Financial journalists more optimistic about profession

Financial journalists have become more optimistic about their profession than they were a year ago, according to survey results released Wednesday.

Forty-four percent expressed a positive outlook about their work, up from 32 percent a year ago, according to the 2015 Gorkana Survey of Financial Journalists of more than 400 business journalists.

They survey was conducted by Matt Ragas and Hai Tran, two DePaul University professors.

In the survey, 28 percent of financial journalists said they were neutral about their profession, while 28 percent expressed a negative outlook. In 2014, 42 percent were neutral, and 27 percent were negative.

In addition, the survey shows that financial journalists’ trust in the credibility of key sources is improving. Their percent of the credibility of company CEOs was at 61 percent, up 10 percent points from 2012 when the survey was first conducted.

In addition, journalists’ sense of the credibility of company technical experts and financial/industry analysts also improved and reached the highest levels since the first survey.

However, only 13.1 percent of financial journalists consider company public relations professionals to be credible, down from 14.8 percent in 2012.

“There remains a significant gap in credibility and an opportunity for the corporate communications and public relations industry to strengthen relationships with financial media,” said Jeni Chapman, managing director of Gorkana U.S.

When asked how PR professionals could improve their relationships with financial journalists, 90 percent of the journalists cited the need to tell the truth, while 88 percent cited the need to have a better understanding of journalists’ beats, publications and audiences.

In addition, 74 percent of financial journalists surveyed had a positive outlook for the next year about the U.S. economy, up from 18 percent in 2012.