Media Relations in a brave New World

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Media Relations in a (brave) New World

• Tracy Syler-Jones
• Assistant Vice Chancellor for Marketing and
  Communication
• t.syler-jones_at_tcu.edu

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Overview

• Changing landscape
• New media tools/usage
• Impact

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Setting the stage

• America is facing its greatest exodus of
  informed citizenship in its history. Author
  David Mindich, Tuned Out Why Americans Under 40
  Dont Follow the News
• Jaywalking
• . future news consumers and leaders of a
  complex, modern society, are abandoning the news
  as weve known it, and its increasingly clear
  that a great number of them will never return to
  daily newspapers and the national broadcast news
  programs. Abandoning the News, Carnegie Report

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Medias relationship with its public

• Biggest driver - technology
• Customized
• Participants
• Distrust of media/desire for transparency
• News apathy
• Generation_at_
• Today, technology is transforming citizens from
  passive consumers of news produced by
  professionals into active participants who can
  assemble their own journalism from disparate
  elements. Abandoning the News, Carnegie Report

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Traditional vs. new media

• Appointed news gathering times
• Morning newspapers
• Evening/nightly newscasts
• Mass audience/fewer outlets
• News grazing -- 24/7
• Cable
• Internet
• Cell phone
• Niche audience many outlets
• We used to wait for the news to come to us. Now
  news waits for us to come to it. We get news on
  cable and on the Internet any time, any place.
  Jeff Jarvis, president of Advance.net and
  publisher of Buzzmachine.com

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24/7 news

• Enabled by technology, but driven by desire for
• Immediacy
• When/where
• Control content
• Whats important to me (young skews away from
  news)
• No loyalty to particular media
• Active vs. passive
• Like-mindedness
• Blogs

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News sources
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Cable demographics

• CNN
• Public 22 percent
• Democratic 28 percent
• Republican 19 percent
• FOX News
• Public 25 percent
• Democratic 21 percent
• Republican 35 percent

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Cohort replacement

• 47 of 18 -22 year olds in 72 read paper 19
  in02
• 74.4 of 33-37 age in 72 read paper 35.1 in
  02 read paper
• Static population
• 46 18 -32 year olds in 72 read paper of that
  group, 40 still read paper in 2002 (48 - 52
  years old now)

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News apathy

• Entertainment news
• Media owned by entertainment giants
• If it bleeds, it leads (captures
  viewers/listeners/readers)
• Too much coverage
• Escape from reality
• Age reality

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Demographics of online users

• 18 - 29 84
• 30 -49 83
• 50 -64 71
• 65 30
• Biggest online activity -- e-mail followed by
  news
• General usage as of 10/05 Source Pew Internet
  and American Life Project

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Distrust of media 1985 - 2002

• Mainstream media
• Highly professional
• Moral
• Cover-ups
• Facts correct
• Politically biased
• Source Project for Excellence in Journalism
  

1985 2002 72 49 54 39 13 67 55 35
45 59
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Loss of objectivity

• Media long considered objective third party
• Citizen opinion fills the void (blogs, etc.)
• Internal communication/direct communication moves
  to forefront

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New media tools direct communication

• Podcasts
• Audio file that uses RSS to feed content
• 15-minute window is typical
• University of Florida
• Blogging
• Web diary
• Mainstreamed by White House (Fishbowl)
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
• Online news butler (gathers assigned content)
• From push to pull concept
• TCU

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Blogs

• 70 mill 2 mill. new/day
• Tulane Universitys emergency response real-time
  blogs for significant events (We Media)
• Employees own your brand
• Phantom Professor blog
• Stealth interviews (51of monitor 1 find them
  credible)

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Bloggers

• Blog creators are more likely to be
• Men 57 are male
• Young 48 are under age 30
• Broadband users 70 have broadband at home
• Internet veterans 82 have been online for six
  years or more
• Relatively well off financially 42 live in
  households earning over 50,000
• Well educated 39 have college or graduate
  degrees
• Readers 27 of Internet users read blogs in 2004
  
• Source Pew Internet and American Life Project

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Other new tools

• Wikis
• Open source
• Wikipedia is 2 reference site on Web
• Consumers own brand/message
• Social Web sites (Facebook)
• Journalists use these sites to write stories
• Consumers (students) own brand
• Vlogging/vodcasting (Rocketboom.com)

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Old media embracing changes

• Online news sites
• Micro news sites Your Hub
• Denverpost.com
• St. Louis Today
• More segmented news (sections in local papers)
• Attempts at transparency
• News is a Conversation
• Youth-oriented publications
• The Daily Quick (Dallas Morning News)
• Citizen participation in mainstream media

