Integrating traditional and digital media

“The decline of newspapers is not the death of news”

This particular subheading in Chapter 4 of Share This caught my attention because I’m one of those weird people who actually used to enjoy reading a traditional physical newspaper. I still do on occasion, but not nearly as often because, well, now I have an iPhone. I can get notifications from my favorite news outlets pushed directly to my phone, or I can just check Twitter’s trending topics and search hashtags.

The growth of technology has directly (and negatively) affected newspaper sales, but according to Share This, “decline does not mean death.” Traditional media companies simply need to find new business models that will work for them in this day and age, like moving their content online, creating apps and digital subscriptions.

Back in the days of Ivy Lee, PR practitioners would work up content for stories and pitch it to the media in hopes of gaining coverage. Today, PR people have Google, Twitter and other social media platforms that allow real-time interactions with journalists and “opinion formers” and provide a way to gather information and monitor media output, which helps practitioners in the PR process.

What I found most interesting in this chapter were the book’s suggestions for PR people on how to combine traditional and digital media channels to amplify communication, extend media coverage and build more meaningful ongoing relationships.

Some of these suggestions include:

• Create content for traditional media that drives people to your social media, such as a website or blog, to receive more information.

• Share PR content that has already been shared with traditional media to social networks like Facebook and Twitter.  

• Create engaging and viral content on social media that will attract traditional media attention.

We know that the role of PR practitioners has evolved with the the growth of digital media, but the fundamentals remain the same. In the new age of social media, it is important for practitioners to find ways to integrate traditional and social news sources.