By Stephanie Gallagher
An NPR show recently talked about the latest bad news for the declining U.S. newspaper industry – the publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune declared bankruptcy (it’s been a rough past week for the Windy City). The segment discussed the ramifications for consumers if newspapers disappear: What will we be missing? Can we trust everything that we read online? Will readers drown in too much online content? While experts gave their different views on how a dying newspaper model would affect journalism, I wondered how this change could be positive for PR as a business.
It’s strange for me to think of a world with no newspapers. I earned my first wages when I was 12 delivering the daily newspaper in my hometown. But now I don’t long for a daily print edition - I have enough trouble controlling junk mail and unnecessary catalogs. I prefer to read news online; it’s convenient and it makes me a more informed PR person because it’s constantly updated. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press (August 2008) survey of 3,615 U.S. adults found that since the early 1990s, the proportion of Americans saying they read a newspaper on a typical day has declined by about 40 percent; the proportion that regularly watches nightly network news has fallen by half.
The majority of tech publications have already shifted their focus to online news, which helps us PR folks out because we can place coverage with quicker turnaround time. I think the shift forces PR professionals to be more creative - How can we make an announcement more newsworthy? Most of us don’t like to read long stories online, so this will also make us get to the point - Why should a reporter care about our pitch? While we will have fewer opportunities to place stories in print, we’ll have a lot more online venues to pursue. Instead of a few newspapers controlling the printing press and deciding what runs and what doesn’t, there are more ways for us to influence stories and content, such as blogs and opinion pieces.
The online media move also brings PR back to being more collaborative (i.e., Facebook, Twitter) and gives us new opportunities to incorporate interesting visuals and audio such as slide shows, videos, and podcasts that you just can’t do with print. Key for PR professionals is to continue to offer quality content and expert resources – the integrity of news and coverage is still important to the success of online publications. I don’t know how long it will take for publishers to find the perfect business model, one that will allow them to make the revenue from online media that print advertising generated. I do value my free New York Times and Washington Post pushes every day. I’d miss a lot if those went away.
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