Every day I read the mainstream media both online and – gasp! – in paper. Maybe that makes me a dinosaur. If so, I accept the title with open arms.
If you aren’t a newspaper type, then you probably get a magazine or two and chances are you watched television or listened to the radio today. Even if you didn’t do any of these things, you read a blog or two (you’re here aren’t you), which probably made a reference to something in the mainstream media.
So, I frankly am surprised by some of the talk that the media no longer has a role to play. Certainly, it needs to evolve, but so does public relations. I am not betting that the mainstream media will be dead anytime soon, and neither does Ben Silverman, Director of Development and a Contributing Editor for Indie Research and former business news columnist for The New York Post.
I have been reading his column on PR topics in PRFuel for several years. I like his style and frankly, he hits this topic on the head, calling attention to PR Week's annual awards dinner last week, where the speakers had some pretty strong words for the media.
Ben says, “Wall Street Journal reporters, and other journalists, are no doubt taking note of Edelman's remarks. As evidence, I found the New York Observer story via a link on Romenesko, a weblog read mainly by journalists.”
I think as we forge into this new arena, we need to take care to develop a win-win attitude. It’s true that journalists have long disparaged the public relations trade, but two wrongs don’t make a right. It is our job to stand above the fray and look for a mutually beneficial way through the change that is coming upon us. Let's not get too cocky with our “power of the pen.”
Tip of the hat to Scott Baradell for his links and commentary on the same subject yesterday.
