Redefining Our Role
Friday, March 30, 2007
This week two magazines were laid to rest. On Monday, the announcement came from Time Inc that Life Magazine will have its last issue on April 20th. Then, on Wednesday, Meredith Corp. announced that it will no longer be printing Child Magazine. As if to console both publications’ dwindling audiences, Time and Meredith promised to reincarnate the magazines online. The photo archive of Life magazine will live on in its new online format and Child will co-exist among American Baby, Family Circle and Parents in Meredith’s upcoming parenting-and-family portal. The death of print is no longer a projection, it is upon us and so the ultimate question for us becomes: how do we practice our craft in a world without print? Can we pitch a blogger in the way we have grown accustomed to pitching journalists? Will there be a few authoritative news websites or will we each find our own preference for news and entertainment? These questions can only be answered in time. However, while print may be dying, public relations is in store for a transformation. During this period of flux, we have the power to sculpt our role and approach to this emerging online news world. Now is the time to cultivate relationships with influential bloggers and to follow sites like Digg and The Huffington Post. It is also likely that traditional forms of media will live on in the online realm. The New York Times, USA Today and others may remain strong players in a space in which standalone blogs are not required to prescribe to journalistic ethics on which we have come to rely. However, Time has taught us that this logic does not always follow. Life Magazine is a journalistic icon. Who would have predicted its death in its heyday? Another critical element is the way companies communicate with the public. Already, many CEOs are blogging. In the future, a company’s messaging will have to be even more dynamic. Crisis communications, for example, will account for a wider array of situations that previously may not have been relevant because of the time gap between a crisis and the news picking it up. With the internet, there is no time gap; news is delivered instantly. Blogs -- and the many other resources that will undoubtedly surface -- become enormous assets for companies because they allow instant response. In addition, they provide companies with the opportunity to voice their messages consistently, making their reactions during a crisis more appropriate and meaningful. While no one can be sure what media will look like in five or ten years, we can be certain that public relations will be a large piece of this shifting puzzle. Labels: blog, crisis communications, digg, pr
Post a Comment
0 Comments:
Home
 |
