The incredible shrinking editorial news hole

If you work in traditional public relations trying to get your clients' articles or firms featured in publications, perhaps you are seeing what I call the "incredible shrinking news hole."  With advertising revenues dropping because of the economy and the change in reading habits, it's becoming harder for newspapers and magazines to generate more editorial space.  

I've read the articles in leading business publications, and I've seen the research on the change of reading habits, most notably with younger people.   Today, those in the under 30 age group are now reading their news online.  Even then, much of what they are reading are Twitter posts which link them to online content.

So, public relations professionals like me have to adapt to the times.   I have already seen the power of blogging when it came to helping present the Austin Innotech as a premier trade show for wireless phones, e-marketing and new tech platforms.   From working with bloggers in Austin, I recognized the change in reading habits and the impact of being featured in the right blogs.   By adding a focus on the right bloggers, attendance for the event increased by 30-percent at last year's Innotech.

Still, it's sometimes hard to convince old school executives how many people are reading an article about them online.  Thanks to the metric tools of Budurl, my clients at LiveOak 360 can help public relations professionals show the number of hits for an article that appears online.   If you haven't taken this statistical tracking tool for a test drive, then you're missing out on an application that clearly shows the data that old school marketing executives need to prove their case. 

With the combination of a changing economic landscape and media influencers, public relations professionals have to rapidly change their approach to media relations.  However, thanks to apps like BudUrl, we now have some powerful measurement tools available to us.