Ipsos Mori, the global research company, loves asking questions, and with the economic downturn, job insecurity, rising inflation, and record-high energy prices, anyone who is anyone has an opinion on the matter because it affects his or her pocket.
So, when Mori asked this OGJ editor to conduct an interview along with Britain’s other oil and gas journalists, I thought it was time to flirt with the unknown and challenge my comfort zone. The role reversal is particularly odd as a journalist. Whether we make the news or report the news is an interesting debate that will continue to rage within academic circles, particularly as the internet has fundamentally changed how we communicate.
Becoming an interviewee, sometimes, is like being caught under a very hot ray of sunshine; temporarily blinded as a continuous stream of questions are fired seeking opinions, facts, and information. Are people honest when they are interviewed? Are they influenced by their environment or indeed the person asking the questions?
Although six years on in my career, I am still amazed at the reaction it invokes: people clam up immediately. They are afraid of being misquoted or indeed quoted! Along with lawyers and real estate agents, this profession doesn’t receive many kudos in British society.
What journalists think
According to the survey, 61% said high prices would be the most important issue for the oil and gas industry over the next 12 months followed by maintaining supplies (48%) and rising costs (39%). Interestingly enough, however, 39% of us said that the economic prospects for the oil and gas sector would stay the same over the next 12 months compared with 35% who said it would improve and 26% who thought it would get worse.
“We are not running out of oil. What we are running out of is oil that is relatively easy to recover,” said one respondent. Stories about TNK-BP’s recent operating difficulties in Russia illustrate the increasing importance of nationalism in the petroleum sector. According to the report, 16% of journalists recognized supplier nationalism as an important issue over the next 12 months. “There is a growing trend around the world towards the nation states wanting to hang on to their own indigenous oil and gas,” said another journalist.
And when it comes to British journalists judging companies, the most important factor, for 84% of those surveyed, is financial performance. That is unsurprising considering that the majors are reporting billions of dollars of quarterly profits. This response was down 2% on the answer given in the 2007-08 survey. Quality of management is the second most crucial parameter, according to 65% of those questioned, and 61% of journalists voted for honesty and integrity. The change for 2007-08 respondents was –4% and –11% respectively.
We consider it very important to access top executives for background discussions and briefings, so please make more time for us in your schedules! About 45% of us also said this was very important for on-the-record interviews.
Advice for PR personnel
PR personnel should take note: email is the preferred way to communicate; no one faxes these days. And 48% of us (me included) still like a phone call. I was surprised that 3% of those surveyed said they liked hard-copy mail. In this fast-moving environment, surely that would be inefficient because any news release would be old by the time it was received.
Many small operators hire external agencies to help them raise their profile and reach out to journalists. The good ones will study the market and the media outlets to develop a strategy to manage their client’s reputation.
Too many PR personnel continue to fire information willy-nilly hoping to get a mention for their client, sending unsuitable content, without bothering to do the basics about that media outlet. Research, research, research: OGJ does not publish information about boiler repairs! The large companies can sometimes have this and in-house staff, but 39% of us said it was less acceptable to deal with an external media relations agency than a company’s in-house media relations personnel.
It will be interesting to see how many operators’ press teams will use this information in the future to tweak their communication strategies and build their relationships with us.
That is a survey for another time of course, and I will keep you posted.
