29/03/2017
The third edition of the #murraytweetindex has seen the number of followers reached by Ireland’s top 100 journalists increase by 13% to 2.6m on the 2015 figures, which Murray indicate is over six times the combined circulation of daily newspapers in Ireland.
RTE, Independent News and Media and The Irish Times are the top three news outlets with reporters in ranking.
Today FM’s Last Word presenter, Matt Cooper, has taken over from Des Cahill as the most influential Irish journalist on Twitter. Sunday World Sports journalist, Kevin Palmer is in second place and Newstalk’s George Hook in third.
The #murraytweetindex is based on the analysis of the Twitter handles of over 700 journalists and ranks their influence on Twitter in a range of different categories. RTE’s US correspondent Caitriona Perry topped the news category, while Independent News & Media’s Group Business Editor, Dearbhail McDonald, took over as the top business reporter and Today FM’s Gavan Reilly topped the political category for the third year in a row.
David McWilliams is the top columnist, Adrian Weckler top for technology, and the Sun’s Ken Sweeney is number one in the entertainment category. A new category introduced this year covered crime reporters, with the Irish Daily Star’s Mick O’Toole ranked as the most influential.
Compared to last year, the biggest gainers were the Irish Examiner’s Political Correspondent Daniel McConnell (+155), investigative journalist Gemma O’Doherty (+142) and TV presenter Darren Kennedy (+67). During a year of increasing trade union unrest RTE’s Industry and Employment Correspondent Ingrid Miley was another big gainer (+55), whilst the year of the Brexit vote saw Irish Independent columnist Dan O’Brien (+62) also moving into the top 100.
Commenting on the index Doug Keatinge, MPRII, Director at Murray, who led the research said:
“The reach of journalists on Twitter continues to surge with the top 100 journalists listed having a combined 2.6m followers, up 13% on the previous year, which is an audience six times bigger than total daily circulation of newspapers in Ireland.
Even though as a business Twitter faces growth challenges, it continues to provide an important channel for journalists to engage with readers and alert them to new content and breaking stories.”
The number of journalists reviewed for the index more than doubled this year to over 700, and the life time total number of tweets these journalists have generated on the platform is over 7m.
The top 100 #murraytweetindex performers are displayed on an interactive website designed by Murray Creative, a division of Murray focussed on supporting clients’ digital and social media needs: www.murraytweetindex.ie.
Analysing the results by outlet showed RTE with 18 journalists in the top 100, Independent News & Media with 16, the Irish Times with 15, Newstalk with 8 and the Sunday Business Post with 7.
Pat Walsh, MPRII, Managing Director of Murray added:
“Professing his love of twitter Donald Trump rather unkindly described it as akin to ‘owning your own newspaper--- without the losses.’ What our research shows is that today’s journalists don’t see twitter as ‘either or’, instead using twitter’s immediacy to complement and strengthen personal and platform reach.
Whether it was Caitriona Perry’s US election views, Adrian Weckler’s insights on technology or Gavan Reilly’s breaking news on Irish politics, their profiles on Twitter helped enhance and amplify their traditional reporting activity”
Learn how to Engage Effectively with Social Media Influencers at our upcoming PRII training workshop on 26th April. Learn more here.
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