Have we finally breached the symbolic 'real media' vs social media divide?

There's an interesting post over at the Journalism.co.uk blog where they are trying to crowd source the perfect press release.

The post offers some great press release-writing tips for people new to the industry and even acts as a reminder to those more seasoned PR professionals about what journalists really want to know about a story.

But what's interesting about the results is the inclusion of social mediia elements which are being specifically requested by journalists.

Maybe I'm wrong to be surprised, but when journalists are asking for "a headline have crossed over into ... short enough for a Twitter update including a link." then it seems we really have gotten over the online vs offline; 'real media' vs social media divide.

The only thing is.... while journalists are adapting quickly to a new, more real-time media environment have PR professionals? I still see a lot of "no-one really reads blogs" or "Yes, but what's the reach of that Tweet?" from PROs.

So here's the real incentive: even if you want to ignore that the media landscape and infrastructure is changing around you..... the journalists you are pitching stories to already get it and if you don't adapt accordingly then you'll be less effective at doing your job. Simples!

Tags: Journalism.co.uk, social media, press release

Comments

[Jed Hallam]

As always Simon, excellent post and thanks for highlighting the conversation over at journalism.co.uk.

I think it was Dave Fleet that wrote about brands and PR agency's not having a choice about getting involved in social media - if the media want it, brands and agency's must deliver it, regardless of whether they 'get it'.

Sorry to be the guy that brings it up, but the media are probably just on the rise up from the trough of disillusionment. Not too long before we hit a bit of productivity!

[Simon Collister]

Thanks, Jed.

I entirely buy your (Dave's?) point about agencies needing to deliver digitally whether they get it or not - but my only worry there is that they rush to delier it because clients and media want/expect it and as a result do it badly.

[Daryl Willcox]

By chance I wrote a post along similar lines (http://www.dwpubsporadic.com/2009/08/journalists-changing-behavior.html) - though I think you made the point more eloquently than I.
Quite right about the risk of delivering digitally for the sake of it, effective online PR requires an understanding of the subtleties of digital media and is not simply about box-ticking.