G4Media is the most cited online publication in Romania and ranks 3rd among all media sources – TV, radio and print, according to a MediaTrust analysis/ Edupedu ranks 4th online;

A research conducted by the monitoring company MediaTRUST shows that G4Media was the most cited website in Romania for the second consecutive month in March. G4Media also climbed to 3rd place in the overall top of most cited sources, after Digi24 and Antena 3.

Edupedu.ro, a website specialising in education information, climbed to 4th place in the most cited online sources in March.

The full information from the mediaTRUST study

Digi24 got 630 mentions. Antena 3 CNN came second, being cited more than 610 times in other publications, while G4media.ro ranked third with 416 mentions.

In the top of the most frequently cited media sources in the country, 38% of the total goes to the TV media, represented by Digi 24, Antena 3 CNN, Digi Sport, Pro TV and Profit News TV. The online press ranks second, with 35% of the total, including g4media.ro, hotnews.ro, evz.ro, edupedu.ro and observatornews.ro, while the print media ranks third, with a share of 24%, with Fanatik, Adevărul, Ziarul Financiar, Libertatea and Gazeta Sporturilor among the most cited publications. Radio media sources Europa FM, RFI, Digi FM have the lowest percentage in the distribution of media types, i.e. 2.3%.

Digi 24 remained the leader of the most trusted media in March. In the overall ranking of the most quoted media sources, Digi 24 took first place with 632 materials in which it was quoted. With a peak in visibility on 16 March, the channel was quoted in 41 stories in a single day.

Antena 3 CNN maintained second place in the most quoted media sources, being mentioned by other media 613 times in March. On 21 March, the TV channel recorded a peak in visibility, being quoted in 42 media materials.

G4media.ro is in third place, mentioned in 416 articles published by other media. On 21 March, the portal peaked in visibility, being actively quoted by sources such as Radio Guerrilla, Radio France Internationale and B1TV.

Fanatik registered 360 mentions during the period under review, Adevărul was in 5th place with 352 mentions, hotnews.ro was in 6th place with 310 mentions, followed by Ziarul Financiar with 307 articles in which it was quoted. Libertatea, in 8th place, is quoted in 257 articles, evz.ro has 242 mentions and the top is closed by Digi Sport quoted by other journalists in the country 233 times.

Print media – Top 5

Next, Fanatik remains the leader in the press headlines ranking, with 360 citations and a peak of visibility on March 10, followed by Adevărul, with 352 citations and on 3rd comes Ziarul Financiar, with 307 citations. Aleph News, jurnalul.ro and stiripesurse.ro were among the most active sources quoting Ziarul Financiar in March. Libertatea is also in the top of the most quoted print media sources, with 257 references, and Gazeta Sporturilor is not missing from the ranking and ranks 5th, being quoted in 222 journalistic materials.

The most quoted TV channels

Digi 24 is once again in first place in the most quoted TV channels, with 632 mentions in other media. Very close second is Antena 3 CNN, mentioned 613 times by other newsrooms across the country. Digi Sport, mentioned by other newsrooms 233 times in March, completes the top three. Pro TV kept its fourth place, while Profit News TV managed to climb to fifth place, being mentioned in 202 news items.

Europa FM and RFI remain in the top 5 most quoted radio stations in the country

Europa FM, with 79 media mentions, remains in first place in March. With a peak of visibility on 23 March, the interview of PSD President Marcel Ciolacu with Europa FM was one of the most quoted material in March in the context of the law on the reduction of special pensions. In second place was RFI, mentioned 67 times, while Digi FM climbed two places to the bottom of the podium with 12 mentions. Radio stations Pro FM and România Actualități were also in the ranking, with their news quoted 8 times and 5 times (România Actualități) by journalists from other media outlets in the country.

G4media.ro remains the online leader, followed by hotnews.ro and third place on the podium goes to evz.ro.

G4media.ro is also in first place in the top 5 most cited online sources in March, being mentioned by journalists 416 times. The next position is occupied by hotnews.ro, which climbs one position and is cited in 310 media articles. The peak of visibility was on 22 March and the most active sources quoting hotnews.ro were Digi24, Europa FM and RFI. Third place in the ranking is occupied by evz.ro, mentioned 242 times. Edupedu.ro and observatornews.ro saw a spectacular jump from the previous month, ranking fourth and fifth with 168 and 154 mentions respectively in other media.

Methodology

The survey of the most cited media sources in Romania provides information on the number of citations of media outlets (print, online, radio, TV), not including news agencies. The research was carried out between 1 March and 31 March 2023.

The report analyses articles in print and online media, as well as news broadcasts by radio and TV stations in which the names of media sources were mentioned. The report took into account those materials that refer to articles, news, commentaries and statements that appeared in different media, provided that they are not complete reprints from other media.

The phrases used in the preparation of the study can be recognised by the following forms: a statement is enclosed in quotation marks and the source is referred to in sentences that look like this: „On Thursday, Libertatea wrote that …”/ „journalists from Adevarul noted that …”/ „Radio Romania Actualități reports on …”/ „in the interview on Antena 3 CNN X said that …”/ „according to a study by the newspaper Capital …”.

The main criterion according to which a certain material was taken into account is a direct reference to an article, statement or comment published in another media (print, online) or broadcast on a radio/TV station. The sum of references to a quoted source does not include quotations from publications belonging to the same trust.

When the quoted source is mentioned more than once in the same material it is counted as a single appearance – a single quotation from that medium.

The study analyses news broadcasts and articles published by more than 30 radio and TV stations, more than 100 print media sources, more than 3000 online sources that regularly publish new news and articles.

In the process of monitoring material from TV, radio and print publications that also have an online presence, the reporting also aggregated citations from related websites.

The analysis does not include material that:

• refer to foreign media;
• are self-referenced – a newspaper/post refers to its own information or articles, or those in publications belonging to the same trust;
• are republished in full from a newspaper or website;
• they quote out-of-date publications (older than 3 years), or refer to media that no longer exist;
• refer to information on the websites of companies and organisations that are not media institutions;
• are reruns of the same programmes from a particular TV or radio station;
• refer to films and programmes broadcast by TV stations;
• are comments on a photograph or cover;
• reviews published in the press or broadcast on TV or radio;
• refer to news agencies such as Mediafax, news.ro, Agerpres, etc. or come from content aggregator portals;
• refer to the business profile of a particular medium or include information that represents journalists’ comments without being correlated with what is written
• in the articles;
• originate from social media platforms and comments posted within articles on websites.
• Detailed information on media monitoring can be found at www.mediatrust.ro

About mediaTRUST Romania

Founded in 1999, part of the Institute of Media Monitoring (IMM) in Poland, mediaTRUST Romania, is the privately owned media monitoring company with the longest experience on the market and the largest portfolio of clients. The company provides its clients with access to daily media information (print, online, radio and TV) from 15 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2004, we have been a member of the elite international organization FIBEP (Federation Internationale des Bureauxd’Extraits de Presse), and in 2014 we became a member of BRAT (Romanian Transmedia Audit Bureau) and ARMA (Romanian Audience Measurement Association).