PR Advice for Professionals

Newspapers and Public Relations in 2020

by Jennifer

The Future Of The Newspaper
The World Association of Newspapers recently asked 22 futurists, academics, industry insiders, Internet pioneers and other media experts to envision the newspaper in 2020. While nearly everyone agreed that newspapers will still exist in the future, opinions varied on what they will look like.

My favorite response came from Rob Curley, vice president of product development, “Washington Post, Newsweek Interactive”: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/mediacenter/html/about_welcome.html:

“Newspapers are going to survive. Will we be doing things the way we’ve always done them? Absolutely not. In the United States, there are two types of newspaper publishers — those who think the most important part of the word ‘newspaper’ is ‘news’ and those who think the most important part of that word is ‘paper.’ ... We can’t be afraid of reaching our audience in new ways. It will be one of the keys to our industry’s successful future.”

Click here to see all of the responses.

What about PR?
As newspapers change, public-relations professionals are going to have to modify their techniques as well. It seems like nearly every successful newspaper has an Internet site, and as those sites continue to expand, editors are going to want more visual cues to go along with story pitches. Even well–established newspapers such as The New York Times, which typically includes more text than visual or interactive content on its Web site, may have to rethink the way it presents the news. As editors realize that the content which journalists produce is more important than the medium, editors will expect public-relations professionals to keep up.

Journalism isn’t going to change
The key thing to remember is that news will still be news. No matter how it’s presented, editors are looking for a newsworthy story that will appeal to their readers. If PR professionals pitch a story and include different tactics, such as a “podcast”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting or slideshow of pictures, which an editor could use to make the paper stand out, they are more likely to be successful. It just takes a little bit of creativity – the standard news release isn’t going to cut it in 2020.

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