Image: www.aftermathnews.wordpress.com
In March 2009 I wrote my first blog post, here on BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas, about how emerging technologies and platforms were changing the way we consume news – supported by input I gathered from a media summit I had attended that featured panelists such as Joe Scarborough from MSNBC’s Morning Joe and BBC’s Rome Hartman.
I wrote, “And with the rise of ‘citizen journalism’ and this ‘Pro-Am’ partnership that is developing with media, the panel agreed that consumers will have a stronger need for trusted brands, filtering, and editing to help navigate the media.” A year and a half later, the cream seems to be rising to the top in this fragmented media universe.
Today the “trusted brands,” such as The New York Times, are beginning to abandon the old business model of offering free content in exchange for paid advertisements. They are instead looking to generate additional revenue by putting their text, audio, and video behind pay walls or by offering their content as an app for a small fee. “I think we should have done it years ago,” said David Firestone, a deputy national news editor commenting on the NYT’s decision to put some of their content behind paywalls beginning in 2011. “As painful as it will be at the beginning, we have to get rid of the notion that high-quality news comes free.”
The Times Co. Chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. added, “This is a bet, to a certain degree, on where we think the Web is going…This is not going to be something that is going to change the financial dynamics overnight.”
In fact, no one is sure where the web is going; this undeniable shift away from free content will certainly make life more difficult for the Googles of the world who rely on free content to fuel their search engine. Consumers may turn to company’s like Apple for their media, who adopted the “paid content” model early on by making content available for small fees through iTunes and more recently showing consumers how convenient it is to access a magazine or newspaper digitally for a small fee on their iPad.
Fox News this week launched its new iPhone political app, available through iTunes for 99 cents. “The idea is that this is your essential guide to daily political news,” says Chris Stirewalt, Fox News digital politics editor, “to put power into peoples’ hands to give them the opportunity in this history making, nation shaping election, to have the tools at hand so that they can really understand and add to the depth of their experience.”
With more people opting to have their media pushed to their smart phones and iPads rather than retrieving information over the Internet it will be interesting to see how this affects web browser traffic. As free content slowly disappears, news websites and aggregators such as the Drudge Report and the Daily Beast may have a tougher time filling their sites with the hyperlinks that contain the raw material that drives much of their sites traffic. Instead the eyeballs will be looking in other directions – with more people willing to pay for content this may ultimately prove to be the antidote that saves a hemorrhaging newspaper industry.
It appears we are on the verge of coming full circle on how we get our news. We’ve gone from relying on newsstands and subscriptions to searching and accessing free content online, only to return to paying the publishers directly once again for their content through app fees and online subscriptions.
Paperboys and newsstand operators may be on the verge of extinction; however, content providers like newspapers, network, and cable TV and movie studios may have the final say in how their product is consumed after all.
As public relations and marketing professionals, how are you getting your news? How do you think the evolving media landscape will affect your ability to successfully conduct media relations and assess the value of your efforts?
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Abbie S. Fink is vice president/general manager of HMA Public Relations, where she serves as HMA’s primary media and digital communications trainer. Her varied marketing communications background includes skills in media relations, digital communications/social media strategies, special event management, community relations, issues management and marketing promotions for private and public sectors, as well as not-for-profit organizations.
PR News 2010 Media Relations Summit: Gary Wells, Dix & Eaton, interviewed by Johna Burke, BurrellesLuce
Monday, October 18th, 2010Transcript –
JOHNA BURKE: Hi, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PR News Media Relations Summit. I’m joined by Gary.
Gary, will you please introduce yourself?
GARY WELLS: My name is Gary Wells. I’m the senior managing director for media relations and global communications at Dix & Eaton.
BURKE: Now, Gary, you just gave a presentation talking about how traditional media and social media is incestuous. How do you manage the media relations, knowing that?
WELLS: First, a little bit of context about why I suspect that they are so incestuous. There’s been a lot written about the fact that the news media, mainstream media, are having financial difficulties, which is true; however, it’s a bit exaggerated. The mainstream media are not going anywhere, which means in a crisis situation they’re no less important; in fact, more important than they have ever been before for a number of reasons, not the least of which is what happens in the mainstream media drives much of the commentary on blogs about a crisis or an issue when it emerges. And what happens in the blogs then drives much of the chatter on social networks, as well. So mainstream media, from that standpoint, will continue to be very important.
At the same time, what happens–and this is where the incest, so to speak, comes in–and that is that social media and blogs report on what the mainstream media says, as well. So each genre reports on what the other says and treats it as a story. That’s fine as long as it doesn’t segue into falsehoods or inaccuracies because the story is perpetuated, but in this case so are the falsehoods or the inaccuracies, as well. In that situation, you have to move very quickly to monitor what’s being said about you not only in the mainstream media, but also in blogs and social media, and correct any inaccuracies as quickly as possible.
BURKE: Gary, thank you so much. I think those are incredibly valuable messages for media relations professionals and PR professionals at all times.
WELLS: My pleasure.
BURKE: Can you tell us where people can find you in social media or online?
WELLS: Sure. Probably the best place is to start with our website. It’s www.dix-eaton.com, and also the same address for Twitter.
BURKE: Thank you so much.
WELLS: Thanks.
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