I’ve just had my first piece posted on Reputation Online, the latest New Media Age outfit headed up by the lovely Vikki Chowney.
The article is about how PRs are having an increasingly difficult time working with proper journalists in the online space…
Online and offline PRs used to have very distinct roles. Instead of print journalists, online worked with ‘bloggers’; instead of pitching to news desks, online had conversations with ‘influencers’. It was all very clear-cut.
But now, with social media officially in the mainstream, PR is going through an identity crisis. Whether this is another effect of the recession – publications going online-only or newspapers completely shutting down – no one can say for sure. But what is evident is that the lines between online and offline PR are blurring fast, particularly with national newspapers.
Most newspapers used to have separate online and offline news desks. Increasingly, there is little difference between the content that’s in print and the content that can be found online. You can sell in what you believe to be a story for print and then find it on the web site only in a few hours time. With publications vying to be the first to break a story, it seems that the immediacy of online has begun to take the lead over print.
With all this ambiguity, it’s very difficult to have a thorough understanding of who covers what space – and the tools that PRs normally use to research exactly this type of information don’t necessarily work in an online world.
To read the rest, do head over to Reputation Online. there are a few comments on there already, but it would be great to keep the conversation going.
Ta!
