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The future\’s bright for property public relations

by

Charlotte AshtonAshton Billinge PR

(ABPM) has been active in the world of

property public relations

since 2005 and has bared witness to many changes in both real estate and the media landscape. To get a true 360 degree view of property journalism today and how it has changed, the team at ABPM conducted an exclusive survey and discovered some revealing results.

Back in the boom days (until late 2007), national paper property supplements were thick with UK and overseas property stories. There was countless magazines dedicated to house types, trends and destinations, editorial teams were vast and commissions freely available. Then came the crash. Recession took hold in 2008 and things very quickly fell off a cliff. The UK and global economy stalled, people lost their jobs, became cautious, stopped buying houses and developers and agents ceased selling homes. As a result, property advertising seized up. The media lost its cash cow, cut the size of property editorial sections, made staff redundant and ran a skeleton operation. Commenting on changes in the market, Charlotte Ashton, Director of ABPM explains, \”Over the last 5 years, ABPM has seen the volume of standalone property publications drop by at least 50%! National press supplements have vastly reduced in size, numerous property editorial staff have been made redundant, freelancers have searched for work elsewhere and commissions are far and few between. However over the past 12 months it seems that things are changing and our survey supports this.\” ABPM selected 25 top property journalists from across the world and asked them about their industry. Enquiring with journalists as to whether they were writing more or less about property this year, 76% said they were writing more in 2012 compared to 2011 explaining that \”the new homes industry seems to have been re-invigorated\” and \”property is becoming something highly political on many levels\”. When asked if there was more demand for UK or overseas property stories, UK focused stories accounted for 88% of activity especially in London and the prime property market. One journalist commented: \”affordable homes e.g. with shared ownership/shared equity continue to be of most interest to readers\”. Other areas gaining column inches were: Brazil, student accommodation – a new asset class, lettings, Caribbean, USA, Africa and SE Asia. Traditional overseas markets such as Spain, France, Italy and Portugal also seem to hold their appeal but with stories focussed around the impact of the euro and recession. When it comes to methods of receiving press information all those questioned said that email was the most preferable method with social media in second place followed by phone and post. Charlotte Ashton explains, \”The results clearly show that the digital age has reached property journalism. 44% said they use social media when searching for information which is a real step in the right direction with the most popular channels being Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn respectively. StumbleUpon and Google+ were also used by some.\” In terms of securing coverage, press trips still seem to be a popular method. Certainly not dead in the water, 72% of journalists expressed that they still liked to attend press trips with recently visited destinations including: Mallorca, Albania, London, Canada, Italy, Malta, Portugal and the Maldives. Posing the million dollar question – \”what is the biggest issue property journalists\’ face today?\” – the number one answer was finding new ideas and fresh angles on the UK and international property markets with credible research and companies. Other issues included high competition in the freelance market and meeting tighter deadlines particularly with the rise of online media outlets and blogs. Finally, in an attempt to find out what can be done to facilitate the journalist / PR relationship better, ABPM asked journalists their thoughts and received and interesting set of responses. Comments included: \”Don\’t hassle us journos, keep ideas fresh, be normal and not too Ab Fab!\”. \”Put forward more ideas, rather than individual properties. These ideas don\’t have to be fully-formed, just an outline – 50-100 words\” \”Make sure information is accurate and detailed not just generic waffle!\” \”Take the time to build decent face-to-face relationships. Find out when copy deadlines are.\” \”Keep in contact and be proactive rather than reactive\” \”Look at the type of section I edit and come up with exclusive ideas with case studies and brilliant photos!\”

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