Over the last few months, the pandemic news has rapidly impacted nearly every industry and dominated news headlines across the globe. One journalist in our network said he had received about 500 story pitches related to COVID-19. Another warned public relations professionals to avoid bombarding reporters with these stories. While some companies have focused on getting attention by attaching themselves to the crisis, we have found reporters want to hear about other news.
Our research shows that reporters, particularly in the technology sector, are eager to cover other stories. We analyzed data using Agility PR Solutions, a media monitoring and analytics software, in technology and semiconductor publications over the past few months.
From a sample of 35 top technology publications, we found that only 28.9% of articles mentioned COVID-19 from March 1st – May 31st. Additionally, in late April there was an increase in the number of non-COVID articles.
From 28 semiconductor publications, we found that only 6% of articles mentioned COVID-19 from the same time period. Overall, there were not as many virus-related articles in semiconductor outlets compared to technology publications. They also show a spike in non-COVID related articles in late April.
While it may feel like the recent pandemics has taken over the news cycle, there are still plenty of reporters wanting to cover other news.
