Despite its continued legal troubles, Microsoft is rated number one in the first Media Reputation Index, a new corporate reputation benchmark study produced by Delahaye Medialink and the Reputation Institute. The ranking based on media coverage in more than 250,000 print and broadcast news stories during the first six months of 2001.
 
MRi is designed to evaluate the media’s impact on corporate reputation and to provide a basis for understanding and improving the way companies are covered by the news media. The index benchmarks the 100 largest U.S.-based companies, tracking and evaluating each company’s media coverage over time and versus all 100 companies.
 
Rounding out the top 10 were Walt Disney, IBM, General Electric, AOL Time Warner, Boeing, Intel, AT&T, General Motors and Wal-Mart.
 
The index is based on The Reputation Quotient, The Reputation Institute’s methodology for evaluating corporate reputation that measures six dimensions of reputation: emotional appeal, vision & leadership, financial performance, workplace environment, social responsibility, and products and services. The rankings are based on an index score derived from the “Net Effect”, a proprietary methodology that quantifies the key drivers of reputation into a measurement that incorporates the quality of editorial content, print circulation and broadcast audience reach.
 
“The ‘Net Effect’ of media coverage contributes to changes in corporate reputation,” says K.C. Brown, research director and MRi product manager of Delahaye Medialink. “For instance, Microsoft received considerable negative coverage surrounding anti-trust and lawsuit coverage. Our research, however, revealed that it scored extremely well overall due to news items covering the company’s financial performance and its growth potential, providing valuable feedback pertaining to the company’s development and delivery of its corporate message.”