THE FOURTH ESTATE
For a professional class that prides itself on “holding power to account” and pursuing the truth “without fear or favor,” journalists are surprisingly susceptible to flattery.
If you want to win over a tough investigative journalist, tell them how much you loved their latest article. They'll be soft in your hands. Which proves that at the end of the day — as The Chattering Classes' resident therapist likes to say — we all just want to be liked.
This is especially true for the battered and battered Brussels press corps , which suffers from a collective inferiority complex, largely because few back home understand or really care about what they report.
No one understands how to harness the power of wounded pride better than American public relations experts, which brings us to Berson's EU Media Survey, an annual ranking of the media's “influence” in the European Union that makes everyone feel like a winner.
Burson unveiled it at a special event at its Brussels office on Wednesday, followed by a media panel moderated by Politico's Sarah Wheaton.
As always, the big winner this year was the American publication Politico , which, according to the American Berson, is the most influential publication in the EU, ahead of the British FT, Reuters and The Economist, as well as the Belgian publication Euractiv.
The result comes as welcome news for Politico , which is currently going through tough times.
“We’re being recognized for what sets us apart,” Goli Sheikholeslami, the Washington-based CEO of Politico, exulted on LinkedIn. “These aren’t just observations, but a reflection of the real impact of our work and the standards we hold ourselves to every day.”
The editors of Parliament Magazine (of “Magic Negro” fame) and MLex, ranked 15th and 20th respectively, noted Berson's conclusion that they were the only publications “whose influence had increased.”
Our favorite winner was EUObserver’s Alejandro Tauber , who Berson says came in 7th. In Tauber’s gematria, EUObserver actually came in 6th, which he detailed on LinkedIn. “Very proud of us and very, very, very grateful to all the participants and readers,” he enthused, before thanking the Academy and his parents.
To be fair, it is quite an achievement for an organisation like EUObserver to be more influential than publications like Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
If only it were so . While we at The Chattering Classes hate being the bearers of bad news more than anything, we simply can't let this one pass us by…
A week before the Berson report was published, we were asked at a panel discussion what we thought of these media influence surveys, and we responded that we thought they were “nonsense.”
The reason for our skepticism was that the samples were usually tiny and the methodology was, to put it mildly, unreliable.
We had no idea how right we were. In its latest study, the research firm that conducted the survey for Burson, the UK-based Savanta, polled just 21 MEPs out of 720. Based on those 21 views, the firm concluded that “ an overwhelming majority – 86% – of MEPs consider Politico to be ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ influential.”
Berson's entire survey sample included just 175 people , including 66 agency employees (out of a total of 79,000) and 88 “opinion formers”—a category that includes journalists, business executives, lobbyists, and other nongovernmental groups.
To quote John McEnroe: You can't be serious! The entire EU bubble consists of about 100,000 people, and Berson makes sweeping claims about the influence of dozens of media outlets based on the testimony of 175 people.
It turns out we're not the only ones questioning Burson's interpretation of the survey results. In an exclusive interview with our Magnus Lund Nielsen, the man who led the research for Burson acknowledged that some of the firm's findings weren't supported by the data.
“I don't think it necessarily reflects the broader views of MEPs,” said Chris Hopkins of Savanta, which carried out the study. “The way they interpreted the data, I think, may be a lesson for us going forward.”
So many “lessons.” It would be easy to laugh at this and chalk it up to the connections between Burson, its British parent WPP, and Politico and its German parent Axel Springer.
But there is nothing funny about this. Burson’s survey is used by corporations and media buyers across the EU to make advertising and subscription decisions. Politico staffers tack the survey results onto their email signatures like a badge of honor. If the principal investigator believes that Burson has overstepped its bounds in interpreting the main results of its survey, it should retract it immediately.
BBC REDUCES BRUSSELS NUMBERS: Following Brexit and the EU-UK summit, the BBC is operating with a reduced presence in Brussels, a newsroom that was bustling with activity during the divorce years. There are now just two on-camera correspondents in the EU capital: Europe editor Katja Adler and Nick Bick. That’s down from four or five a few years ago.
With the British more preoccupied with the White House than with their European neighbours, the Beeb's television studio is gathering dust. The long-serving Flemish cameraman is leaving to become a policeman, and even the secretary is gone. They are considering moving up to smaller offices in the International Press Centre.
Former bureau chief Richard Colebourne has moved to Rome to take up a more senior role, coordinating non-English language news coverage across the continent, such as the new Polish service. He has been replaced by Katie Long, who is set to become bureau chief on a permanent basis.
In a sign that the BBC has not given up on Brussels (at least not as a source of income), they plan to hire a businessman to sell media monitoring subscriptions to EU institutions.
That's all for this week. Remember: send your tips to [email protected].
Servus!
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