The annual “State of the News Media” by the Pew Project for excellence in journalism was released yesterday. Amongst other findings in the study, was the rise of tablets and mobile devices has expedited the rise of online news, to the point where the online audience has finally surpassed print.

Tom Rosenstiel, the director of the study, said “People are just becoming accustomed to having the Internet available in their pockets on phones or small tablets. In December, 41 percent of Americans said they got most of their news about national and international issues on the Internet, more than double the 17 percent who said that a year earlier. Everything is now mobile, and information is everywhere.”

It’s really now all about instant gratification – and the once daily deadlines, have now become hourly ones… It wouldn’t surprise me to see a 24/7 PR Agency very soon… The PEW study also stated that in January, seven percent of Americans owned electronic tablets; nearly double what it was three months earlier. This is the fastest growing technology ever, even ahead of cell phones when they first started to appear.

As information and news media are changing, so is Public Relations – Information is everywhere and digital media is here to stay.  The development continues today as people get their news from all over – Successful Public Relation firms are the ones that understand the changing landscape and craft their strategies to deal with it on a proactive basis.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

As revolutions spread throughout the Middle East you can’t help but notice declining coverage in media – Quite different than the coverage of March 2003 during the American invasion of Iraq, with embedded reporters and constant TV coverage. That was followed in July 2006 with the Israel-Lebanon War of 34 days, when coverage was also limitless; night and day.  Much of the American and even foreign media outlets were consistently covering the action.

On December 17, 2010, protests began in Tunisia, and we heard about it – in passing.  Some of us paid more attention, but media gave it passing coverage as something going on in a foreign place; almost like the killing fields in Rwanda received coverage during the horrific genocides.  It was happening, but it was so far away and so few details that it wasn’t top of mind.

And then Egypt came in January 2011.  A revolution began and TV news was on the ground – even after being threatened and some correspondents being injured. Every day of the 18 day rally brought intense coverage of the people and the events.  While Facebook and Twitter were part of the rallying cry for the people; the TV, Internet and print news coverage was a constant – as if to show us in the West, something completely revolutionary – a revolution by the people of an almost authoritarian hegemony.  That was something to see and the media, and the people ate it up.

And now, we have Libya – a former arch-Enemy of America, replete with voluptuous nurses, the Lockerbie bombing and the years of stories…. And in mid-February a popular uprising began with the hope of ending the 41 year despotic rule of Muammar Qaddafi.  We cared because “the region was in revolt”, and because of the oil.  That said, we seem to be caring a lot less than we did…

Today, news reports that the revolt is “heating up” and that conditions in Libya are getting worse.  Yet, TV coverage is trivial and far from what it was – many of the local papers reported on Charlie Sheen’s latest sanctimonious rant with more detail than the alleged deaths of hundreds, probably thousands, by Qaddafi forces.  Media outlets were kicked out, and there’s no mass media within the country, the little we know is from handheld home videos.  So, media can’t film it, so media doesn’t cover it. 

The biggest revolution to happen in our time that can literally change the world has bored us.  Qaddafi is not going fast enough for us to care, media is not able to walk around freely, so it just doesn’t get the headlines Egypt did – and hey, how long can we in the US stay focused on another region?

We are the A.D.D. generation, complete with blackberries and tweets wanting instant response, one wants revolution like we want our movies – in time and on schedule.  One hopes that when history asks our generation about Libya’s fight for freedom, we can offer them something more insightful than the fact that it interrupted the war between CBS and a spiraling sitcom star.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

What a relaxing weekend it has been.  In NYC, it’s a real winter snow storm (and my daughter is so excited school was cancelled and we have already made the morning trip to Central Park with the sleigh and to play in the snow).

Some random musings:

–Must read piece for PR pros on Mashable about 2011 media predictions:

http://mashable.com/2010/12/20/news-media-predictions/

The changing nature of the media & journalist relations affects our PR agency.

Excerpt: “2010 was finally the year of mobile for news media, and especially so if you consider the iPad a mobile device. In 2011, the focus on mobile will continue to grow with the launch of mobile- and iPad-only news products, but the greater focus for news media in 2011 will be on re-imagining its approach to the open social web. The focus will shift from searchable news to social and share-able news, as social media referrals close the gap on search traffic for more news organizations. In the coming year, news media’s focus will be affected by the personalization of news consumption and social media’s influence on journalism.” Read the piece…

Our consumption habits have surely changed (I say this as a recent Apple TV Addict – Have just got it in my home and wow its amazing.)

–Finally saw Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps this weekend (at home) and was very disappointed – Not a good movie. It was a scary movie in terms of how they portray the world’s economy and in that sense it was probably realistic.  Of course, there were media lessons: In the final act of the movie, we saw Gordon Gekko’s daughter publishing a breaking story on her blog which causes federal investigations and leads to a reconciliation of the Gekko family.

–Sunday’s New York Post had an article entitled: Deep in the heart of taxes

As the columnist states: “The figures work this way on a pitch to come live in the Big Apple: You can get a 17% raise, but you’ll still take home less pay compared to that Texas job. But I hear the rent is cheap, right?” He then goes on to quote Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who laid it out after the census beat-down. “Unless we make this an attractive state to do business in and to live in, people are going to continue to move out. We have to reverse that trend.”

Amazingly, none of the sports reporters cite the tax issue as they run headlines like this ESPN Article: Should New York worry about rejection?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=5922745

The article details superstar athletes Cliff Lee and Lebron James turning down New York. I recently spent time with a very high profile celebrity who had briefly considered moving to NYC and immediately laughed it off and said “Taxes? No way am I coming to NY.” Food for thought at all levels, even celebrities.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Have used this before, but thought would make sense to publish again.  Am often asked what to do with media articles after they are published. Wanted to provide a few ways to increase the value of articles:

1. Create a publicity book with articles that can be shown to editors, clients, investors or at trade shows

2. Publish articles on your website, via your social media mechanisms, etc

3. Frame feature articles and display them prominently in your reception area of your office/personal office

4. Mail copies of the placements to past and present customers, vendors, bankers, public officials, employees, opinion leaders, etc.

5. Include articles in your sales presentation book, and as part of direct mail/e-mail campaigns

6. Use articles as examples to counter sales objections

7. Use the articles to establish credibility

8. Use published articles to open doors when key prospects will not see you

9. Use articles to lure staff away from competitors

10. Use articles to convince prospective buyers to pay your designated price

11. Send articles to authors of books on subjects related to your industry

12. Use your articles to get more articles published in other publications

13. Use your articles to stimulate buzz around your business

Ronn Torossian

5WPR