You’d think that the continuing decline of traditional trade and consumer media would result in a corresponding decline in the need for Press Releases.

Not so…one can conclude from a recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Deep cost containment in most media channels is resulting in less original ‘news’ reporting – instead much of the information presented is simply repeated or repackaged from previously published information.

This means more and more media outlets are getting their information from press releases social media and a variety of other sources.

At the same time there is a dramatic increase in the number of online publications and opportunities especially in the social media realm. In many B2B market segments what used to be a handful of trade magazines has now multiplied to dozens of online media opportunities. But regardless of whether it is print publications moving more of their content online or bloggers searching for news there is a tremendous need for original content.

What a great opportunity this is for PR/MarCom professionals! We need to have a strategic PR plan in place that provides these new media outlets with a steady stream of valuable information – news releases case studies white papers feature articles survey results etc. Ironically social media now allows us to conduct surveys and search for news items online that we can then develop into our own news releases. What used to be a program consisting of a monthly news release has now expanded into weekly news releases to meet the needs of the 24/7 online media.

More then ever content is still King and PR professionals generate the content.