Champagne corks are popping in PR offices as a survey by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism has found that, on average, more than 50% of newspaper content could be identified as from a media release or clearly of a promotional nature. In late 2009, the survey looked a 5 days of coverage in 10 Aussie metropolitan newspapers analysing more than 2,000 stories. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph was shown to have 70% PR-driven (or drivel) content. Previous surveys by RMIT in Melbourne suggested an average of 70%, while Aussie stat guru (and my fellow presenter at IABC Hong Kong) Jim Macnamara suggested up to 80% of all newspaper editorial stemmed from PR sources. My old blogpal Trev Cook discusses it too.