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.

Kathleen

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.