On the Death of Traditional News Media

by David D. Menzies
It is an indisputable fact that over the past five years newspapers, magazines, local television and radio stations, and news websites across the country have continued to downsize in terms of resources and, in particular, personnel. According to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism 2013 State of the News Media report, this contraction in the places where consumers get their news is having an effect: “Nearly a third of U.S. adults, 31%, have stopped turning to a news outlet because it no longer provided them with the news they were accustomed to getting.”

What does this mean for businesses utilizing advertising and public relations to get in front of customers and prospects within the confines of trusted third-party media outlets?

Whereas news departments used to have multiple researchers, support staff, and reporters across a multitude of beats, many are now one-person shows covering a wider array of stories. With less reporters carrying a heavier workload comes heightened competition for fewer meaningful articles. With fewer articles comes less overall content, and not as many advertising opportunities. This unappealing combination is resulting in an already strained business community finding itself up against an added challenge to reach an evolving customer base.


To deal with this challenge, businesses can take three basic steps to tweak their approach in dealing with public relations and advertising in news media. First, focus on the message. Wherever consumers are getting their news and information, whether it be print newspapers and magazines, online news sites, TV and radio, or social media the message has to be consistent and concise. What benefit are your products and services providing? Why are you important to your customers? What differentiates you from competitors? Once you pull together core strategic messaging, you can then customize it to the advertising and editorial standards of the outlet disseminating information to consumers in a way that brings value to the outlet itself. There are multiple businesses vying for the same prospects, all with differing value propositions. That said, not all are effectively communicating what those are to consumers who are being ever so cautious with their dollars or overworked reporters looking for clear, concise information on an issue that might be interesting to their readers, viewers or listeners.

Maximize your return on investment with planning and consistency. According to the Pew report, the audience for smart phone and tablet news reports continues to grow and a shift toward digital marketing is accelerating. If you are committing resources into spreading the word about your business via press releases and proactive public relations to achieve coverage in news articles, you may want to support that effort with online advertising in your targeted media outlets throughout the length of your PR campaign. As prospective customers see your ads and get to know your brand, then subsequently read about you in an article validating your products or services, you have created a customer friendly path toward sales elevating you above competitors.

Understand the distribution channel. If you have a great story to tell, figure out who it is you’ll be telling it to. For PR outreach, familiarize yourself with certain reporters over time, taking in their articles or reports to find out what they, and their audiences, care about. Then you will be able to reference pieces of your core strategic messaging that are good fits for those particular reporters in your press releases, emails and phone calls to make it easier for reporters to choose your story to tell from among all the noise competing for ever-shrinking editorial space. From an advertising angle look at the types of print and electronic ads that are running in targeted media outlets; doing so can often identify themes that you can choose to mirror or deviate from as appropriate to better attract the type of customer you are after. Again, fewer reporters means less news stories on a certain subject, so you have to do more to make yourself stand out rather than just adding your brand to the mix.

Although traditional news media might be dying a slow death before our eyes, there will always be a place for consumers to seek out news in American society, and opportunities will continue to exist to reach customers in those various outlets. Businesses must remain active and flexible in delivering important information they want to get in front of the general public, using consistent messaging in PR and advertising to stay in front of the competition, regardless of where the battlefield may be.

David D. Menzies is president of Global Media Strategies, an innovative media relations and online publishing firm. He is a 22+ year public relations professional with expertise in strategic messaging, publicity and branding. For more information visit www.gmsinnovate.com.