As I was reading through some things on the PRSA website I found an article on the shrinking news hole in today's society. Although the diminishing demand for print newspapers is not new news to me, I found this article to be very interesting.
One Newspaper in particular, The Rocky Mountain News, published it's last issue earlier this week. This was just the end for this publication to a very long bad string of events. The print side of media just continues to go downhill in this economy, and the future is not looking bright. This news is not just effecting the print side of the media, but the public relations side as well. The article addresses some new changes that all PR professionals must be aware of.
The first point touched on in the article was that news is no longer a product, but a service. We as PR professionals must help our audience find information, react to it and use it. Next the author wrote about how news organizations and Websites are no longer final destinations, but more of a gateway to more information, which I feel is definitely true in today's world. People are always looking for more opinions and information on the subjects they are interested in.
Another great point made was the narrowing in subject matter of the media. Last year, more than 25 percent of the news was about the election and the war in Iraq. Issues like education, race and religion filled less than a single percent. This statistic was not a surprise to me. It seems like back in the fall the only news was about the election.
The author's final point was the topic of the media moving from story to story very quickly. "Breaking news" tends to rush the media in to find out the details before the story can be fully developed.
What does all this mean for us as PR people? The article claims that historically speaking public relations flourishes as changes like these. Despite the fall in the economy, hopefully public relations will not take as huge of a hit. However, we must be aware of the changes going on within the world of print media to adjust our PR tactics for the future to better help our audience.
It is still so surprising to me that newspapers will probably not be with us much longer. They have seemed to be a steady and reliable news source. Since society is so fast paste, we cant wait for the news to come once a week like some newspapers provide.
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