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 de facto miserable.
Axios reported this month that 1,972 newsroom jobs have been minimize up to now in 2023, surpassing the entire for all of 2022. It’s affirmation of anecdotal proof that has piled up for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic that newsrooms are being slashed to their naked minimums.
On social media, I’m continuously seeing reporters sharing that they’ve been laid off and in search of new alternatives. I’m a giant sports activities fan, and The Athletic reducing top-notch sports activities writers was additional indication journalism isn’t earning profits the folks operating media corporations must make.
There have been different indicators of misery. I’m seeing shops giving reporters double beats. An area publication that I steadily work with misplaced two reporters and employed a single reporter to exchange each. I can’t 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 provide 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 put in writing for Sports activities Illustrated, that model changing 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 prime quality articles.
As a public relations professional, I can’t lament the adjustments within the journalism business. Nicely, 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 here are a couple of ideas for succeeding with smaller newsrooms.
Perceive useful resource limitations
5 years in the past, if a reporter advised me a narrative was being shelved or not adopted up on attributable to lack of assets, I might really feel like I used to be advised a fib. In the present day, I perceive fully.
Thus far in 2023, I’ve labored with a number of top-level mainstream shops who’ve confirmed information tales for purchasers, acquired began on the story, after which advised us they couldn’t end attributable to 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 simple to get – or relay – the message {that a} story is on maintain. However it’s not the tip of the world.
It’s vital to know 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 not possible for as we speak’s newsrooms, stretched to the restrict already, to maintain up. Whereas each PR professional desires of a prolonged listing of confirmed media weeks upfront, the truth 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 overseas 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 anxiousness round these occasions, however I’ve come to simply 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 filled 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 may nonetheless attend.
Is it irritating? Provided that you let or not it’s. It’s a shift in mentality. Occasions are extra on the mercy of the information cycle, as newsrooms make late selections on protection due to smaller workers sizes.
Make the reporter’s job simple
This isn’t a brand new side of public relations. Our position has all the time been to assist a reporter inform a narrative for our purchasers and supply them with the required info to take action. However that position is extra essential than ever as a result of these reporters are stretched so skinny.
It means going past a easy media package or primary background info. It’s about offering as a lot as you possibly can to the reporter. Do you have got photos or movies prepared in your story? Ship it to the reporter upfront. Do you have got 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 is no such thing as a such factor as a silly query. As newsrooms shrink, we’re additionally seeing newsrooms get youthful as a result of these youthful staff 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 laborious fact about journalism in the USA is there will probably 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 distinct 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.
