Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: Are we over-relying on media relations in PR?

I’m talking about the broader scope of PR here–media relations, content marketing, social media marketing, community relations, etc.

For many years, media relations has been one of the core aspects of PR.

But, a number of stats and reports lately (not to mention consumer behavior trends in general) have got me thinking: We may be well past the tipping point....

'Digital First' editorial model changes the game...

...The flow on effects from today’s announcement are yet to be seen and will continue to be debated over the coming days.

But for the PR industry, there are two components from today’s announcement with big implications, the editorial job cuts and the ‘Digital First’ editorial model. Combine these together and we see the reality of a trend that has already been happening for some time.

The ‘Digital First’ model means all breaking news and content must be digitally optimized with editorial staff more or less forced to file multiple times online every day. Essentially, there will be fewer journalists writing stories (and fewer journalists to pitch to) but with more pressure to write more online optimized stories, more often....