Name: Tressa Robbins
Email:
Bio: A country girl at heart, who loves the city, I’ve worked in marketing, consultative sales, and media relations for the better part of over 20 years. The skills acquired from these positions certainly come in handy in my present role as vice president, BurrellesLuce Media Contacts. This is an exciting time of change in the world of media and I want to initiate conversations on news to assist and support public relations professionals in the industry. In my personal time, love the outdoors, boating, fishing, riding 4-wheelers (ATVs) and being mom to my three dogs. Twitter: @TressaLynne; LinkedIn: TressaLynne; Facebook: BurrellesLuce
Posts by Tressa Robbins:
- There was a newspaper boon in the 1890s, when the number exceeded 13,000 — about the same number as now – according to a recent Stanford University presentation.
- Concluding a year-long study, U.S. newspapers are transforming, not going out of business, says Paul Steinle, a just-retired journalism professor and academic provost who ran United Press International from 1988-1990.
- Some of the best newspapers in America – of all sizes – are now reporting profit margins averaging 10 percent to 15 percent a year despite devastating drops in advertising revenue over the last five years, according to Paul Steinle and his co-researcher, wife Dr. Sara Brown.
- The Newton Daily News reported last month that their content “reaches more people today than at any point in its entire history.”
- Recently retired Lexington Herald-Leader publisher Tim Kelly wrote that“there are 122 non-daily newspapers in Kentucky right now, only one fewer than 15 years ago. Not exactly a rush to extinction.”
- Last month, Jason Schaumburg, editor of the Daily Chronicle reported, as reported to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the papers overall circulation grew about 8 percent over last year –and online page views have increased 35 percent since 2008.
- Released just last week, a comScore study for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) showed newspaper websites posted the second consecutive quarterly traffic increase. NAA President and CEO John Sturm explains, “The credibility associated with newspapers and strong newspaper brands clearly carries over to the online environment — distinguishing newspaper sites from other sources.”
- Yes
- Yes with direct supervision
- Depends on the circumstances
- No
- 92 percent believe journalists’ reliance on social media is increasing.
- 78 percent say they use company websites as a tool in reporting.
- 75 percent indicated they use Facebook, with only 10 percent using MySpace. (No surprise there.)
- 48 percent say they use citizen-generated video; 68 percent say they use citizen-generated photos.
- 77 percent believe new media and communications tools/technologies are enhancing journalism; 14 percent think social media and citizen journalism will ultimately lead to the demise of the profession. (My guess is these will be the ones looking for a new job soon.)
Once And For All, Are Newspapers Really Dying?
August 3rd, 2011
The topic of newspapers, and of traditional media, “dying,” has come up in my blog posts before here and, more recently, here. It’s difficult for me not to let out an audible groan when this topic creeps up once again across blogs and forums. Let’s consider these facts:
POLL RESULTS: Should PR Interns Pitch The Media?
July 6th, 2011This post first appeared on PRconnection (7.5.11) and is cross-posted with permission.
It’s been nearly two years since I first broached the subject of whether PR interns should pitch The Media. At that time, it seemed, most people had a very strong opinion one way or the other so I decided to do a quick poll and report the results.
And it is a topic that still sparks a lot of debate today. I’ve seen some recent chatter on Twitter about who should be pitching The Media and thought it was time to resurrect the poll and see what, if anything, has changed in the past couple years.
To the question, “Should PR interns pitch the media,” I got 71 votes and 11 comments using the LinkedIn polls tool. Since there are more women in PR than men, it’s not surprising that the respondents were mostly female.
Respondents could choose from the following answers:
Only 15 percent said “No” (as in, “never”).
Of those that replied with a “No,” Mitch Leff, owner of Leff & Associates PR firm, commented, “Wow…If I was a client, I’m hiring the agency for their expertise and to have their best people on my account. No way I’d pay an agency to have an intern pitching! Wow again.”
Of those that replied, “Yes with direct supervision,” Rodger D. Johnson, PR pro and professor (aka @getsocialpr) suggested:
“Interns need to learn how to pitch and the best way to do that is to pitch. They also need coaching, which is why it is best to have supervision early on. I might add that supervision should be in the roll of coach, teacher or mentor. And agency owners need to understand sometimes interns make mistakes. At the same time, a good agency owner or corporate communications director who be in the business of building people. After all, investing in people is how we build relationships, right?”
My personal thoughts are in-line with Rodger’s – how can you learn without doing? And, isn’t this business all about investing in and building relationships with people?
There were other great comments as well. If you’d like, you can review the comments and full results here, but let’s continue this conversation. What do you think?
Survey: Journalists Do Not Want to Be Contacted Via Twitter
June 8th, 2011A couple weeks ago, the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) and Middleberg Communications announced the results of the 3rd Annual Survey of the Media in the Wired World. The survey utilized data gathered from 200 (mostly US-based) journalists to study the effects and impact of social media, new media and communication technologies on modern journalism. The results were released at the PRSA Digital Impact Conference on May 6th.
