Journalists and in-house communicators in the financial services industry are coming to grips with how digital communications can work for them, shows a new survey released today.

The Broadgate Mainland Digital Trends 2012 survey, which was produced in association with Communicate magazine, is reported in depth in this month’s issue and will shortly be available in its extended version online.

One of the most topical findings from the survey is the fact that Wikipedia, and the question of its accessibility, is a problem for both in-house communicators and the media. Only 12% of in-house PR execs have made successful changes to their Wikipedia pages, but 75% of journalists believe that Wikipedia’s accuracy is in doubt.

Another section of the survey throws light on the processes behind pitching. For journalists, email comes out way ahead of phone as a means to be pitched to by in-house communicators and agencies, in alignment with figures from Digital Trends 2011. Yet company representatives still believe phone is the best method for pitching, followed by email.

This is the fourth year that Broadgate Mainland have held this survey, but this year Communicate came on board to expand the survey’s outreach. Whereas previously Digital Trends just looked at the online habits of journalists, Communicate was able to include in-house comms professionals in the respondents.

Mobile is another big trend in this year’s survey: 67% of journalists use devices such as smartphones and tablets for professional purposes, as do 71% of in-house respondents. Smartphones were judged to be the most useful tool away from the desk by journalists; but pen and paper are still seen as superior to tablet computers.

Email digitaltrendsgroup@broadgatemainland.com for more details, and keep an eye out for details of the online version with exclusive interactive graphics.