Laura Burgess Marketing has finalized our second survey on how manufacturers or PR firms can work with our industry media and form better relationships. Even though LBM had a pretty good idea of the outcome, there is ALWAYS room to improve. The basis of the writer survey was to finally have some statistics for potential clients that are new to writer relations. I believe all you shooters out there would use the term "back-up."
 
Perhaps some of the most interesting results were that you, our industry journalists, are not just looking to receive new product information (in a time appropriate and comprehensive manner), but really want to bring more to the table as far as developing long-term relationships with manufacturers, their engineers and marketing teams. And manufacturers, engineers and marketers should be jumping at the chance to work with people that have not only real world work experience, but the opportunity to have played with all the toys, and perhaps have built a couple themselves.  Often, I have heard complaining corporate types regarding "herding writers" when there are many other "important" matters that need their attention. Our industry writers and editors are our scouts, our standard bearers, our advisors, our canaries in the mine, our fortune tellers, and occasionally just our good friends. If there is anything that LBM really took away from this survey, it's that we are lucky to be in an industry where the associated media has a real heart-felt interest in the subject and the people behind it. So, thank you to all who participated!