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Reports of the demise of traditional media may have been a little premature, according to a new study from Greentarget and consulting firm Zeughauser Group.
The 2025 State of Digital & Content Marketing report says that the share of legal and C-suite decision makers who value traditional media has risen from 79 percent in 2022 to 88 percent in the new survey—the highest score in the past seven years.
That number is higher for C-suite respondents (90 percent, up by 11 points) than for those who work as in-house counsel (85 percent, up by seven points).
Trade publications also saw a boost in their perceived value. Three-quarters of in-house counsel (75 percent) deemed those publications valuable—a seven-point jump, while 72 percent of C-suite execs said the same. That’s still a three-point boost from 2022.
What was down? X. While 44 percent of C-suite respondents said X was valuable in the 2022 survey, that number slid to 32 percent in 2024.
The most favored way for respondents to receive content was through articles. On a preference scale from 1 to 5, articles scored a 4.9 across the board. Next up were research reports, which got a 4.8 from in-house respondents and a 4.7 from C-suite execs.
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The big loser in this category was podcasts—getting just a 3.8 rating from those in the C suite and a 3.0 from in-house counsel.
Respondents also said that accessibility is a big plus. According to the report’s authors, “both in-house counsel and C-suite members appreciate digestible content that’s easy to access, demonstrating the importance of streamlining your audience’s path to your content.”
Since there is a “2025” in the title of the report, it also goes into how the AI revolution is affecting decision makers.
Survey respondents have a big appetite for content that helps them negotiate the ins and outs of AI. For C-suite respondents, AI was the most desired topic on which they would like to receive actionable insights and guidance, with 59 percent expressing that desire, edging out cybersecurity and data privacy at 56 percent.
For in-house counsel, cybersecurity was the biggest concern (51 percent), with AI just behind at 48 percent.
When it comes to the implementation of AI, fintech companies have been the earliest adopters, with 40 percent saying they have already implemented it. Healthcare (33 percent) and private equity (26 percent) were next in line. The most cautious sector was legal services, where only eight percent are already on board.
The report also gives out some advice on how professional services firms can most effectively connect with clients in these sectors over the next year. Those include a reliance on earned media; producing concise, target content; and creating content for LinkedIn, which is making big progress as a trusted distribution platform.
The Greentarget/Zeughauser Group study surveyed 285 in-house counsel and C-suite member between May and July of this year.
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