PR Professionals navigating the world of Online Journalism

There is no denying that the face of the media industry is steadily changing over time.

Print journalism is in decline and the move to online journalism is the new age of media. Over the past few months alone we have witnessed the print edition of The Times Ireland close down to solely concentrate on its digital outlet, and there have been major changes in Independent News & Media as sadly redundancies took place across a number of its newspapers. 

As print media goes deeper into decline, a number of long term print journalists are making the more stable move to online media.

Leslie Ann Horgan, former Editor of Irish Independent Weekend Magazine is now Head of Content with Her.ie and Ellen Coyne, former Senior Political Correspondent with The Times Ireland has taken up a role as Political Correspondent with Joe.ie.

The changing face of traditional to online media is often lamented among PR people and this can come with good reason. As out of date as it may seem, the PR industry needs print media.

For many PR professionals having a client appear on the front page of a newspaper tends to win out over an online piece and is often still deemed as more valuable to the client. 

Perhaps it is the case that there is still a great amount of value placed on print media coverage as this is traditionally how positive PR was measured and there is a slight reluctance and slowness to treat online coverage with the same respect.

It also takes time for PR professionals to build relationships with journalists and we tend to have ‘go-to’ print journalists that we have worked with over the years depending on the content we are pitching. It is important for the implementation of successful PR that positive relationships with online journalists are formed in the same respect. 

Online news media is growing at a rapid pace in Ireland with companies such as Maximum Media continuing their expansion into areas such as politics. As the shape of the media industry continues to change, new adjustments and relationships need to be formed as the PR industry navigates how best to work with online news media.

Regardless of print or online, PR still shines through as a way of valuable third party verification of positive news for you and your brand adding momentum and credibility to your other promotional activities.

Michelle

Michelle Lynch is a PR Account Manager in the Dublin office of Fuzion Communications, a full service agency offering Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

International Women’s Day…Bigger and Better Than Ever

I am a huge fan of International Women’s Day.

I love that us females have our very own day on March 8^th every year to celebrate women just as they are, their achievements and contributions, and I’m delighted to witness this special day getting bigger and better every year across the world.

For what seemed to me to be a relatively new day in the calendar, it turns out that International Women’s Day is anything but, having originally believed to have started in 1909 in New York as part of the trade union movement, by a woman called Theresa Malkiel, a Russian born, American labour activist, suffragist and educator.

However, International Women’s Day as we know it today essentially took off in 1975 when the United Nations began celebrating the day on March 8^th as part of International Women’s Year.

Personally, I have only in the last few years come to recognise the importance of IWD as a day to champion women’s rights and female empowerment.

It is a wonderful thought that all over the globe there are events and celebrations taking place, and every country has their own special traditions to mark it. In several countries such as Russia, China and Italy IWD is now a national holiday, while in Japan International Women’s Day is gradually turning into a full month of celebrations.

In Ireland, we have our own things going on and plenty of them too.

In the week or so leading up to IWD events are taking place all over the country from inspirational panel talks with powerhouse female CEO’s and media personalities to the hosting of coffee mornings. It appears that this year many women across Ireland have taken it on themselves to organise their own IWD events in their offices or at home, while others might mark the day by meeting their friends for dinner and clinking their glasses in celebration.

I marked IWD this year by attending an event held by ‘Women on Air’, a wonderful organisation with the aim of getting more females on radio, television and panels as experts in their own field.

As I listened to former Political Correspondent for RTE, Martina Fitzgerald discuss her own career and thinking back on a talk I attended in Twitter headquarters last week with Dr. Ciara Kelly, the key theme I am taking away with me from IWD this year is resilience.

Listening to these two women talk openly about continuously falling over, then managing to pull themselves together and get back up even when they really didn’t feel like it was inspirational and is something many of us women can relate to.

The overall theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #BalanceForBetter but I’m sticking with my own theme of resilience, and if I fall down that’s okay because I’ll try my best to pull myself back up!

Michelle

Michelle Lynch is a PR Account Manager in the Dublin office of Fuzion Communications, a full service agency offering Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland