PR stunt or the New journalism? The Titans of Public Relations Are Going Direct to Viewers and Readers
Posted on | June 3, 2010 | No Comments
Public relations, to some the business of puff and fluff, is flexing its media muscles like never before and strong- arming its way into areas once considered the exclusive domains of advertising agencies, broadcasters and publishers.
PRs, who once had to go through the prism of journalism to convey their messages to a mass audience, are increasingly confident in circumventing traditional media altogether. In generating their own video and text-based digital content on behalf of clients, they are not only taking the bread from the table of a weakened advertising sector but encroaching onto the old territory of television and press companies.
At the forefront of this change is Edelman, an American-owned PR firm with 51 offices around the world. When in February Edelman hired Richard Sambrook, the former head of BBC News, the audacious appointment caused surprise in all disciplines of the media.
It wasn’t just that Sambrook was a corporation stalwart of 30 years standing, but that Edelman had given him an intriguing new title: Chief Content Officer. Last week the company went further by hiring as its new head of strategy the influential business journalist Stefan Stern, a marquee name on the Financial Times.
The path between journalism and public relations is a well beaten one. But whereas most who previously crossed to “the other side” were hired because of their industry contacts or because their poacher-turned-gamekeeper insight made them effective crisis management “flaks”, Edelman’s strategy is altogether different.
Sambrook is convinced that Edelman’s clients must take their message directly to the consumer. “The mantra is that every company has to be a media company in their own right, telling their own stories not just through websites but through branded entertainment, video, iPad and mobile applications,” he says. “Big companies are going directly to the consumer to engage them now….
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