Work Around the Media

The media landscape is changing dramatically---especially in the way communications professionals try to engage local and national media organizations. In a recent presentation to the Spokane Regional Marketing and Communications Professionals---MarCom---I said that the traditional ways of persuading reporters to cover stories don’t seem to be working. So I suggested that they may want to take a more radical approach: go around the media altogether.

Here's what I mean. Technology allows us to either focus on specific audiences without filtering our messages through the legacy media or use on-line tactics to get the media's attention.

Two specific examples: Former Kendall Yards project manager Tom Reese recently announced on Spokane’s new local social networking site Launch Pad---INW that he was among the more than 300 people who were laid off from Coeur d’Alene based Black Rock Development---something all of Tom’s friends had known for a couple of weeks but a fact that had escaped media attention. It wasn't until Spokesman Review reporter Tom Sowa---also a member of this community---read Reese's announcement that a story was written. Reporters follow blogs and on-line communities to find out what's going on. Second example is even better. President-elect Obama will deliver his weekly addresses through You Tube---bypassing the media completely and allowing him to get his messages directly to his audience: you.

Bottom line---why spend money to get so-called "free media" when you might be better off using those resources to sharpen your messages and communicating directly with your target audiences? What you’re doing now probably doesn’t work as well as it did so trying something new can’t hurt!