We have repeatedly been warned and we are ready and waiting for what has been dubbed the ‘death of print’, but if this prophecy was to come to fruition would the PR industry as a whole be adequately prepared for the drastic changes that would follow?
As a new graduate, I am fresh from the pack. My mind is full of opinions from influential communication scholars, the formula for writing a perfect press release is heavily engrained and I have the correct etiquette for dealing with journalists down pat.
However, after finding my feet in the real world of PR I have found that these learning’s are quite outdated. Whilst there is always room for original thought and basic formula, the relevance of the online world is diminished somewhat in a tertiary setting.
The online space is changing the face of the global media landscape and with it the traditional role of public relations. The industry is no longer built on the foundations of the print media; instead we are seeing a rise in the influence of online news sites, blogs and social media networks.
At the moment it seems as though everywhere we look established publications are shutting their doors and reverting to an online format. In the Australian on the 18th March, 2009, the headline ‘Newspaper closes as title moves online’ captured my attention. Here the long standing Seattle Daily Intelligencer was the latest victim of online domination after 146 years of print operation. An article from USA Today explores the demise of print by naming a number of other publications set to abandon print for an online format in the coming months
A recent study from Auspoll (Digital Lifestyles Snapshot Australia, 2009), found that around 1 in 3 people connected to the internet are reading blogs and posting comments. This highlights the changing profile of the journalist. A list of the top 25 most valuable blogs includes a number of news and opinion based blogs raising somewhere over $70 million in revenue. Talk about influence?
This changing journalist profile is interesting to consider. During my university experience I was not brought to question this matter and it is not until my experiences in an agency setting that I have begun to even think about the value of prominent bloggers and other online authors to the PR industry. We can no longer just rely on print as proof rather we need to explore new channels of communication and adapt to recent trends in order to generate measurable results.
