“In a World of Online News, Burnout Starts Younger,” NYT’s Jeremy W. Peters explores how reporters are under more pressure to be the “most viewed article” on the website. Gawker even displays the top ten articles on large flat screen televisions in their newsroom. It has been dubbed as “big board” and is updated hourly.

With tightening budgets and magazines and newspapers cutting reporters left and right, the ones who remain now have less bandwidth and must compete to get the most page views. With their jobs and livelihood on the line each and every day, there’s never been a more critical time for PR professionals to reflect and be more cognizant of how they are approaching these time-strapped and multi-tasking reporters every day.

So what can we do to make their lives a little easier?  How do we help those reporters make their articles reach the top ten?

Be interesting and relevant

Look at your favorite news website – what’s in the top ten for the day? What’s being read? Chances are, it’s an article that is timely, interesting and relevant to all the readers of each website. Reporters who are competing with each other aren’t going to be looking at a simple (and let’s face it – yawn – oftentimes boring) product pitch to get in the top ten, they need something more compelling, more relevant, more consumable.

So, look at the big picture

Reporters are looking for those ideas that show what’s going on in the world and how it ties into their readers. As a PR professional, if you’re able to spot the upcoming trends before they are fully formed, you’ll be an asset to the reporter. If you have zeroed in on an emerging trend, be selective in who you send it to — giving a highly-targeted reporter an exclusive to the bigger picture story will help them “wow” their audience, ensure the right visibility for your client, and only strengthen your media relationships for future benefit.

Get to know your reporters

Reporters have never been more accessible than now. If you take the time to really get to know each of your target reporters, it will not only help you and your clients, but you may find that you’ve forged a new relationship (and friendship) for the long-term.  The best PR/reporter relationships are ones in which there is a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship and rapport.  Take the time to see what they’re Tweeting, blogging and writing about – i.e. take the time to get to know them.  See if they have personal blogs, too (e.g. a reporter might have a personal blog about parenting; perhaps something you could relate back to in your conversation) and get to know them on a personal level.  They are, after all, humans just like us!

As PR professionals, communications is our forte and trade.  With all these new forms of communication, it is up to us to figure out the most appropriate and relevant way to get in front of these reporters with a carefully crafted and thoughtful angle or story.  With the right approach, they will look to us as excellent resources for their next big idea and will view us as a partner in their success, helping them reach the “big board.”

Blogger ancestry.

Spring ahead to the golden age of news–from the time of the Civil War (when war photography really made its mark) to the age of the “muckrakers“, World War II, and then to Watergate and Vietnam. Journalism became a profession; and “citizen journalists” disappeared from the scene.  “Journalism” became a scholarly pursuit with the advent of “J-schools” and journalism degrees.  

And the then began the consolidation in the 80s, and finally, the beginning of the great newspaper extinction.  And the  journalist breed–the guy with the suspenders, rolled up sleeves, reporter notebook and hat with the piece of paper in it that said “press,” also disappeared…Right?  

They haven’t, of course. (though the medium of newsprint, I am fairly certain and happy to say, is going extinct–Mother Nature is happy.)

And we have blogs and citizen journalism to thank for this. Much like small mammals in the midst of the great dinosaurs,  blogs multiplied in the shadow of newspapers early in the 21st Century.  And as the fortunes of newspapers began to decline, the blogs and citizen journalists  have filled the void. 

And I’m glad to see the U.S. has returned to its roots as a land of citizen journalists. 

Many former journalists became bloggers too (and Tweeters, Facebookers, etc.).  But the best part about the growth of social media and blogs is the return of the “citizen journalist”–the Thomas Paines of the world.  People that have opinions and are not afraid to write about it.  I’m thrilled that bloggers consider themselves journalists. In my mind, they are one in the same.  (And, by the way, I think, The U.S. Courts, should extend freedom of the press to these citizen journalists. Citizen journalists, or bloggers, are the very best insurance against omnipotent government.) 

Bloggers, everwhere.

