Chief executives of Irish companies have always been wary of the business media. When the company you're running is doing well, it's nice to bask in the plaudits. When things aren't going well and personal criticism of your management skills is being levelled at you, it can be hard to take.
As the Republic's economy has taken off over the past decade or so, business coverage has increased. All of the main daily newspapers have increased the number of business journalists, business supplements abound, and the airwaves are thick with the sound of business journalists dissecting the latest business news.
Wire agencies such as Reuters, Bloomberg and AP Dow Jones, as well as the Financial Times, have set up offices in Dublin.
That army of business journalists needs to be fed and that means that very few chief executives of modern Irish companies can avoid the media spotlight.
In many cases, it is the business media that is setting the agenda for Irish companies, highlighting the issues they face and rating their performance. The type of coverage a company or its chief executive attracts can have a significant bearing on the attitudes of management colleagues and employees, shareholders, Government bodies and the general public.
Many chief executives have come to understand this, often through bitter personal experience. Their attitude towards the business media can range from a position of open engagement and dialogue to one of open hostility and resentment - based on the premise that the business media is openly hostile towards Irish companies and is constantly on the look-out for the negative angle.
But just how realistic is such an impression. In spite of many perceptions to the contrary, a survey of business media coverage of Irish companies undertaken by Wilson Hartnell Public Relations (WHPR) reveals a remarkably even-handed and balanced approach to the overall coverage of Irish companies by the Irish business media.
In one month, WHPR examined 1,118 business articles about Irish companies - ranging in length from one-paragraph snippets to 1,000-word business feature articles - in the following key business publications: The Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Sunday Business Post, Sunday Tribune, Sunday Independent, Sunday Times (Irish edition) and Business & Finance magazine.
Of the articles reviewed, more than two-thirds (69 per cent) were either positive or neutral about the Irish companies covered. A total of 373 articles, (33 per cent) were positive, while 393 (36 per cent) were neutral and 352 (31 per cent) were negative.
In percentage terms, the Sunday Business Post came out on top with the highest percentage of positive coverage of Irish companies (39.2 per cent). It was closely followed by Business & Finance (38.1 per cent), Irish Examiner (35.8 per cent) and Irish Independent (35.1 per cent).
At the other end of the table, the Irish edition of the Sunday Times was "positive" about Irish companies in just over 15 per cent of its total business coverage. The proportion of positive business coverage in The Irish Times amounted to 27.5 per cent.
When it comes to neutral coverage of Irish companies, The Irish Times was well ahead with 44.3 per cent of its business coverage during the month under review taking a neutral stance. It was followed by the Irish edition of the Sunday Times (39.4 per cent), the Irish Examiner (37 per cent) and Irish Independent (35.1 per cent).
The Sunday Times had the highest proportion of negative articles about Irish companies (45.4 per cent). It was closely followed by the Sunday Independent (41 per cent) with the Sunday Tribune on 37.6 per cent and the Sunday Business Post on 35.5 per cent.
The Irish Examiner had the least proportion of negative business stories about Irish companies (27.2 per cent), just below The Irish Times (28.2 per cent), Business & Finance (28.8 per cent) and the Irish Independent (29.8 per cent).
As Irish business frets over an economic downturn, the task is going to be even harder to get that media coverage into the positive and neutral zones.
Brian Bell is a director of Wilson Hartnell Public Relations and a former financial journalist.
