The news business is under attack from every direction. POTUS says any news that doesn’t flatter him is fake, and people believe the casino king. What’s even worse is a market that has lost interest. Did you know that a 2017 Pew Research Center study found that 67% of the U.S. population consumes news in bits on social feeds and streams, rather than from anything brought in from the front porch or the bushes beside it?
The harsh financial landscape facing media companies crashed down on the New York Daily News on Monday as their corporate overlords slashed the editorial staff in half. Employees – many in tears – learned whether they would lose their jobs when they were summoned to The News’ downtown Manhattan newsroom for a 9 a.m. meeting.
The Daily News, once the country’s largest-circulation newspaper, has been among the most aggressive New York City publications in its coverage of President Donald Trump, with the newspaper’s cover often needling Trump about recent scandals or missteps.
The paper has received 11 Pulitzer Prizes including one in 2017 in conjunction with nonprofit investigative organization ProPublica for coverage of evictions based on obscure laws that pushed business owners and residents from their property.
What It Means for PR
The vanishing press is a problem for society. It’s also a massive business challenge for the entire media industry, which includes advertising and PR.
Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman, is worried.
This is a shocking development for those of us in PR who have relied on the mainstream media as our primary means of distribution of information.
PR people must evolve their approach and bring credible information directly to people. Mainstream PR firms must go beyond pitching stories to developing our own audiences, providing them with substantive information that is useful and shareable…We are in the business of building relationships that yield consumer insights and active discussions.
We must go faster. All of our PR teams must think like journalists, find stories and get them out quickly. This is my big project for the next six months. This is ‘do or die’ for the PR business.
The PR man could not have been clearer. It’s reinvention time.
