ReveNews
News Media: The Definition Just Keeps Getting Broader
As has been noted both in this space and elsewhere, traditional news media is in trouble. Not only have papers like the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News shut down their presses, but other big names are cutting staff and tightening their belts for the rough ride ahead. The New York Times Company (NYTCO) just announced at least 100 more job cuts throughout its operations, as well as a 5% pay cut for all remaining employees. All of that is in addition to the 500 positions cut in January with the closing of City & Suburban, NYTCO’s wholesale distribution business.
Putting aside for a moment what this means to the advertising industry, both online and off, the grand failure of all these publications to survive in the world of new media poses another problem, one that fundamentally changes the way we in press relations and marketing get our messages out to the world. It’s hard enough to get someone in the news media to pay attention to a press release in the best of times; it’s harder still when there’s no one on the other end looking for it.
As with so many things these days, this challenge means adjusting our thought process to include non-traditional means of information dissemination. That doesn’t mean that press releases on no longer useful, but it does mean that the word “press” just got a little broader. Consider the example of Netflix.
About four years ago, Netflix marketing management took a pretty narrow view of dealing with information requests from the press, according to Steve Swasey, Vice President of corporate communications for the Los Gatos, California based online multimedia delivery company. If someone who wasn’t from the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or NBC came looking for a statement or an interview from Netflix, they likely were out of luck.
Among those in that crowd? Mike Kaltschnee, the writer of a blog called Hacking Netflix. Contrary to its name, Hacking Netflix is dedicated not to exploiting the service, but in Kaltschnee’s words, “the desire to fully understand [Netflix], and … learn as much as we can about this company and share this information.”
When he joined Netflix, Swasey was shocked no one had reached out to Kaltschnee, if for no other reason than to make sure the information posted on his site was accurate in its portrayal of the company. “There’s no one out there focusing more on how we do business than Hacking Netflix,” says Swasey. “In fact, the main stream media often go to Hacking Netflix for unbiased, objective, third-party information about us.”
From that point on, Swasey made it a priority not just to respond to requests from small online operations like Hacking Netflix, but to make sure blogs and online publications were included in press releases and corporate announcements.
In September of last year, the relationship with online publishers came in quite handy when Netflix needed to let its customers know about an unfortunate service outage that caused shipment of DVDs to be delayed. Since Hacking Netflix routinely receives more traffic than Netflix’ own community blog (according to compete.com), giving up-to-the-minute information to Kaltschnee kept the Netflix community more informed that Netflix could do on its own.
The lesson here is that someone, perhaps many people, on the Internet is likely having a conversation about your company. And even if that person doesn’t have a press badge, it’s in your best interest to participate in that conversation.
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