PR’s Last Words — “For the love of God, I’m not dying!”
I’m walking on eggshells with this post because I’ve just entered PR, recently marking my one-year anny. But I, like many other PR professionals, must defend our industry.
Tom Foremski is at it again. A couple of weeks ago we heard the now familiar “PR is dying” bit from him and it provoked plenty of responses defending PR. Despite his points having some merit, I’m not going to let it get me riled up. Clients speak for themselves when they hire an agency. They hire them to fill their communication needs in what they view as a valuable way. Whether that’s counsel, news hits, or blogrelations / new media activities, or all of those.
Others have made the point that the media isn’t dying, it’s changing, and the same goes for PR. Adaptation is taking place, albeit at a slower pace than it should, but it’s happening. More and more PR firms are diving into the blogosphere, as are enterprises, and changing their communications models. Does the rise of new media and blogs devalue traditional PR successes like a BusinessWeek or WSJ hit? I don’t think so. Why? Because it is still a big part of what companies require of their PR hands. Will a print hit always carry the same weight? Probably not — now, more and more, online hits are just as important. But these things don’t indicate that the media or PR is dying, simply changing.
Honestly, I think Foremski knows this and is simply trying provoking us. Maybe we as PR people should simply take his commentary as encouragement to ensure we evolve with the changing communication landscape. I think CNET is the best example of a traditional media outlet that gets it and is the model for success if the rest of the MSM is to avoid losing too much ground (Random thought, my bad).
On a side: I met Tom for the first time on Thursday night, but only briefly as he was rubbing shoulders with, ironically, some PR folks. Kind of confusing given his comments, but like I said, maybe we take it and spin it into motivation. He has said some nice things about Voce, so I can’t hate on him too hard. 
Im a senior CCPA (Corp. Comm and Public Affairs) major at SMU. As a part of one of my classes we are required to make a blog and add links, post our papers/comments etc. I’ve run accross your blog and wanted to invite you to visit our class blog (www.smuccpaclass.blogspot.com) and look over the students individual blogs which are listed on the right side. Our goal is to get some feedback from PR professionals out in the industry. We’ve just listed our top ten blog topics that we’ve come accross in our searches and would love some feeback. Hope to hear from you! Thanks
Ashley