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Vocus White Paper
Staying Ahead of the Changing Media Landscape:
Rebuilding for the New RealitiesVocus White Paper 1
Staying Ahead of the Changing Media Landscape: Rebuilding
for the New Realities
IntroductionAs a Public Relations professional, it is your job to be an expert on the inner-workings of the media and use that knowledge to find every opportunity to get your organization covered. Today, public relations professionals are being challenged to keep up amidst headlines of layoffs and changes in the media. The recent newsroom instability across the country has many media lists in disarray as reporters leave publications and current media relationships are broken, leaving fewer of your target reporters remaining.
Now, more than ever, it is important to rediscover the basics of public relations and establish new relationships with the me-dia. However, the constant flux of today's media relations pose many questions for PR professionals. How do I keep track of the changes? How can I build relationships to increase my chance of coverage with the decrease in traditional media? How can I target my news for the appropriate media and build strong relationships with the press?
This paper will examine the tools and tactics necessary to stay ahead of the changing media landscape and successfully build relationships that will move your PR strategy forward.
Keep up with the Media Changes"With staff changes and reductions across the media industry, even a blog post can be too time-consuming a way to announce who is in and out of a job."- New York Times
Traditional media are being impacted by the shift in news consumption causing many publications to move online and cut staff. With a continuous stream of headlines announcing changes and reductions to staff, new formats for publications, outlets ceasing production altogether and the latest rumors, it is difficult to keep up with your current media targets.
A number of resources and services are available to help PR professionals keep up with the constant flow of information. Social media sites, particularly Twitter, can offer insight into the newsroom changes. Many groups have begun posting general headlines and announcements regarding media moves to help PR professionals keep up with the changes that are taking place. By following these users, you can stay ahead and research any announcements that may affect your PR pro-grams.
In addition to reporting on trends in the industry, PR publications also cover the changes in the media as they affect PR. Subscribe to their newsletters and read up on the changes. While not always as immediate as some of the social media tools, the updates will keep you current on the news from the media.
Impacting PR ProfessionalsAs the media changes, so does the PR industry. With the media constantly shifting, you face new challenges to creating a successful media relations programs. Many professionals are discovering that they need to completely rebuild their media relations programs to take into account the new media landscape.
Staying up to speed on the changes takes a great deal of time, making it difficult to focus on more strategic work. The majority of your effort is being spent simply on keeping your media list current.Staff changes can make it more difficult to get the results to which you have grown accustomed. In some cases reporters are no longer at the publication and in others they have simply stopped covering your industry.
In addition to the changes in traditional newsrooms, you need to incorporate new online publications and social media sites into your plan. These sites are growing rapidly as well, creating more challenges for your media relations programs.
PR professionals need to rethink their strategies and rebuild their programs.
Leverage Today's PR TechnologyWhile the turmoil of the newsrooms may have you spinning, today's technology can not only help you keep up but gain an advantage in garnering coverage. Vocus White Paper 2
Sorting through the information from social media sites and industry newsletters will serve as an excellent basis for you to understand where changes are occurring-but this is just the first step. A PR management systems is a great tool for you to get more specific information on your target reporters. Some of the industry's leading media databases have dedicated research ... [download for more]
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