Changes in the media landscape raise new questions for corporate communications. Recent developments around Hungary’s public media have once again highlighted an important point: a media outlet’s true significance cannot be measured by reach alone.
Credibility, influence, editorial positioning, ownership and – above all – relevance to specific stakeholder groups can be just as important as readership or audience size.
Hungary is a particularly interesting example, following a major political transition that brought an end to 16 years of Fidesz-led government. Recent revelations concerning Hungary’s national news agency (MTI), have shed new light on the extent to which political influence affected its editorial operations under the previous government. A 482-page dossier compiled by MTI journalists documents alleged cases of editorial interference, censorship, manipulation and suppression of news.
This matters well beyond the news agency itself. MTI’s direct public visibility does not necessarily reflect its actual influence: its content is used and republished by numerous other media outlets, meaning that editorial decisions made at the agency can have an impact across the wider Hungarian media ecosystem.
And this is not just a Hungarian issue. In the rapidly changing media environments of CEE and SEE, stakeholder mapping cannot be a one-off exercise. Companies and communications agencies alike need to regularly reassess who shapes opinion, which channels are trusted by their priority audiences, and whether yesterday’s key media relationships remain equally relevant today.
The media map is changing. The question is whether our communications strategies are changing fast enough to keep up.