CorpComms Magazine

The rapid and continued rationalisation of traditional media combined with ascendancy and elevation of online news, information and resources is leading to the birth of a new breed of journalist - the aggregator.

The aggregator no longer has the privilege of just one medium. Instead, there is an increasing expectation for journalists to write, edit, take photos, shoot video and produce multimedia. We are told that we have moved from a 'tell me' to 'show me' culture; evidence suggests that a further step has evolved, namely an 'explain it to me' culture that requires openness and authenticity in the eyes of the reader.

The challenge for PR professionals is to generate compelling content that meets these needs in a fast, competitive and discerning space. There presents a huge opportunity for those agency and in-house teams that understand this marriage of news creation and distribution. Like the aggregators, PRs need to develop editorial insight and information and distribute it through multiple channels; as Trendwatching's powerful predictions suggest the power now rests in the hands of the media consumer!

Journalists have never had exclusive use of their tools. Just consider the scale and reach of 100 million YouTube videos, four million Wikipedia articles, 200 million blogs, one billion tweets on Twitter and 200 million people on Facebook each month. A corporation's employees also inhabit this infotainment space and effective internal communications strategies must embrace it. No doubt the next 12 months will be as challenging as the last and staff should be engaged with at a more personal level. One effective way to do this is to view the company website or intranet as your own dedicated news channel.

The key questions for PRs this year are: has the word on the streets become the key driver of reputation? How do we best harness the power of internal ambassadors to spread the corporate word? And do we now need to accept we can't control the message but only influence the dialogue?

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