The Online-Only SeattlePI.com Will Be a Media Relations Challenge

Take a moment and note that this is a landmark day in American journalism, and by extension, American public relations. A major American metropolitan newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has completely dropped its print edition and gone online only.

It's hard to imagine this not being the first of a trend, and perhaps even the beginning of the end of big-city print newspapers. Their old business model is gone forever -- print newspapers will never again be chock-full of classified ads or display advertising from downtown department stores. Make no mistake, these were the two big revenue streams of metropolitan newspapers, and they're gone for good. Meanwhile, these once proud and profitable newspaper franchises have been incredibly slow to adapt to the opportunities of the Internet, exposing the weakness and passivity of their management teams. As much as I am a child and creation of big-city journalism, I won't shed a tear as these dinosaurs vanish or morph into fossil fuels (to stretch the metaphor to its breaking point). They had it coming.

I've moved on, way on, from my days as a big-city journalist, and now I'm a media relations consultant. And in that role, it's my job to look at developments like these and tell you what it means for our profession. Here are my thoughts:

1. As newspapers downsize, shrink, die or go online only, it means absolutely one bad thing for us: fewer people to pitch, less space to generate high-quality media placements. Our jobs get tougher.

2. The old way of doing PR, spraying press releases out to a captive media audience, takes another mortal blow. Fewer mainstream journos means fewer targets for this outdated style of media relations.

3. Yet again, this evolution creates an opportunity for talented and creative PR people. Fewer resources on the media side means they need us more. That isn't going to make the media more receptive to non-news puff pitches -- it means that if you can develop and produce real media-friendly information full of facts and figures, anecdotes and examples, and real-world emotions, you're more likely to find a media audience.

4. We're all going to have to get better at working with online-only, jack-of-all-trades journalists. As SeattlePI.com "executive producer" Michelle Nicolosi wrote today about their team, "We don't have reporters, editors or producers—everyone will do and be everything. Everyone will write, edit, take photos and shoot video, produce multimedia and curate the home page." Do you know how to work with this new breed of journalist? If not, you better find out soon. Your job in PR depends on it.