Interestingly, 69 percent of reporters said they use Twitter as a reporting/sourcing tool (this is a 21 percent increase from 2010) with 49 percent saying they have their own Twitter account. But only one percent indicated they’d like to be contacted via Twitter. The disconnect here is interesting to me and I have to wonder why, if they are using Twitter for research, they wouldn’t want to be contacted via the platform. Perhaps they want to listen (aka lurk) and not actually engage – despite the 37 percent who said they use social networking sites to participate in conversations (27 percent specified Twitter). Hmm… that’s a head-scratcher.
Other notable findings:
Key takeaways for public relations / media relations professionals is that 53 percent of journalists surveyed indicated they prefer to be contacted via email, and 34 percent prefer phone.
Even as social media continues to change the media landscape, PR Daily surmised journalists still prefer more traditional methods of communication.
Jen McClure, president of the Society for New Communications Research, stated: “Social media tools and technologies are being used by journalists to monitor issues, stories and content even after a story has been published. The publication of the story is no longer the end result. Today, media organizations and journalists also must serve as curators of content, are looked to to drive conversations and expected to provide information to keep the conversation going even after the story has been published.”
Do you agree with these findings? Look forward to your thoughts and comments on the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog.
Inside a Las Vegas Newsroom: PRSA Western District Conference 2011
May 10th, 2011
Last week, in the midst of all the flooding here in southeast Missouri, I was fortunate enough to be able to get away to the desert for a few days and attend the PRSA Western District Conference. One of the sessions gave us an inside look into some of Las Vegas’ newsrooms through its panel: Emily Neilson, president/GM for 8 News NOW, Ken Ritter, staff writer for the Associated Press, and Bruce Spotleson, group publisher for Greenspun Media Group.
It wasn’t surprising to hear Spotleson state that journalists are multi-tasking these days, often reporting, blogging, producing video/audio, interacting on social media, and more. Ritter stated, in the AP newsroom, he’s also doing “news triage” – which results in his attention span being 30 seconds or 140 characters. One point he made, that every public relations person should heed, was, “If you receive a call from us, pay attention! This probably means the story is ready to go out on the wire and we need comment/confirmation – but it’s going with or without you!”
Neilson talked about online and mobile being the “wild wild west” of reporting and how “i-reporters” have iPhone video posted before a traditional journalist can even get to the scene. So, it’s increasingly important for journalists to not only report news, but engage the public and rely on them more and more.
Neilson made a point of saying they [8 News Now] are NOT a “TV station” anymore but rather they are a local news organization that is platform agnostic.
She explains, that The Media must report the way consumers want, which entails speed, speed, speed, and then get depth of story out. Giving up control and unbundling of news services is, in her opinion, the most critical issue facing journalism right now. The value of eyeballs is very different now than ever before – they’re trading analog dollars for digital dimes.
When asked what piece of advice she could give those of us in PR and media relations, she offered: “Do NOT write press releases for your client, instead write it for your neighbor – what would they want to know?”
I hadn’t quite heard it put that way before and think that’s great advice. Do you agree? What would you add? Please leave a comment below on BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
Missouri State University PRSSA Day: Media Myths
March 24th, 2011
Last week, I was honored to be a part of Missouri State University’s PRSSA Day as a speaker on social media misconceptions. One of the myths that we discussed was “Social media will soon replace traditional media as the most viable source of news,” and I wanted to elaborate on that point.
At least once every week, or so it seems, someone comes out with a “Traditional media is dead” article or warns that “We shouldn’t waste time on traditional media and advertising.” As a matter of fact, I read an article several months ago about a survey on the subject by PR/PA agency mergers and acquisition consultants, StevensGouldPincus. SGP managing partner, Art Stevens was quoted as saying, “If this trend persists within the next two years social media will replace traditional media as PR/PA’s primary tool for reaching client audiences with news and information. When you consider that traditional media have been the bedrock of professional PR/PA practice for more than 100 years, the implications are profound.”
I’ll concede that the preferred vehicle for news distribution is definitely shifting to digital, real-time and even mobile platforms and I’ll agree that the implications are profound to communicators and consumers alike; however, the source of most of that content remains the same: The percentage of original content found on social media pales in comparison to traditional media. In reality, most news content is first published in the print or web editions of major news outlets, and then syndicated or picked up on social media networks and blogs, confirms this BurrellesLuce newsletter on “Social Media Myths and Misconceptions“.
In fact, according to a Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism study last year, “Blogs still heavily rely on the traditional press — and primarily just a few outlets within that — for their information. More than 99 percent of the stories linked to in blogs came from legacy outlets such as newspapers and broadcast networks. And just four — the BBC, CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post accounted for fully 80 percent of all links.”
So, let’s face it, without traditional media, in whatever form, there would be very little news to fuel social media. Will that change in the future? Perhaps. But as of today, traditional media is NOT dead.
Even if it is, perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing after all… Because as Seth Godin recently wrote in a post entitled, Bring Me Something Dead: “Dead means that they are no longer interesting to the drive-by technorati. Dead means that the curiosity factor has been satisfied, that people have gotten the joke… Only when an innovation is dead can the real work begin. That’s when people who are seeking leverage get to work, when we can focus on what we’re saying, not how (or where) we’re saying it…”
What do you think the future holds?
