Where have all the reporters gone?

The economy is taking its toll on newspapers across the country and South Florida is not immune. Just recently, the Miami Herald announced a 17 percent workforce reduction with many of those job cuts coming from the newsroom. And the same scenario is playing out at newspapers from Fort Lauderdale to Jacksonville due to falling circulation and advertisers who are bolting for the web and other platforms.

 

So how is this downsizing affecting the way PR professionals do their jobs? A great deal.

 

 

The news hole is shrinking at most dailies as publishers try to maximize the space for advertisers they do have, and as a way to cut printing costs. So with less editorial space, that means it’s becoming more competitive to get news in the paper. And with staff cutbacks, reporters’ workloads are getting heavier. All this means story pitches need to be more targeted, concise, relevant and timelier than ever before.

 

In addition, many newspapers are tweaking the direction of their content to satisfy the perceived desires of their readers. It’s important that PR folks take note of these changes and tailor their pitches accordingly. You may have been successful in getting something in the paper last year, but this year the rules have changed. You might hear editors say, “We don’t cover that any more,” or “We’re covering that, but in a different way.”

 

It’s often easier to get news in the paper when pitching a specific beat reporter. However, with the downsizing of people, there’s also a downsizing of beats. Many beats are simply going away or reporters are being asked to double up.  This can be frustrating because if your news item doesn’t fit neatly into a “little box” or beat, it may get lost in a black hole. All this can lead to new opportunities however. For those reporters who are assigned new beats, they will be eager to learn all they can about the subject matters and you may have a client who can help them.

There’s another silver lining, or should I say a silver “on lining.” Many print reporters now have blogs were they can opine on issues that will never see the print edition. So in this case they invite ideas and discussion. As a publicist, you may have a better shot of getting your clients covered in a web story rather than in the paper which is a still a very positive thing because many of these blogs are widely read. Many experts think online news is the wave of the future. I grew up reading a newspaper and despite having the Internet at my fingertips, I still relish the idea of getting my daily information from the print edition. But such will not be the case with my children’s generation who get their news exclusively on line.

There’s a lot of anxiety in newsrooms these days, which means reporters now have a lot more to worry about then simply journalism which is their first love. So it’s very critical you are in tune with what’s happening and be very targeted with your pitches. You may also want to consider hiring a PR Agency to help get your message out. They spend their entire days talking with reporters, understanding their needs, following editorial changes and tracking all of personnel changes. The harder it is to get news in, the more you want to rely on a professional to do it.