The Death & Life of Journalism: How PR and Press Can Work Together in the New Media Era

The Death & Life of Journalism: How PR and Press Can Work Together in the New Media EraNewsrooms are shrinking and PR is growing. Join A-list media to learn what this means for

journalists and those who work with them in the social media era

PRESENTER: Julia Hood, President, Arthur Page Society (Former Editor and Publishing Director, PR Week)

PANEL: Joe Skeel, Executive Director, Society of Professional Journalists Dan Patterson, Digital Media Manager, ABC Radio News

Steve Buttry, Director of Community Engagement and Social Media, Journal Register Co. R. Jamil Jonna, University of Oregon; Researcher, “The Death and Life of American Journalism”

HOSTS: Miranda Tan, MyPRGenie.com

Friday, June 10, 20111PM EST; Noon CST; 11AM MST; 10AM PST

The rise of social media has changed how journalists report stories and work with PR professionals and the companies they cover. To pinpoint exactly what some of these changes have been, what new media trends they underscore, and how companies can work more effectively with the press in the digital era,

MyPRGenie, in partnership with CommPRO.biz, distributed a survey distributed a survey to thousands of journalists. With over 2,400 respondents, the findings are significant, and lesson-implicit.

Generally speaking, the final results seem to underscore not only that reporters are increasingly using all forms of social media in their day-to-day reporting and promotion of that reportage—but that they also now see social media tools like Twitter as legitimate channels for communication with PR pros on both the agency and corporate side, with many now open to fielding pitches via these tools. Several years ago, this would not have been the case—with many journalists then seeing social media solely as their “personal inboxes.”

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OUR AGENDA

1. Statistics on the State of the Press: What It’s Really Like in the Newsroom Today 2. Statistics on the State of PR: The Rise of Public Relations in Influence, Revenue and

Practitioners 3. Media Trends: New Opportunities, Developments and Challenges in the Media 4. Social Media Update: How the Media Uses Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Other Tools to

Report and Promote Stories 5. How PR Can Use Social Media to Work with the Press 6. What the Media Expects Now in Pitches: Email, Phone & Social Media Pitching Tips7. Press Release Update: How Journalists Prefer to Receive Releases and Company

Announcements—Plus Key News Elements They Expect to See Today 8. What’s Next: Developments and Trends to Watch in PR and the Press in the Years Ahead

1. Statistics on the State of the Press: What It’s Really Like in the Newsroom Today

Statistics on the State of the Press: What It’s Really Like in the Newsroom Today • Newspaper advertising revenue dropped from an all-

time high of $49 billion in 2000 to $22 billion in 2009*• Six major newspaper companies have sought bankruptcy

protection in recent years*• After two dreadful years, most sectors of the industry

saw revenue begin to recover • 1,000 to 1,500 more newsroom jobs will have been lost

in 2010—newsrooms are 30% smaller than in 2000

*Newspaper Association of America**Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism

2. Statistics on the State of PR: The Rise of Public Relations in Influence, Revenue and Practitioners

• In 1980, there were about 45 PR workers per 100,000 population compared with 36 journalists. In 2009, there were 90 PR people per 100,000 compared to 25 journalists.

• The PR-pro-to-journalist ratio has grown from 1:1 in 1980 to 3:1 today.• Revenues at PR firms have grown from $3.5 billion to $8.75 billion over the same period

—while the media’s has gone the other way.• Over the same period, paid employees at the agencies went from 38,735 to 50,499, a

healthy 30 percent growth in jobs.• PR industry is poised for 55% growth in domestic spending by 2013 (PRSA)• PR industry Will hit $8 billion in U.S. spending b 2013 (PRSA)• Two key factors leading growth: Word-of-mouth communications & social media/digital

services (PRSA)

Statistics on the State of PR: The Rise of Public Relations in Influence, Revenue and Practitioners

Statistics on the State of PR: Percentage of Media Advertising Going to Newspapers, 1950–2009

3. Media Trends: New Opportunities, Developments and Challenges in the Media

Staffing:• According to Sally Falkow at PressFeed, “in 2010 digital

news media, like AOL and The Daily, hired almost as many people as were laid off from traditional newsrooms…”

• With some notable exceptions, cutbacks in newsrooms eased in 2010*

*Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism

Media Trends: New Opportunities, Developments and Challenges in the Media

In 2010, however, some of the biggest new media institutions began to develop original newsgathering in a significant way:

• Yahoo added several dozen reporters across news, sports and finance. • AOL had 900 journalists, 500 of them at its local Patch news operation (it then let go 200

people from the content team after the merger with Huffingtonpost). • By the end of 2011, Bloomberg expects to have 150 journalists and analysts for its new

Washington operation, Bloomberg Government. • News Corp.hired from 100 or 150, depending on the reports, for its new tablet newspaper, • The Daily, though not all may be journalists. Together these hires come close to matching

the jobs in 2010 we estimate were lost in newspapers, the first time we have seen this kind of substitution.

*Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism

Media Trends: New Opportunities, Developments and Challenges in the Media

The New Newsroom:New Realities• They are smaller.• Their aspirations have narrowed and their journalists are stretched thinner.• But their leaders also say they are more adaptive, younger and more engaged in multimedia

presentation, aggregation, blogging and user content. (Pew Research Center’s Projects for Excellence in Journalism)

New Challenges: • Some vital areas and stories might not receive adequate coverage.• Lower pay.• More demands for speed.• Less training and more volunteer work.• All contributes to what Robert Picard has called a “de-skilling” of the profession”

*Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism

Media Trends: New Opportunities, Developments and Challenges in the Media

New Opportunities and Models: Web & Mobile

• Nearly half of all Americans (47%) now get some form of local news on a mobile device (Pew Internet and American Life Project in association with the Knight Foundation)

• The Internet now trails only television among American adults as a destination for news, and the trend line shows the gap closing.

• Online ad revenue in 2010 is projected to surpass print newspaper ad revenue.

Media Trends: New Opportunities, Developments and Challenges in the Media

Other Media Trends to Watch:• The news industry is turning to executives from outside: With the old revenue model

broken, more companies are again looking to outsiders for leadership.• Seven of the top 25 newspapers in America are now owned by hedge funds, which had

virtually no role a few years ago.• Less progress has been made charging for news than predicted, but there are some signs of

willingness to pay.• If their local newspaper would otherwise perish, 23% of Americans said they would pay $5 a

month for an online version. To date, however, even among early adopters only 10% of those who have downloaded local news apps paid for them

• Local news remains the vast untapped territory. Already 40% of all online ad spending is local, up from 30% just a year earlier.

• The new conventional wisdom is that the economic model for news will be made up of many smaller and more complex revenue sources than before.

How the Media Uses Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Other Tools to Report and Promote Stories:

•35.7% of respondents use Facebook to promote and share their stories • 26.7% use Twitter to promote and share their stories • Only 5.1% use LinkedIn to promote and share their stories

Source: 2011 MyPRGenie / CommPRO.biz Journalist Survey

4. Social Media Update

SOCIAL MEDIA IN REPORTING

• 62% of respondents use Facebook in their reporting • 56.1% use Twitter in their reporting • 33.3% prefer to use RSS feeds in their reporting • 32.5% use YouTube in their reporting • 31.7% use LinkedIn in their reporting

Source: 2011 MyPRGenie / CommPRO.biz Journalist Survey

SEO & SEARCH TOOLS

• 91.7% of respondents frequently use Google in reporting • Only 11.9% prefer to use Yahoo! frequently in reporting • Only 5.8% use Bing frequently in reporting

Source: 2011 MyPRGenie / CommPRO.biz Journalist Survey

• 54.8% follow and friend corporate communications or PR pros on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook

• 55.8% say social media is an acceptable channel of communication with sources and their reps

• 50% say irrelevant pitches in social media are a frustration • NOTE: 70.6% still prefer to be pitched by email

Source: 2011 MyPRGenie / CommPRO.biz Journalist Survey

5. How PR Can Use Social Media to

Work with the Press

What makes a great pitch?

• What do you or newsrooms expect to see in pitches? • Can you offer a recent example of a great pitch or a bad one? What lessons does it offer? • What’s the biggest mistake people often make in pitches? • What new challenges are PR people facing when pitching now? • How about pitching by social media?

6. What the Media Expects Now in Pitches: Email, Phone and Social Media Pitching Tips

What is the value of press releases today?What new elements should press releases have in the new media era?

•95.4% consider the 5Ws essential elements of any release•47% consider source quotes essential elements•51.8% consider links to source sites essential elements•24.3% consider headshots a critical element•8.2% consider supporting video essential elements

Source: 2011 MyPRGenie / CommPRO.biz Journalist Survey

7. Press Release Update: How Journalists Prefer toReceive Releases and Company Announcements

A recap of key:• Developments and trends to watch in the

press in the months and years ahead?• Developments and trends to watch in PR in

the months and years ahead?

8. What’s Next?

The Death & Life of Journalism: How PR and Press Can Work Together in the New Media EraNewsrooms are shrinking and PR is growing. Join A-list media to learn what this means for

journalists and those who work with them in the social media era

Q & A

THANK YOU TO OUR HOST/PARTNER, MYPRGENIE.COM