Nine out of 10 in-house comms bosses are struggling with content creation, according to a new study.

The survey, commissioned by Speak Media and carried out by The Pulse Business, found that 90% of comms directors are experiencing “content chaos”, citing a shortage of both skills and resources, together with fragmented business units and increasingly tight deadlines.

Some 33% of the 400 comms directors surveyed pointed to the leading issue impeding them as being a lack of measurement and analytics.

One respondent said: “We need to be more rigorous in checking what content generates the most engagement, but have a lack of skills and resources in the team.”

Another respondent referred to an uncontrolled spread of random content due to “too many competing pressures and no prioritisation, because we don’t know what works andwhat matters.”

Meanwhile, 29% of comms leaders point to content silos as something they struggle with regularly, when sections of their organisation develop unshared content independently.

Other issues mentioned by the respondents included poor quality visual content, such as video, photography, illustration and graphics; and not having an editorial strategy in place. Only 10% of all respondents said they did not experience any form of content challenge.

Speak Media head of content George Theohari said: “Content chaos is going to cause some huge issues for organisations in 2020, as the breadth, ambition and time-sensitivity of content needed to fill their channels now rival that of some traditional news outlets.

“This development can create huge challenges for communications leaders. Content silos, editorial bottlenecks, duplication of content, and ‘off-strategy’ content divert marketing and communications directors from their role as comms strategists.

"And many large-scale communications teams can lack the specific editorial expertise needed to lead and co-ordinate the kind of multi-channel news team that will satisfy a brand’s many channels and stakeholders.”