ITDatabase, an online service tracking media mentions of companies and products, today released a report on how often tech analysts are quoted by the media, in both traditional and in new news sites (former blogs) such as Techcrunch and GigaOm.

The results showed that Rob Enderle, was the "king of quotes" but that the former Forrester analysts at the newly formed Altimeter Group, had quickly made it into the top 20 most quoted analysts. These are Ray Wang (#5) Jeremiah Owyang (#9), and Charlene Li (#16).

The full list is here: Tech Analysts in the Media by ITDatabase

The three largest analyst firms, Gartner, IDC, and Forrester dominate the number of quoted analysts, with 6,978, 3,935, and 3,308 mentions in the past six months respectively. Altimeter received 446 but has far fewer analysts with just 7 compared with several hundred at the largest firms.

The full list is here: Tech Firms in the Media by ITDatabase

Interestingly, the new media rarely quotes analysts while traditional media quotes analysts a lot.

Going back six months, eWEEK and Computerworld combined for 867 references to the "Big Three" analyst firms. TechCrunch only mentioned them 13 times, about once every two weeks.

Based on my experience, this is because traditional journalists can't give their opinion about a subject but must find an analyst to quote.

Times could become tough for analysts seeking media exposure as the traditional media shrinks and new media sites ignore these sources. Much will depend upon how well these analysts manage to switch to promoting their work through Twitter, Facebook, and other media channels. The Altimeter analysts are well placed to do that since their specialty is social media in the enterprise.