Australia’s PR industry is failing to keep up with the needs of today’s media, it has been claimed.

New research, which was unveiled at the PRIA National Conference in Adelaide this morning, shows that PR is falling behind the latest media trends in digital technology.

Warren Kirby (pictured), CEO of online newsroom provider Wieck Australasia, said the research shows big gaps between what PR provides and what the media wants.

Kirby said: “Our whitepaper, PR Perceptions and Media Realities in 2013, reveals that PR has not kept up with changes in the content required, and who qualifies as a journalist.

“In a survey of more than 770 media and PR people, journalists made it clear they need a daily dose of images, video and other multimedia content – and they are not getting it.”

He added that the media has a significantly greater appetite than PR professionals believe.

In terms of supplied images, 78% of PR people supply them sometimes and just 51% all or most of the time, but 97% of media said they use them.

For video, 24% of PR people supply it sometimes and 2% supply it most of the time, but 82% of media people use it sometimes, and 45% use video at least once a week.

“There is a worrying gap between what we know and what we do,” added Kirby. “Our survey confirms that journalists want direct links to images, video and audio content for their stories, with no big emails and no cumbersome digging around.

“Today’s online newsrooms can meet all these needs, and quite economically too, but PRs are failing to deliver, apparently for lack of budget.

“If the PR industry is to retain its influence, it is time to catch up with media realities and feed the insatiable appetite for multimedia content.”