Sean O’Leary is a vice chairman at Susan Davis Worldwide.
As a former reporter and present public relations professional, the dramatic decline in newsroom positions is admittedly miserable.
Axios reported this month that 1,972 newsroom jobs have been lower to this point in 2023, surpassing the overall for all of 2022. It’s affirmation of anecdotal proof that has piled up because the COVID-19 pandemic that newsrooms are being slashed to their naked minimums.
On social media, I’m continually seeing reporters sharing that they’ve been laid off and searching for new alternatives. I’m an enormous sports activities fan, and The Athletic chopping top-notch sports activities writers was additional indication journalism isn’t making a living the folks working media corporations must make.
There have been different indicators of misery. I’m seeing shops giving reporters double beats. A neighborhood publication that I steadily work with misplaced two reporters and employed a single reporter to switch each. I can not think about the stress stage related to that.
There’s additionally the problem of aggregated information sources and articles, as legacy shops are buying and selling on their beforehand established identify to supply clickbait or sponsored content material to maintain views up whereas not producing any journalism of their very own. As a child who grew up wanting to write down for Sports activities Illustrated, that model turning into simply one other web site determined for clicks has been painful.
However hope isn’t misplaced. Although there could also be fewer journalists, there are nonetheless exceptionally good journalists on the market, doing their greatest to handle powerful conditions and ship top quality articles.
As a public relations professional, I can not lament the adjustments within the journalism trade. Properly, I can, however I can’t do it for lengthy. Our purchasers nonetheless want media protection, and we nonetheless must ship. With that in thoughts, listed below are a couple of suggestions for succeeding with smaller newsrooms.
Perceive useful resource limitations
5 years in the past, if a reporter informed me a narrative was being shelved or not adopted up on because of lack of assets, I’d really feel like I used to be informed a fib. Right this moment, I perceive utterly.
To this point in 2023, I’ve labored with a number of top-level mainstream shops who’ve confirmed information tales for purchasers, bought began on the story, after which informed us they couldn’t end because of useful resource limitations. That is, sadly, part of the PR enterprise now.
The distinction is that, in contrast to 5 years in the past, when an outlet presses pause on a narrative, it’s not for good. As a PR professional, it’s by no means straightforward to get – or relay – the message {that a} story is on maintain. Nevertheless it’s not the tip of the world.
It’s crucial to grasp why shops are pushing again, and to maintain religion that the potential story remains to be on the market for publication.
Settle for late arrivals for occasions
In Washington, D.C., there are such a lot of occasions going down each day that It’s inconceivable for as we speak’s newsrooms, stretched to the restrict already, to maintain up. Whereas each PR professional desires of a prolonged checklist of confirmed media weeks upfront, the fact of as we speak makes that extraordinarily unlikely.
Since we’ve come out of COVID, I’ve been fortunate to pitch media for a slew of high-profile occasions, together with with members of Congress, President Biden, and international prime ministers. The one fixed over the previous two years is how the media constantly RSVPs for occasions on the final minute.
This has not been good for my blood stress or nervousness round these occasions, however I’ve come to just accept it as a part of the job now.
Final summer season, we labored on securing media for the groundbreaking of a brand new Memorial devoted to Operation Desert Storm. The day earlier than the occasion, we had two media members confirmed. By the point the occasion passed off, we had a riser stuffed with cameras and reporters – the overwhelming majority of whom confirmed the morning of the occasion. I even had one TV outlet name me quarter-hour earlier than the occasion started to see if they might nonetheless attend.
Is it irritating? Provided that you let it’s. It’s a shift in mentality. Occasions are extra on the mercy of the information cycle, as newsrooms make late choices on protection due to smaller workers sizes.
Make the reporter’s job straightforward
This isn’t a brand new side of public relations. Our function has at all times been to assist a reporter inform a narrative for our purchasers and supply them with the required data to take action. However that function is extra vital than ever as a result of these reporters are stretched so skinny.
It means going past a easy media package or primary background data. It’s about offering as a lot as you’ll be able to to the reporter. Do you’ve gotten footage or movies prepared on your story? Ship it to the reporter upfront. Do you’ve gotten extra detailed explainers or articles that will assist the reporter perceive a topic? Share it with them beforehand.
Most significantly – do not forget that there isn’t a such factor as a silly query. As newsrooms shrink, we’re additionally seeing newsrooms get youthful as a result of these youthful workers make much less. It’s incumbent on us, as PR professionals, to information and educate youthful reporters on the subject material so the tales they produce are higher.
The long run will deliver extra consolidation
The arduous fact about journalism in america is there shall be extra cuts and extra consolidation until one thing adjustments. Whereas I’d love to show the clock again 20 years after I was getting into the world of journalism as a each day newspaper reporter, it’s not going to occur. Heck, my first job as a cub reporter for a each day with a circulation of about 10,000 doesn’t even exist anymore.
It’s a unique world. We should put together for a future that options even fewer journalists and shops.
It’s not nice. However I’m a PR professional, so my job is to spin the information.
It’s a problem. And with problem comes alternative.
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