IT marketing services group Elmark asked 95 journalists for their views on agency PR.
The results show that while 63 per cent were satisfied with the quality of materials sent to them by agencies, 58 per cent said press releases were not innovative enough and 55 per cent were dissatisfied with the quality of stories being pitched.
But 61 per cent said they found agencies better at providing PR services than their in-house counterparts.
Elmark MD Garrey Melville said: 'The results show there is ample room for improvement across the IT PR community ... in terms of how they handle clients, stories and how they interface with the press - they need to pull their socks up.
'The journalists were essentially saying the releases weren't innovative and all agencies were the same, so it presents a tremendous opportunity for IT agencies to differentiate themselves in the marketplace,' he added.
The survey, commissioned by PR agency AxiCom, revealed 83 per cent of journalists are happy with their access to senior managers via agencies, but feel agencies are most useful when it comes to one-to-one interviews and sending out news releases.
