Online Public Relations Thoughts

This is a thoughtful interview on the role of magazines and newspapers in an internet and blogging era. Although I disagree with his dislike of putting magazine and newspaper content online, he is correct overall that print and online should complement one another rather than compete. He is on target when he says publishers and journalists look at each other more than at their readers. There is a tendency in every industry to do that. With a continued decline in newspaper and magazine circulation, it is clear that the industry has a whole hasn't found a formula that works.

As PR practitioners, we should be concerned. We still rely on the media to get messages out and to vet impartially statements made on behalf of clients. Although the reliance isn't as strong as it once was, PR would suffer if publishers begin to disappear.

I'm amused by his distinction between blogging and journalism. There are journalist bloggers who are every bit impartial reporters, and they have a following such as this site and this one. It is easy to predict that blogging will divide into two camps -- journalism and opinion, with personal diaries part of opinion. It has done so already. Journalism is still a small part of blogging but it is growing because the medium costs virtually nothing.