52 percent in 2012, while the number who use social networks for work rose 2 percentage points to 26 percent.
Investors and analysts continue to consider information direct from the companies as the most useful and important type of information, rating it at 1.9 on the seven-point scale, an increase from 2 points in both the 2012 and 2010 surveys. Investment professionals in Asia and North America give company information slightly greater importance, at 1.8, than Europeans, who score it 2.
‘The investment community is increasingly looking to digital media for information about their investments and recommendations,’ Jason Golz, partner at the Brunswick Group, says in a press release.
‘Importantly, that information continues to influence investment decisions too. Third party information that is delivered fast and considered insightful, such as real-time subscription information services, analyst research and digital media, is both highly ranked and growing in importance.’
