Birds Of A Feather
Researchers and journalists have a lot in common. When they are at their best, both seek the truth, look to expose trends, treasure objectivity, and are desperate for attention.
Yes, desperate for attention. If no one ever reads a story a journalist has written, he might as well not have bothered to write it at all. The same goes for a researcher who works hard to gather data and put the results into some kind of context, only to find his study ignored.
For a journalist, there is no better feeling than having your story make a differenceexposing some wrongdoing, revealing a key development and, most importantly, prompting a reader to take action. The same goes for researchers. No one wants their studies gathering dust on a shelf.
Thus, it makes sense for journalists and researchers to work together whenever possible for their common good. The two are natural partnersjournalists are eager for exclusive content that puts their publication ahead of the news, while researchers are hungry for exposure and credibility.
I addressed these issues during my recent keynote address at the Society of Insurance Research annual conference in Atlanta. I challenged those in attendance to be more proactive with the media so their work gets more notoriety and has the biggest possible impact. I noted that National Underwriter publishes research on a variety of levelssome obviously far more comprehensive and valuable than others.
The most basic connection is just running a rewritten press release or a slim, staff-produced news story about the latest survey. Occasionally, well do reaction interviews with experts not affiliated with the study to provide context, but such stories dont generate a lot of buzz.
Sometimes we publish articles by researchers written exclusively for NU. An example is the outstanding analyses provided by Fritz Yohn of "MarketStance" fame, as well as the insightful "Best Practices" reports written by Bobby Reagan and company. Such articles are far more valuable because they offer exclusive content, thus earning better play and more graphic support while guaranteeing wider exposure.
We also do research partnerships, in which original studies are produced in tandem with NU. We co-sponsor the annual study on risk manager compensation by Bill Perry of Logic Associates, the top headhunter in his field, and have worked the past two years with Zurich on NUs twice-yearly "State of the Market" surveys. This is pure gold for all involved, as NU gets proprietary data and trend analysis to readers, while the partnering firms bask in a cover-story spotlight.
We also generate home-grown research following our parent companys acquisition of Thomson Financial Insurance Solutions, which weve re-branded as National Underwriter Insurance Data Services. Well have a dozen "NU Data Insights" special reports in the magazine next year, featuring insurer premium rankings, examinations of profitability and expenses, as well as marketshare analysis in key lines.
How can you as a researcher be more proactive? Give us a heads up to let us know a report is coming out. Grant us a pre-release interview so we are better prepared to feature your results when you go public. Offer to write an analysis timed to run with the release of your data.
You could propose a joint venture in which we help plan the actual questionnaire and perhaps use our subscriber list as the survey sample. And we could always use some help interpreting the mountains of data we generate via our new data division. If you have an idea, pitch us. Im all ears.
Sam Friedman
Editor-In-Chief
Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, December 3, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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