“How many media hits should we getting?” As in the case of so many fundamentally useless metrics — such as the number of Facebook “Likes” or “page views” — most organizations are posing the wrong question.

In a thoughtful gift to the sector, M+R , the media and fundraising consultancy, has just released the inaugural edition of 2016 Mediamarks Study.

Tallying the coverage from 50 influential news outlets (see listing at bottom) of 40 nonprofits taken at random from the Chronicle 400 (half with budgets from $50 to $100 million; half with budgets between $100 and $500 million) and across four sectors — Environmental, International, Health, and U.S. Poverty — M+R set out to answer such questions as:

• How much national media coverage is normal for leading nonprofits?

• Do environmental organizations have a competitive advantage in getting media coverage?

• Are health or international organizations more likely to make news in magazines?

Most importantly the editors address the most important and ultimate media question: “What can your organization do to make a deeper impact with the news you make this year?”

Here’s a look at what  M+R labels “some of our favorite findings”:

• Enviro groups are the most likely type of organization to be featured in a news story. (An 11% “Prominence Rate” vs. 7-8% “Prominence Rate” for other sectors.)

• For every sector studied, January is the quietest month for media hits in influential outlets.

• In the 50 influential outlets M+R measured (see listing at bottom) the median number of annual media hits across all nonprofit sectors in 2015 was 93.

Here are the factors and metrics covered in Mediamarks. I’ll give you one headline from each section and encourage you to download and read the full report.

• Total Annual Hits by Sector (page 10)

International organizations had 6X more media hits than US Poverty groups and about 3X more than Environmental and Health organizations. (Learn why in the Report.)

• Type of Media Hits by Sector (page 12)

Newspapers still matter. A lot. Main newspapers had 6X more nonprofit stories than broadcast and 16X more than magazines.

• Media Coverage by Month and Sector (page 15)

January is the cruelest month. Ironically, every sector declined somewhat in December — the month when most groups are briskly pursuing year-end gifts.

• Media Coverage by Month of all 40 Organizations studied (page 16)

As you might imagine, “poverty” organizations reach their peak in November. Think “bell ringing” and get creative.

AND… take some steps to seize the opportunity that exists in that January gap.

• Prominence in Media Coverage by Sector (page 18)

Not every group is a “Trump”. You don’t have to be at the center of a feature story to benefit.  There’s a ton of value in just getting a regular mention in a garden variety news story.

• Outcomes of Media Coverage by Sector: Advocacy, Awareness, Fundraising. (page 20)

Don’t expect reporters who are writing a news or feature story to connect the dots for Advocacy and Fundraising. Ask for it.

M+R’s Advice

• The goal of nonprofit media relations is not to fill a clip book for the board.

• Rather pay attention to placements that matter most to your organization.

• Watch what other groups are doing.

Agitator’s Advice

• Download and read the free Mediamarks Study

• If you want to know if your organization was included in the study … if you have questions or comments about the study … or if you’d like your organization to be included in Mediamarks 2017, the folks at M+R are standing by. You can reach ‘em at mediamarks@mrss.com and @mrcampaigns

An Agitator Raise for M+R’s good work.

Roger

P.S. In April, 2016 M+R issued another valuable report. Check out Tom’s post on their 2016 Benchmark Study on trends in the digital fundraising arena.