Every figure in this list was taken from the primary document that first published it, and each one links back to that document so the method can be checked before the number is repeated in a board paper or a pitch.
Survey and regulatory data date from 2019 or later, and each academic study is identified by journal and publication year, with the older ones kept because they remain standard references on how markets absorb corporate news.
The selection favors numbers that should change how a company writes and distributes its financial news, and each entry closes with what the figure means for an issuer.
Audience figures for trading and news platforms are the outlets' own published numbers as of September 2026, so treat them as self-reported.
Journalists and press releases
1. 86% of journalists say at least some of their published stories began with a PR pitch
In Muck Rack's State of Journalism 2026 survey, which drew nearly 1,100 journalist responses, the largest group (51%) said pitches started between 1% and 10% of their published stories, and only 5% put the share above half.
Company news still opens doors to coverage, but most reporters use it sparingly and a release has to win attention on its facts alone.
2. 82% of journalists now use AI tools in their work
The same State of Journalism 2026 report named ChatGPT as the most commonly used tool and found the share of journalists naming unchecked AI as a top threat to the profession up 8 points to 26%.
A release that states its facts plainly and in a logical order is easier to summarize accurately, whether a person or a software tool does the summarizing.
3. 69% of journalists prefer pitches under 200 words
Muck Rack reported the figure from its 2025 State of Journalism research, together with findings that 50% of journalists consider a single follow-up ideal and 51% want it within three to seven days.
Keep the covering email brief and let the release carry the detail, with results set out in tables a reporter can lift without retyping.
4. U.S. newsroom employment fell 26% between 2008 and 2020
Pew Research Center's analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data counted about 114,000 newsroom employees in 2008 and about 85,000 in 2020 across the five news-producing industries it tracked.
With fewer reporters to go around, a release that anticipates the obvious follow-up questions saves a phone call nobody may have time to make.
How investors find company news
5. 67% of U.S. investors rely on business and finance articles when choosing investments
The FINRA Investor Education Foundation's 2024 Investor Survey of 2,861 investors, published in December 2025, ranked these articles third behind brokerage research (75%) and financial professionals (69%), and far ahead of social media groups and message boards (29%).
| Source of investment information | Share of U.S. investors using it, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Research and tools from a brokerage or advisory firm | 75% |
| Recommendations from financial professionals | 69% |
| Business and finance articles in print or online | 67% |
| Personal contacts such as friends and family | 65% |
| TV programs about business and finance | 43% |
| Online videos about business and finance | 43% |
| Social media groups or message boards | 29% |
Placement on established financial news sites such as StreetInsider puts an announcement where most investors already do their research.
6. Investors who use social media consult an average of 7.6 information sources, against 4.0 for those who do not
A FINRA Foundation research brief from April 2026, drawing on its 2024 investor data, also found that 29% of retail investors use social media or message boards to inform investment decisions, rising to 60% of those aged 18 to 34.
Feeds and forums supplement research rather than replacing it, and a figure that differs between outlets will be noticed by the investors reading the most sources.
7. Social media and video networks (54%) have overtaken news websites and apps (51%) as a route to online news
The Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026, published in June 2026, recorded the crossover for the first time in its average across 48 markets.
Distribution should therefore include outlets whose stories circulate on social and video platforms, because a corporate newsroom page alone misses the feeds where a growing share of readers now meet the news.
8. Google users clicked a search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when none did
Pew Research Center's study of the March 2025 browsing activity of 900 U.S. adults also found that 18% of the Google searches it tracked produced an AI summary and that links inside those summaries were clicked in just 1% of visits.
Assume the reader never clicks: the headline and opening paragraph of a release should state the key figure and period on their own.
9. 84% of citations in AI answers come from earned media
Muck Rack's Generative Pulse research, built on more than 25 million prompts to AI systems since July 2025, puts independent coverage at the center of what chatbots cite.
What journalists and publishers write about an announcement shapes AI answers far more than the issuer's own web page does, which makes earning that coverage the real goal of distribution.
Market reaction to corporate announcements
10. Bid-ask spreads narrowed significantly after press releases in 39 of 60 news categories
Andreas Neuhierl and his co-authors reached the finding by classifying 203,621 corporate press releases issued between April 2006 and August 2009, in a study published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis in 2013.
Press releases shrink the information gap between insiders and the market, which lowers trading costs for shareholders even when the news has nothing to do with earnings.
11. Trading volume fell 12% on days when national newspapers were on strike
Joel Peress, whose study of newspaper strikes in several countries appeared in the Journal of Finance in 2014, also measured a 7% drop in the dispersion and intraday volatility of stock returns.
Reach is part of price discovery: the wider an announcement travels, the faster the market can absorb it.
12. Companies that changed their report language trailed those that did not by up to 188 basis points a month
Lauren Cohen and his co-authors measured that risk-adjusted gap in research published in the Journal of Finance in 2020, using U.S. annual and quarterly reports from 1995 to 2014, and found the market priced the changes only after later announcements revealed the underlying information.
