Posts Tagged ‘new media’

Have you ever noticed that as you listen to the radio during your morning commute that Brooke Ryan might refer to a news item and later when you are out to lunch you see the same story headline in the newspaper that was lying on your table? This phenomenon of local news being driven by the research and reporting of local newspapers is documented in a report from Pew Research.

…But a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, …suggests that while the news landscape has rapidly expanded, most of what the public learns is still overwhelmingly driven by traditional media—particularly newspapers.

The study, which examined all the outlets that produced local news in Baltimore, Md., for one week, surveyed their output and then did a closer examination of six major narratives during the week, finds that much of the “news” people receive contains no original reporting. Fully eight out of ten stories studied simply repeated or repackaged previously published information. more

Last year as ad revenue declined, we saw our area newspapers shift to more local content. The shift was happening all across the country.

The research from the Pew Foundation tells us that we are right to have some concern about the changes.

Pew notes, “The local papers, however, are also offering less than they once did.” That is because there is less ad revenue. Newspapers can only print what they can pay for. As one area editor shared with me his publisher said, “That’s a great story idea, but if we don’t have ad revenue to support an additional page, we can’t print it.” However, in the meantime, random column inches here and there contain uninteresting blurbs like the one in today’s Post and Courier, “Shed damaged by fire, no one injured.” That’s a news story?

The Pew study also confirms that the web is the first place of publication and an alert system. In addition there is another interesting tidbit in the study that we PR people have known, media releases are often the source of much of the information contained in the newspaper.

The takeaway from this is:

• Newspaper journalism is important as the foundational source for most local news
• Original stories have declined
• Well crafted media releases may be used to place news because there are fewer journalists with less time and column inches to give to originally sourced stories.

So, it is the job of public relations professionals to craft news worthy well written items for our media colleagues use and consumption. There is an even greater chance that your firm’s news will end up right where you want it to be.

A desperate prospective client called a couple of weeks ago begging us to write a news release about his recently opened company that he could post on PRWeb. He said a colleague claimed that PRWeb was solely responsible for the colleague’s company’s success. The prospect then related exactly what he wanted in the release. All well and good, but what the prospect wanted in the release was mostly the old rant, “We’re great, We’re great!” There was not much of substance that he wanted to offer for end user. These days news releases must contain information that is useful, needed and pertinent to the end user. This is confirmed by other practitioners.

In a survey released recently, 420 marketing and PR professionals were asked how they use online press releases. Their answers are in the charts here.

The number one audience for online releases according to this group is traditional media with bloggers and new media coming in second. We’d answer that for us, the number one audience for press releases are consumers (whether that is B2C or B2B).

We concur with the second group of findings. The number one goal for one’s online press release is increasing visibility and credibility with audiences. Announcing news is second. What a change this represents from the old days!

The final significant finding is that the criteria for measuring success of online releases demonstrates the level of sea change in the world of PR. The number one criterion for measuring success is that the news release is republished on websites and what might have been number one a few years ago, an article based on the news release is number three.

We did not agree to write the release for this prospect (for many reasons.) However, we do agree that online releases are a vital way to provide information to businesses’ propsective customers. Just remember that is is more important to provide useful information, not just “We’re great!”