Presentation to PRSA Midwest District Conference, June 19, 2014, in Springfield, Missouri. What role do public relations and media relations play in a world that is becoming increasing disintermediated? This presentation discusses opportunities to rethink our approaches to PR.

1. Media Relations in a
Disintermediated
World
Andrew Careaga (@andrewcareaga)
Missouri University of Science and Technology
PRSA Midwest District Conference | #prsamdc
June 19, 2014 | Springfield, Missouri

2.  Director of Communications,
Missouri University of Science and
Technology (@MissouriSandT)
 Journalism background
 Blogger (Higher Ed Marketing –
andrewcareaga.wordpress.com)
 Twitter fanatic
 Tweeting about:
#highered
#music
#stlcards
#branding

4. Supply-chain disintermediation

5. Supply-chain disintermediation

6. Remember these days?

8. Some recent examples…

10. What does this mean…
… for the news
media?

11. The media, disintermediated?
‘In 2012, a continued erosion of news
reporting resources converged with
growing opportunities for those in
politics, government agencies,
companies and others to take their
messages directly to the public.’
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism
“State of the News Media 2013”

12. To paraphrase
the famous
words of Pogo …
THEY
MEDIA

13. Six emerging media trends
1. Online-only news organizations
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism, “State of the News Media 2014”

14. Six emerging media trends
2. Emerging (but small) revenue streams
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism, “State of the News Media 2014”

15. Six emerging media trends
3. Social and mobile influence
 39% of online news consumers use 2 or more
devices to access news
 20% say their smartphone is their primary news
access point
 Mobile is the “second digital revolution”
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism, “State of the News Media 2014”
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, “Digital News Report 2014”

16. Six emerging media trends
4. Digital storytelling
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism, “State of the News Media 2014”

17. Six emerging media trends
5. Television joint operating agreements
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism, “State of the News Media 2014”

18. Six emerging media trends
6. Demographics
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism, “State of the News Media 2014”

19. It was never about the media
 The “mass” media
were the quickest
way to reach
massive numbers of
people
supposed to be
 The goal got lost somehow and it became
about the media and the clips
 We are finally coming back to the core
purpose of outreach

20.  Marketing > advertising
 PR > just mainstream
audiences
 You are what you publish
 Authenticity, not spin
 Participation, not
propaganda
 ‘The Internet has made
public relations public
again’
From The New Rules of Marketing & PR,
David Meerman Scott
The rules have changed

21. Source: HubSpot, 101 Awesome Marketing Quotes (www.hubspot.com/101-marketing-quotes/)

22. ‘Although many traditional
journalists and media outlets
see these new kinds of
platforms as competition,
they should be seeing them
as an opportunity, a
potential new model that
could not only support
existing forms of journalism
but broaden the pool of
potential talent.’

24. Consumers are:
 Side-stepping institutions (like the news media)
 Making – not just consuming
 Taking back their time (on-demand viewing)
gamechangers.wolffolins.com/

25. Think like a media organization
‘From a brand point of view,
what this means is rather
than piggybacking on this
really powerful brand with a
huge built-in audience [i.e.,
television], we need to look
for opportunities to engage
by creating our own
content. Thinking like a
media company, not like an
advertiser.’
David L. Rogers, author of The Network Is Your
Customer

26. Thinking like a media organization
 Clearly identify audiences and goals
 Create, publish and repurpose stories
 Create our own distribution channels
(including the news media)
 Leverage social media
 Welcome Encourage participation
and user-generated content
 Curate and aggregate content

27. Identify audiences and goals
Who is (are) the audience(s)?
 Segment and prioritize
 It’s OK if the news media is one
What do you want to tell them?
 Clear messages
 Add value
 Repeat, repeat, repeat
How do you want them to respond?
How will you measure success?

28. Create, publish and repurpose

29. Create, publish and repurpose

30. Create distribution channels

31. Create Use existing channels

32. Leverage social media
 Involve your own networks …
 50% share or repost news
 46% discuss news issues or events via social
media
 … but reach beyond your corporate
channels
 Leverage influencers
 Retweet or repost coverage

33. Social media sharing tips
 Numbers matter
 Bigger and louder works – to a point
 Beware “link fatigue”
 Sharing videos more effective on Facebook
than Twitter
 Click-through rates are higher on weekends
 It isn’t all about us
 Use combined relevance
 Help your audience look cool
Source: Dan Zarrella, “The Science of Social Media” (smsci.danzarrella.com)

34. Encourage participation
Make content:
 Easy to share
 Relevant to your customers
 An answer to WIIFM

35. Encourage participation
Also:
 Consider incentives or contests
 Measure effectiveness

38. Curate and aggregate

39. Content curation vs. creation?
 Become an
information
resource
 Establish credibility,
expertise and trust
 Encourage sharing

41. Content curation tips
 Identify your topic(s)
 Follow the thought leaders
 Draw from a variety of sources
 Add your own commentary
 Retitle your content
 Quote short excerpts
 Credit and link to your sources
 Encourage sharing
Via Hootsuite (blog.hootsuite.com/successful-content-curation)

42. But what does this all mean…
for media relations?

43. What if PR gets disintermediated?

46. Adding value to the media
 Share your organization’s expertise
 Don’t waste reporters’ time
 Rethink meaning of “media” in a new,
interconnected media ecosystem

47. Rethinking ‘media’
‘The conventional – journalistic –
interpretation holds that a medium is
a carrier of something. … To a
biologist … a medium is a mixture of
nutrients needed for cell growth.
‘It seems to me that this is a useful
metaphor for thinking about human
society; it portrays our social system as
a living organism that depends on a
media environment for the nutrients it
needs to survive and develop.’
John Naughton, From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg:
Disruptive Innovation in the Age of the Internet

48. The new media ecosystem
 Think like a media
organization
 Amplify via social
 Think more broadly
about “news”
 Republish media
coverage
 Gather and curate

49. Thanks!
Andrew Careaga
Twitter: @andrewcareaga
View this presentation on slideshare.net/andrewcareaga