Photo credit: techinasia.com
As digital marketing has risen to prominence, public relations pros are increasingly called on to manage social media communities, develop content marketing materials, create multimedia content, and oversee owned media and influencer outreach programs.
PR’s traditional function, media relations, has been pushed into the background. Some may even view it as a worthless relic.
The World PR Report from the Holmes Report and International Communications Consultancies Organisation asked PR pros what skills will be most relevant for PR executives in the next decade. Media relations received a weak 15.1% of the votes. Only digital build and production, paid media, research, CSR, and marketing and business development drew less appreciation.
Social media management, digital multi-media content creation, insight and planning, and creativity all received about 38% or 39%. The perceived importance of skills varied around the world. For instance, multimedia content is more important in the U.S.
Those surprising results reveal some misplaced attitudes about media relations – and social media. Obviously, social media and multimedia have become important vehicles for PR and marketing — and are bound to receive even greater emphasis in the future. However, media relations remains the central function of public relations.
Strong Digital Growth
The devaluation of the media relations function may be due to the recent robust growth of digital and social media and the corresponding reduction in earned media placement opportunities in traditional media. As a result, many PR firms and departments have shifted their efforts to digital media. Most PR firms (72%) saw growth in digital/online communications last year, and 78.5% expect growth in that area over the next few years.
Interestingly, 28.8% of firms said they experienced growth in media relations last year. That seems to indicate that many clients continue to value PR agencies that secure high-impact earned media coverage. In many industries, earned media is crucial for business success. In addition, media relations takes on outsized importance when a company encounters a public relations crisis.
Keep the PR Engine Running
Despite the contraction of media relations, it remains a crucial PR skill and tool – one that cannot be neglected during the transition to the use of content marketing, social media and multimedia production. A well-implemented media relations program (or even a single placement in a key publication) can create as much impact today as it has in the past. By reaching more people through a credible and respected traditional media outlet, an earned media placement can create greater awareness and generate more leads than most any social media activity.
It’s important to keep the household running while experimenting with new toys. Bells and whistles in the new car are fun, but maintaining the engine is vital. For PR, effective media relations is the crucial engine.
Some PR agencies and departments give their media relations assignments to their least experienced personnel. Junior staff end up pitching even experienced journalists with enormous influence. That’s a mistake. Even today, good stories need good pitches to well-placed journalists by seasoned media relations professionals.
Bottom Line: Media relations remains the public face of PR. Earned media placements continue to be PR’s most important function. Experienced PR professionals can no longer neglect media relations – or relegate the function of pitching journalists to neophytes. PR must resurrect media relations as the profession’s essential anchor and seasoned PR pros must return to making pitches to important journalists at influential news outlets. It’s still where PR can make its biggest impact on the client’s bottom line. Let’s keep the media relations engine humming.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
