PR landscape - The evolution

Excerpts taken from White Paper - Courtesy of Vocus

As the gutting of newsrooms continues, it might be frustrating for the public relations professional who has put in time toward building trusting relationships with reporters. Maintain those relationships – given the odds, that journalist may end up at another media source.

Now more than ever, PR professionals need to invest more energy to get the attention of reporters, who are being asked to do more with less. In television for example, stations are willing to devote only a small amount of space to soft news and instead lean toward covering cheap and easy news – fires and crime. Since many stations are broadcasting in HD, when a PR person sends in a Broll, it should be high quality and edited to professional standards. In any newsroom, high quality news stories sent
to targeted reporters is always the best approach, while smartly crafted angles may help yield a response. If a journalist bites on your story, you need to be willing to bend over backward to accommodate them so they can easily meet their constantly impending deadline.

In the new media world, content includes multiple platforms such as photos, video and audio. Pitching an article just for print doesn’t cut it anymore. The more flexible and creative a PR professional is with pitches, the better. Think about how the story could come to life in multiple ways. For instance, journalists in the broadcast arena often have to provide Web copy or blog posts to accompany a
segment, while print journalists may produce podcasts or video. PR professionals who prepare complimentary material can be of great assistance to the media.
Keep in mind radio continues to offer PR people an effective way to get their message out there. These stations are actually required to donate a certain amount of time toward serving the community. However, with AM/FM radio growing smaller, PR professionals should look more to Internet radio, podcasts and mobile media to keep up with the listening habits of consumers.

Good advice for capturing the attention of viewers and the media is to create your own blog. According to the Society for New Communications Research, less than 20 percent of Fortune 500 Companies publish corporate blogs. Meanwhile, PR organizations that are active in social media and create enough buzz about company news may attract the attention of the traditional media.

For effective PR amid a dynamic landscape don’t forget the basics. Make pitches relevant and timely.Respect the hectic schedule of a journalist. Keep an eye on the headlines as reporters can quickly change outlets. Experiment with new platforms and content as we head into a new world.

In Conclusion:

Both media industry and PR professionals look into an unknown future as new frontiers continue to reveal themselves. It is evident that new business models will arise as the media struggles to hang onto some semblance of tradition, while cross medium relationships will continue to evolve.

Regardless, the media isn’t going anywhere and will continue to exist. However, what it looks like next year, the following year or into the next decade surely will be very different than what it was at the start of the 21st century.