Material developments buried in a periodic report can go unpriced until later news brings them to light, which is a strong argument for giving them a clearly headlined announcement of their own.
Timing
13. Friday earnings announcements drew a 15% weaker immediate price response and a 70% larger delayed response
Stefano DellaVigna and Joshua Pollet studied U.S. earnings announcements from 1995 to 2006 for research published in the Journal of Finance in 2009, and they also found trading volume 8% lower around Friday releases.
Schedule discretionary announcements earlier in the week and keep Friday evenings for disclosures that cannot wait, because news released into a low-attention window is priced slowly.
14. Earnings released on the busiest reporting days drew 12% fewer news articles
Ed deHaan and his co-authors, whose 2015 Journal of Accounting and Economics study covered more than 120,000 earnings announcements, also found 30% fewer EDGAR downloads on those days and 7% fewer articles for releases issued after the market close, according to the authors' summary of the research.
Crowded calendars dilute coverage, which is why peer reporting dates belong in the scheduling discussion; our analysis of the best time to release financial news covers the hour-by-hour trade-offs.
Trust in financial companies and the media
15. 63% of people trust the financial services sector, falling to 53% in developed countries
The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, based on 33,938 interviews in 28 countries between October and November 2025, put banks at 65% and cryptocurrency at 41%, with the sector up 10 points over five years.
Edelman classifies scores between 50 and 59 as neutral, meaning readers in developed markets need every claim backed by a number or a source rather than promotional buzzwords.
16. Trust in news fell to 37% worldwide and 25% in the United States
The Reuters Institute's 2026 report recorded the lowest global level since it began measuring trust in 2015, with significant declines in 29 of its 48 markets.
Link key figures to the underlying documents rather than asking a skeptical audience to take the release on trust.
17. 44% of people trust online financial influencers
In the 2026 Edelman financial services report, where the figure drops to 32% in developed countries, 57% of people who trust a financial influencer said an endorsement would lead them to trust, or consider trusting, a financial services company they currently distrust.
Influencers repeat the numbers they find, and a widely distributed release puts the correct ones in front of them.
Retail investors and trading platforms
18. 62% of Americans own stock
Gallup's April 2025 survey, which counts shares held directly or through mutual funds and retirement accounts, matched the 2024 reading and found ownership at 87% in households earning $100,000 or more and 28% in those earning under $50,000.
With most American adults holding a stake in listed companies, retail readers belong in the distribution plan for any announcement that could move a share price.
19. 26% of investors make decisions based on finfluencer recommendations, and 61% of those under 35 do
The FINRA Foundation's 2024 Investor Survey found that 22% of investors act on these recommendations sometimes and 4% do so frequently.
Younger shareholders often meet company news secondhand, which puts a premium on an original release that is easy to find and easy to quote correctly.
20. 13% of investors have bought meme stocks or other viral investments
That share rose to 29% among investors under 35 in the FINRA Foundation's 2024 survey, against 2% of those aged 55 and older.
Retail attention can arrive without warning, and companies with an active retail following should have approved language ready before online chatter turns into unusual trading.
21. Four financial news and trading platforms each report audiences of more than 10 million
The figures below are as published on each platform's website in September 2026.
| Platform | Audience figure it publishes | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| TradingView | 100M+ traders and investors worldwide | About page |
| Investing.com | 46,300,000 monthly unique visitors | About page |
| Benzinga | About 25 million readers each month | About page |
| Stocktwits | More than 10 million users | Homepage |
These metrics are self-reported and defined differently, but they show the scale of the audiences reachable through a TradingView press release or a Stocktwits press release.
Compliance and enforcement
22. The SEC brought 456 enforcement actions in fiscal 2025, down from 583 the year before
Standalone actions made up 303 of the total, against 431 in fiscal 2024, according to the Commission's April 2026 results for the year ended September 30, 2025, which named issuer disclosure violations among its priority cases.
Fewer cases do not mean lighter scrutiny, because the current Commission says it has refocused enforcement on fraud and on charging individuals.
23. The SEC received a record 53,753 reports of possible securities violations in fiscal 2025
That was nearly 19% more than the year before, according to the SEC's fiscal 2025 enforcement results.
More people are flagging concerns to the regulator, which raises the odds that an inaccurate or overly promotional release gets reported.
24. 11% of SEC whistleblower tips concerned corporate disclosures and financials
The SEC's Office of the Whistleblower received about 27,000 tips in fiscal 2025, roughly 12,000 of them from two individuals, and its annual report to Congress ranked manipulation (28%) and offering fraud (27%) as the most common categories.
Earnings and guidance releases sit squarely in that disclosure category; reconcile every figure against the underlying report before publication, as our guide to avoiding disclosure violations in earnings releases explains.
25. 119 people were barred from serving as officers or directors of public companies in fiscal 2025
The SEC also reported that about two-thirds of its standalone actions that year charged one or more individuals.
Executives who approve a misleading announcement carry personal exposure, which is why legal review of every figure and forward-looking statement belongs in the sign-off before a release goes out.