As a public relations agency and for company clients, the growth of bloggers has brought both challenge and opportunity. The media landscape is now more fractured, and it’s harder to persuade a “mass” that your product/company/service is “the shizznit.”  But as an American, and a lover of American history, I’m glad to hear that most bloggers consider themselves journalists (according to the PRWeek/PR Newswire study).  I’m glad because it makes me feel (Robert Duvall Apocolypse Now pause, please)…free.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics, YouTube videos and news blogs caused the games to leap into the viral world. A year and a half later, social media will be even further integrated into the Olympics Games. Widgets, RSS feeds, tweets and mobile alerts will all have their moments in the spotlight during this years’ games.

NBC, the network host of the Olympic Games, has launched a website dedicated to the games: www.nbcolympics.com. The site makes it easy to pick from a slew of widgets and pre-setup RSS feeds.

The website is just the beginning. The network is happily jumping on the applications bandwagon and has designed two apps that will help Olympic fans stay up-to-date. These apps will bring iPhone and Blackberry users top stories, medal counts, videos and more right to their cell phones. The videos are also accessible on Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon internet-enabled phones. Users can also receive SMS messages with this information by texting Olympics to 51515.

U.S. Athletes have a collaborative Twitter page right on the NBC olympic page titled “Tweet Sheet.” Athletes such as World Champion Erin Hamlin, who competes in the luge event; five-time Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno, who competes in short track skating; and gold medal winner Shaun White, who competes in both skateboarding and snowboarding, will all update in real-time during the games. Right now, the athletes are tweeting about everything from how their practice runs went earlier in the day to radio shows they will be guest starring on.

Members of the NBC team will not be the only people utilizing social media during the olympics. One user tweeted on February 4: “@Charisma_Events The Big O is coming – not Oprah – the 2010 Olympics.”

Blogs are springing up from every corner of the world to report on the upcoming Olympics. It seems fitting that all these fast-paced forms of media that join the masses on the web, will cover an event that brings the world together.

This story by Mike Masnick @TechDirt tackles fair use and whether or not Channel 7 actually can demand people not use the clip, which until now had stayed semi-under the radar.  Of course, the very best way to generate more unwanted publicity for video, audio or text posted to the web is to hire a bunch of lawyers to spook the few people who posted the video and moved on, until they got spooked by lawyers.

It’s like poking a tiger in a cage.  First bloggers will echo the story, then pundits move in to dissect the situation (which is where we’re at now), then the story will get more blown out of proportion by mainstream outlets.

Of course, with events in the world being what they are this is not anything of consequence.  But still, there’s something interesting in watching digital media (mostly open) wrestle with legacy media (mostly proprietary, filtered) over control of content’s soul.

The Wall Street Journal news is a little surprising given the past year’s prevailing atmosphere of media consolidation, collapses and closures.  The paper seems to be bucking the trend and turning Rupert Murdoch into a “could be” prophet when he said “the philistine phase of the Digital Age is almost over.” Is it really possible not everyone on the web will demand free content?  The Journal’s news seems to say so.  But The Journal is The Journal and certainly–just as in all industries–there are islands unaffected by tides.

BusinessWeek’s situation likely more accurately reflects the publishing industry’s status.  While the ‘08/’09 economic crash can take some of the blame for the decline in advertising revenue, the industry’s problems had been building for some time.  The web has forced newsrooms to shrink, foreign bureaus to close and has hampered the ability of mainstream publications to keep up with breaking news over social tools and networks.  Traditional outlets may excel at analysis, but they can’t beat the web in a number of areas which used to be dominated by newspapers, news programs, radios and magazines–especially weekly magazines.  Eventually and surely, new technology overcomes old methods.  Bloomberg is a data-driven organization that has learned to adapt to the web, and the web has made available more data to an increasingly wider audience which Bloomberg would like to tap.  BusinessWeek’s straightforward ability to analyze and simplify market news probably fills an increasingly larger need in Bloomberg’s organization as it looks to expand its influence beyond the financial spectrum.