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Creating new alliances

• MobiTV Sprint broadcasts news from MSNBC/NBC
  News to cell phones
• iPod and television shows
• Yahoo! Creating original content (Ben Stein)

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Medias cohort replacement strategy

• News with attitude/entertainment
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart/late night
  comedians (half under age 30 view them as
  credible news sources)
• The Daily Buzz
• Free tabs -- hip, fun, sexy
• The Naked News
• Pew Foundation

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Creating new players

• Consumer-generated media/citizen journalists
• Readers
• YourHub
• Employees
• http//www.phantomprof.blogspot.com
• Vloggers
• http//www.rocketboom.com
• Bloggers
• Oh My News
• Hybrid
• 38k citizen reporters

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The future of news?

• How far will it go?
• www.albinoblacksheep/flash/epic
• Future journalists
• Universities teaching students new media
  techniques
• Blogging professors, etc.

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Strategies to maximize changes

• Determine
• Mix of channels (mass communication dead)
• Which new players are important
• News can bubble up on Internet
• How to integrate new with old players
• How to feed the media
• How to remain visible in segmented media
• How to communicate changes in media to
  constituents
• Stay connected with changes in media industry

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Electronic Review Strategy

• Find new players/determine importance/monitor
  coverage (especially blogs)
• PubSub
• Memeorandum
• Technorati
• Daypop
• Review news
• Google
• Yahoo!

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Electronic Relationship Strategy

• Vocus
• Research new media
• Keep up with contacts
• Online newsrooms
• RSS feeds
• Breaking news experts
• ProfNet
• Access to journalists queries from around world
• Ability to post experts on ProfNet site
• Push experts to media electronically

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Brick and mortar media relationships

• AP/Reuters reporters
• Content used by many top online/print media
• Local reporters
• Consider alliances among media
• Consider segmentation issues
• Consider free tabs
• Consider more newscasts
• Monitor electronic strategy seize opportunities
• Visit with them!

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Stay current with industry changes!

• Media is a dynamic industry
• Resources
• http//www.iwantmedia.com/
• http//www.poynter.org/
• Media Post Publications
• PR Resources
• PR Week (Tactics)
• US Newswire NewsNotes
• Journalists Speak Out
• http//www.globalprweek.com/
• Micro persuasion

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Consider strategy with constituents

• Manage expectations
• Shorter news cycle
• Educate about changes in media
• Mass media is dying
• Strategic communication
• Integrate tools (releases, RSS, podcasting,
  blogs)
• Strong internal communication program
• Impacts blogs

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Use direct communication

• Show them your news hits
• Especially important with your constituents who
  are 65
• Addresses Were never in the news perceptions
• Virtual Newsroom
• Show them coverage
• http//www.northwestern.com
• RSS feeds

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Direct communication

• Print
• Distribute press clippings (print and online)
• Use e-newsletters, audio broadcasts/re-broadcasts
• Promote upcoming coverage
• Use video/audio of campus events

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New media tools impacts internal communication

• Impacts blogging
• Remember Phantom Professor blog
• Other students blogs
• Reinforce university messages
• Keep them current
• Target students, as well as faculty and staff

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Impacts work with experts

• Respect new deadlines
• Develop an electronic strategy for promoting
  experts
• Educate experts
• Younger reporters, different types of
  publications (simple explanation)

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Impacts work with experts

• Consider
• Media training is different
• Stealth interviews
• Cell phones and crises
• Make it easy for news media to find your experts
• Post research to news Web site
• Breaking news
• Audio/visual of experts

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Reaching out to young news format

• Free tabs, Daily Buzz, etc.
• Research told on level audience can relate
• Reaches young alumni
• Retell in more sophisticated terms
• Use common sense

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Build relationships between experts and new media

• Educate about changes in news industry
• Why news players are important
• Constituents news sources
• Mass communication is dead
• Introduce them to new media players
• Institutions experts can train the media

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Build strong electronic experts room

• Push experts via service such as ProfNet
• Breaking news experts
• Robust faculty presence in online newsroom
• Hire professional photographer
• Spend time/money
• Keep current

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Finally, remember

• Tumultuous times
• Brings opportunities
• Stay on top of changes
• Balance new and old relationships
• Educate your constituents and experts

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Resources

• Project for Excellence in Journalism, State of
  the News Media, 2004
• Abandoning the News
• Pew Internet American Life Project
• Project for Excellence in Journalism, An Annual
  Report on American Journalism
• Carnegie Corporation of New York, Use of Sources
  for News
• Media More Voices, Less Credibility Trends
  2005, by Pew Research Center