Realigning Public Relations for the Internet Era
News programs, newspapers and the media are full of stories about business in turmoil, many companies struggling to stay alive and viable in not only these tough economic times but also in a world that has changed dramatically. Change has happened quicker and more profoundly than many of us comprehend, partly because we have no frame of reference in our lifetimes.
There seems to be a common thread between all of the hard luck business stories – it’s a lack of strategic leadership planning to stay ahead competitively. A lack of authentic, visionary leadership.
- Not only mainstream newspapers but traditional media as a whole is on the ropes. You know things are bad when there are layoffs at National Public Radio. It had been business as usual for a long time.
- We are starting to realize that the big automakers – now trying to stave-off bankruptcy – apparently have bumped along for decades without a strategic business plan. It happens when car salesmen run the business. No visionaries there. It had been business as usual for a long time.
- Technology, the darling of our attentions for so long, is now struggling. There’s news each day of layoffs at Microsoft and Google, among many others. It had been business as usual for a long time.
Then, what about the public relations industry, a business that has, for the most part, been using the same models, tactics and approaches for decades? We know that many large PR agencies have battened down the hatches for a bad economic storm.
But, what happens when the gargantuan financial holding companies – the outfits that gobbled up hundreds of PR, advertising, marketing and branding shops over the last decade and have been treating them like the golden goose – see pronounced slumps in revenue streams? If there is one industry where it’s been business as usual for a long, long time, it is the public relations and advertising business. All that is changing, fast.
Some agencies are scrambling to learn the online digital world. But closer examination shows only single-digital commitment of personnel resources to such efforts. Preference is still given to traditional tactics, like billable hours, meetings, events and writing press releases.
Leadership in strategic communications is an area where I consult and have written about for years, and will be the subject of upcoming blog postings. There’s more in my new book, “The Media Savvy Leader: Visibility, Influence, and Results in a Competitive World
Filed Under: Featured • Public Relations • The Media Savvy Leader
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in the Washington, D. C., area, and works worldwide.
Great stuff David, thanks for alerting me to this (though your tweet came to me only seconds before my RSS feed informed me – no idea when I have time to do ‘work’ anymore!).
We (Veritas Comm) are digging deep into the whole ‘the media landscape is changing so how will we as agencies also have to change and still a) provide value to “the even-newer New Media” and b) our clients. There’s a lot of experimentation going on and measurement is starting to look like a squirrel trapped in the middle of a highway not knowing which way to look.
There are couple of things that still mystify me in all of this.
1) While there is benefit to ‘citizen journalism’ and exchanging information via Social Media, I can’t believe that true journalism is not needed.
2) Given point one, and that journalists are losing their jobs, just how are they going to make money if their services are still required/desired?
For me personally – maybe because of my age – I tend to turn to a journalist for an analysis or investigative report before I’d put too much stock in someone who’s more likely to be expounding rehashed ideas (often from a journalist) painted with their own opinions.
As @matthewi mentioned ‘the economic downturn was the best thing that could happen to legacy media because it’s forced them to apapt now, rather than just think about changing.’
My worry is about figuring things out in the interim from a media relations perspective.
PR agencies are certainly sweating right now. To survive this economic downturn they will need to be much more innovative in their approaches and that includes a more savvy online strategy.
Kathleen
PR agencies need to really focus on engulfing themselves in the online world. Many say they do social media, but when you check the evidence it doesn’t seem like they are really engaging with online consumers. I’m in PR too, but these agencies show me exactly what NOT to do when it comes to my own PR company.
David,
What amazes me is how it seems that PR people think the economic down turn is the reason why the public relations industry is suffering. I don’t think people get the idea that Web 2.0 aka the second version of the Web is in full swing.
The main focus of this paradigm shift is the move from real world to Internet as platform. Consumers expect news and engagement now not in the editorial section a week later. Press Releases, for all the reasons stated here before, are essentially worthless and soon to be eliminated.
We see the shift with the closing of the Rocky Mountain Newspapers of the world. We see it with the continued collapse of the newspaper and magazine industry’s advertising business model.
eMarketer.com reports 525 magazines folding in 2008 and another 87 folding thus far in 2009. Magazine ad revenues were off 7% in 2008 and are projected to drop 16.2% in 2009
The problem is not the economy. The problem is the fact that people want transparency, honesty, communication, and collaboration on a real time 24-7 basis. They want to be engaged not ignored.
Why is that so difficult to understand? The economy is very tough right now but make no mistake about it. The world of “it’s business as usual” would not apply to the PR and print world.