For the media (and for advertising, PR and other dependent industries) the signals to adapt and even plan for what’s ahead couldn’t be more clear.  The media has to write for the web, business has to build for it, and the rest of us need to embrace living in that world.

As we see fewer editorial contacts at the major print outlets, we will see an increase in freelance and even “citizen” journalists with the ability to publish and build an audience at their whim. Social media savvy has become increasingly critical in reaching and influencing these new thought leaders, and the successful employment of tactics and strategies take more than just passing familiarity with the medium.  The mainstream media’s mixed messages are keeping all of us on our toes, and for the best of us, on top of our game, too.

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

In his book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, McLuhan writes that all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways and argues that any given medium affects an individual’s understanding of its content.

Without getting mired too deeply in his media classifications of hot/high definition and cool/low definition media, much of McLuhan’s theory revolved around the senses receiving the communication: sight, sound and touch.

As PR practitioners today, our job is ultimately to ensure the successful receipt of our clients’ messages by their target audiences. Far too often we labor first and foremost over the content of our message—be it a press release, bylined article, white paper, blog post or tweet—while relegating the message’s delivery and medium to an afterthought.

While there is consideration for the medium, the decision is generally influenced by the content and target of the message, e.g., “We want to reach young adults, ages 18-24 who earn less than $60,000 per year… let’s Tweet!” or “Our buyers are teenage guys… let’s do a YouTube campaign!”

Of course, I’m making generalizations here, but the truth is that many times we choose a particular medium based on the statistical, demographic information of its audience rather than taking the time to understand the effectiveness of the medium for influencing the “aha!” factor.

Successful PR is more than having a great message. It also goes beyond delivering that message to the right recipients. From start to finish, it involves a series of decisions that, as mentioned above, ultimately ensure that the right message (read: understood the way it was intended) is received by the right audience, leading to the right response or action. In a presentation to the staff recently comparing various wire services, junior associate Adam Novak comically quipped, “If a press release goes out over the wire but nobody sees it, did it really go out?”

Obviously, the medium is going to impact the successful delivery of a message, but let’s not forget that our job is not just to deliver the message. Rather it is to make sure it is received and interpreted the way you, or your client, want it to be.

We have tools at our disposal today to create and distribute content quickly and easily over any medium imaginable, and at PAN, we’re finding that clients are eager to make these a strategic part of their message. Where “pitch” and “press release” were formerly limited by pre-defined parameters, PR practitioners around the world are now enjoying the freedom and creativity to reshape the way we do our jobs.

Some would say this is the biggest story of the summer so why wouldn’t the media release it? I think most are thinking however, that they would NEVER want to be the news station or newspaper that was associated for spoiling the ending of the most anticipated book of the year – for children and adults.

As a very big Harry Potter fan myself, thank you to the media. For once not releasing breaking news, you have made me and millions others Harry Potter enthusiasts very happy. A surprising twist near the end of the Harry Potter story.

Tim’s predictions for the world of media relations.

· First, the word media will become more encompassing, but the media itself will become more narrow, niche and specialized.
· More blurring between professional journalists and bloggers. Definition of journalism will continue dramatic evolution.
· Trade magazines will continue to thin—particularly in tech. Pubs will lose more ads to online pubs and other channels.
· Niche bloggers and podcasters will be the new vanguard in the media making PR professionals more essential but also making their job more difficult.
· A few major media companies will begin acquiring popular and influential blogs.
· Katie Couric will be fired and with it CBS will be the first network to completely abandon the nightly news.
· XM radio will be acquired by Sirius. Oprah’s XM program will be her first large public media failure.
· Traditional journalism venues seeking to compete against blogs and other channels, will abandon their supposed objectivity (which never existed in the first place).
· Investigative bloggers will start testing the limits of corporate and government controls on information.
· Private citizens will someday have their own PR people to help advance their personal causes.
· PR firms with strong specialties will be in high demand.