A BENCHMARK STUDY OF THE PR NEWS WIRE

This benchmark study on the PR News Wire analyzes 129 national releases from one-day's transmission and traces their publication through nine major newspapers. It utilizes chi-squares to examine differences in relationships between publication and the following variables: sources, type, subject matter, and news elements. Only subject matter was significantly related to use (X2(16,N=129)=27.08, pq=.041). Some subject matter were more related to publication than other subject matter. Financial disclosure was the most used subject matter. There was also a significant difference among the newspapers by use (F(3, 122,N=129)=122.86,pq<.01). The Wall Street Journal used information from 17 releases. The newspaper with the second highest usage, The New York Times, used information from four releases. Linda PQ. Morton and Shirley Ramsey are associate professors in the School of Journalism at the University of Oklahoma.