Traditional media still shines

This latest report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that 95 percent of people still get their news from traditional sources such as newspapers, television and radio.

The report also states that new media news often originates from traditional media sources and is repeated and repackaged for social media tools like blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

Further, the survey showed that original source information is being posted on news and blog sites; official press releases often now appear word-for-word in first accounts of events. In addition, bloggers and site hosts often lift this information and carry other people’s work without attribution.

This is valuable information for marketing professionals integrating social media programs into marketing and media relations outreach plans.

A few tips to integrate new media and still stay on top of the game for traditional media PR efforts:

• Be sure the press release is in ready-to-be-published format for public viewing.
• Hyper-link source material in the press release so editors and their readers can verify it easily.
• Try to track the information you disseminate for clients to see how it is being used and re-used. Mashable.com, a social media guide Web site, offers great advice on social media analytics.
• Stay in touch with editors and don’t hesitate to ask what you can do to make their job a little easier.

The Pew survey is good news for those in traditional media who feel dwarfed and outsourced with today’s quickly changing social media landscape. It’s also a good reminder for the PR industry that while new media plays an increasingly important role in marketing, strategic tactics built on a foundation of solid traditional media outreach can still deliver the biggest impact to target audiences.