We recently conducted a survey on the Forrester blog to learn about the news sources you use to get interactive marketing information and insight.  Among the responses we received, new media (online-only) news sources ranked high, which is no surprise since we asked on a blog dedicated to the needs of interactive marketing professionals. 

When it comes to news and information about interactive marketing, Mashable rules the roost for those who responded; 4 of 5 people listed Mashable as a media outlet they visit at least once a month.  Two other tech/media sites also ranked on top:  TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb.  As for traditional media sources, The New York Times and Ad Age were tops for interactive marketing news among those who completed the survey.

Another interesting finding is how many different sources for interactive marketing news are used by survey respondents.  Almost 4 in 10 people say they regularly visit a news site other than the 17 we listed in our survey.  Top answers in the “Other” category include:

• Search Engine Land
• Sphinn
• cnet
• Marketing Profs
• eMarketer
• Econsultantcy

We asked an open-ended question about blogs that people read to stay informed about their profession. The fact that there is little perceived difference between larger blogs and traditional media sites was evident, as many of the answers included options from the prior question. Top unique answers include:

• Chris Brogan
• Social Media Explorer
• Social Media Today
• Seth Godin
• Web Strategist (Jeremiah Owyang)
• Forrester (Here!)
• Groundswell/Empowered
• Brian Solis (or Brian Solaris, as one person called him—I think Brian should change his name!)
• Techipedia
• TechCrunch
• SEOMoz
• All Facebook

 Finally, we asked about Twitter feeds that provided job-related news and information. Most of the answers reflected the same people, blogs and media sites as the other questions, but some of the folks who stood out on this list include:

• @steverubel
• @jasonfalls
• @Unmarketing
• Me (thanks!)

I didn’t find there were many surprises in the responses.  If anything, this survey reinforces just how fractured media has become and how important social media has become for marketers.  Not only did “new media” come out on top as the most popular news sources, but in all people shared around 300 different Twitter feeds (in addition to the slew of “too many to list” responses).

A couple important caveats about this survey and the results:

• This was an online-only survey.  Had we asked offline, we probably would’ve seen more responses for traditional news sources. 

• We received just 93 responses.  The limited response means the data must be considered within the proper context. While Mashable has done an excellent job of positioning itself as a vital news source for social and interactive topics, we'd need a much larger sample to draw conclusions about its readership across the entire interactive marketer population.

• The survey had a US emphasis. We know there are many terrific news sources, blogs and Twitter feeds that furnish interactive marketing information across the globe. Since we hosted this survey in English and posted it to our blog, the respondents were very US centric.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Despite the caveats, we hope this blog post exposed you to some new sites, blogs and Twitterers you'll find valuable!