Avoq’s survey of more than 200 D.C. insiders uncovers a sea change in their media choices. Losing popularity were such sources as news sites, search, newsletters, Facebook and cable news. The big winner: LinkedIn, with Instagram and podcasts also showing gains. Almost three quarters (74 percent) of respondents said that they turn to LinkedIn at least once a day. The big loser: X, which took a 14 percent skid in daily usage (from 60 percent to 46 percent). Despite the declines, newsletters remain a go-to for many respondents, with 65 percent saying they read them daily. Avoq’s survey also found that the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans spills over into their media choices, with Democrats being more likely to read newsletters than their Republican counterparts. The split also affects the degree to which they are likely to trust a particular media outlet. For example, 44 percent of Democratic respondents called the New York Times a “most trusted news source” as opposed to just 10 percent of Republicans. Republicans, perhaps not surprisingly, much preferred the Wall Street Journal, which 41 percent of them called most trusted as opposed to just 6 percent of Democrats.

Muck Rack, a PR management platform, teams up with Help Every Reporter Out (HERO), a platform that aims to make it easy for journalists and sources to connect. Through the partnership, HERO will integrate journalist profiles from Muck Rack’s media database into its daily emails to subscribers, allowing PR professionals to easily research a querying journalist. Free for users, HERO sends subscribers up to three emails a day featuring queries from journalists from various media outlets. Muck Rack’s database indexes hundreds of millions of data points on journalists and media outlets across digital, broadcast, print, podcasts and podcasters, newsletters and social media, adding an extra layer of information to HERO queries. “My goal is to help businesses get the press they’re looking for and for journalists to get the sources they need when they’re being asked to do so much more with so much less,” said HERO founder Peter Shankman.

D S Simon Media conducted a recent study that says, by largely steering clear of political coverage, local TV news stations have become a surprisingly welcoming environment for brands and non-profits who want to get their stories told and their experts interviewed. Even in the midst of a noisy, contentious campaign season, local stations are only handing a small percentage of their airtime over to political coverage. Survey respondents said that pre-convention, only 9.7 percent of the airtime on local TV news programs is expected to go to coverage of politics, with that number rising to just 12.8 percent in September and 16.1 percent in October. In addition, nearly all (92 percent) of those surveyed said they did not plan to preempt local TV news during the conventions. Among the reasons respondents gave for the small amount of airtime given to political coverage: “Viewers can get political news 24/7 on cable TV or online;” “Our viewers prefer ‘news they can use’;” and “Increased political coverage doesn’t increase ratings.” ?“Unlike network or cable TV news, local television offers a larger portion of newscasts for additional news content. It’s one reason why trust in local TV news is among the highest of any type of media,” said D S Simon Media CEO Doug Simon.