MAPPING THE BRUSSELS PRESS CORPS

1. The Brussels press corps is not the largest in the world . London, with over 1700 correspondents, dwarfs Brussels. Washington D.C is substantially bigger and Paris roughly the same size.
2. They were  934 accredited journalists in Brussels (as of October 2014). In addition to these 934 journalists, they were 145 accredited technicians, 124 cameramen, 40 producers and 34 photographers.
3. Almost half of accredited EU journalists – 46% – work alone. Only 27% of reporters work in an office with more than 10 people.
4. The biggest bureaus in Brussels are public TV stations, news agencies and niche media aimed at the Brussels bubble.
5. 40% of Brussels journalists work for print media, 29% for TV and radio, 26% for agencies and 5% for digital-only media.
6. Germany supplies the largest contingent of EU accredited journalists (113), followed by the UK (109) and Belgium (77). There has been a drop in the number of Italian and Dutch journalists covering the EU from Brussels  which has been compensated for by a spectacular rise in Chinese reporters (from 17 in 2004 to 43 in 2012).
7. Two-thirds of accredited journalists in Brussels are men and one third women.
8. There are 64 freelancers .
9. The most widely read media amongst MEPs and Parliament staff is the BBC and Financial Times. The BBC was also the most widely read by MEPs’ assistants, Commission staff, Permanent Representations and EU agencies. The FT headed the poll amongst think tanks, Brussels-based journalists and businesses. The Economist was joint top with Parliament staff and think thanks and number one with academics.

 Brussels Media Ranking (based on the Number of Journalists accredited to the EU)

1. ARD: 24
2. Xinhua: 23
3. Europolitics: 20
4. Thomson Reuters: 17
5. BBC: 15
6. Agence Europe: 14
7. Radio France International: 14
8. AFP: 14
9. European Voice: 12
10. Bloomberg: 12
11. Deutsche Press Agentur: 12
12. MLex: 11
13. Euronews: 11
14. Deutsche Welle: 11
15. APTN: 9
16. Belga: 9
17. EFE: 9
18. Financial Times: 9
19. New Europe: 8
20. ANSA: 8
21. Dow Jones: 7
22. Associated Press: 7
23. ZDF: 7
24. Parliament Magazine: 6

Correspondents By Country (2012)

1. Germany: 113
2. U.K. : 109
3. Europe-International: 85
4. Belgium: 77
5. Spain: 55
6. France: 53
7. Italy: 48
8. USA: 42
9. China: 23