by on February 4, 2009 1 Comment

Big Challenges for Journalists in the Current Media Environment

Yesterday we did a post about some of the most common challenges facing media relations professionals in 2009. Now we’ll shift gears and touch on the biggest challenges facing journalists today. Like the media relations challenges, we’ve had some great discussions with journalists about their current working environments and the challenges they face on a daily basis.

Some of the most challenges cited by journalists are:

  • Having to write content across multiple formats (print, Web, blog, etc.) – asked to produce more content than ever before
  • Dealing with constant changes to coverage areas and beats
  • Working in uncertain economic environment – layoffs are happening all over the place
  • Forced to do more with less – staff cuts means there’s more work for those left behind
  • Competing against other outlets for the best stories – working around challenges of a 24/7, global news climate
  • Adapting to new media – social networking and Twitter for example
  • Processing and filtering incoming information efficiently – including the high-volume of pitches and press releases
  • Managing relationships and sources for ongoing story development
  • Dealing with uninformed PR reps and off-topic pitches
  • Finding necessary information from PR reps and online press rooms

Many of these findings will come as no surprise to professional journalists or publicists, but the problems seem to be amplified in the current uncertain economic environment.

Do you work in the current media environment? What challenges are you facing on a daily basis? In what areas could you use more help to do your job? What could media relations professionals do to make your job easier? What tools or resources do you find most helpful in your daily work? Let us know your thoughts.

Filed Under: journalism, media trends Tagged With: ,
by on February 2, 2009 1 Comment

Welcome to Journalistics

You’re probably wondering what Journalistics is all about. While we’re not ready to spill the beans on exactly what we’re up to, it’s only fair that we give you a general idea – since you took the time to visit our blog.

As the founder of Journalistics, I’ve spent the past couple of years observing industry trends and having hundreds of conversations with journalism and public relations professionals about the state of the industry. More specifically, about the state of affairs surrounding media relations. As a PR professional myself, I’ve spent the past 10 years pitching the media – I’ve developed and managed media relations campaigns for at least 100 clients at this point (mostly high-tech startups).

When I started out in PR – like many of you – I was handed a media list and a release and told to “smile and dial.” In the early days, results came easy. I got a rush out of placing stories and working a media list that way seemed to work fine. Over the course of the past couple of years, it’s seemed more difficult to get results for clients. Sure, a lot has changed in the worlds of journalism and media relations – but in a lot of ways, the approach and exchange are the same.

I think my close ratio really went down because I stopped trying to force feed pitches to journalists that just weren’t interested. It was a waste of my time to pitch stories that I knew journalists were never going to cover. Even when the story is a good fit for an outlet, there are probably dozens of reasons why it may not be a good fit for the format, timeframe, etc. The truth is, a lot of the stories that are pitched aren’t really that newsworthy – and ultimately, it’s up to the media to make this call. [Read more...]

Filed Under: journalistics Tagged With: , , ,