The Changing Media Landscape and Why Content-Marketing Matters

I must confess that nowadays it is a rare event indeed should I pick up a printed magazine or newspaper. Everything is online and easily accessible via a mobile phone or tablet, and these occupy enough space in my handbag that I do not even want to pack an additional lipstick, not to mention anything bigger than that! There is one occasion though when I usually have one or more items of reading material with me, and that is when I travel. Because I do not have a connection on the flight and all electronic devices must be off during the first and last 10-20 minutes of the journey, this gives me a good excuse to buy the latest paper magazine and newspaper hot from the shelf, and I usually get the local editions which always have something different from the ones I get back home (or so I thought).

I’m sure that this is the case for a lot of the people around us. So much has changed over the years in technology and the media, and everything in between, PR Newswire has changed in many ways too. We have great initiatives to keep our business ahead of time, but what goes on in the minds of the journalists, business communications professionals and the public will shape our business in the years to come.

Traditionally we have transmitted news to journalists and media organizations via the wire, and they were the only key news source for the general public. Now, with aggressive media startups, booming social media platforms and an increasing number of citizen journalists, the way we find, consume and spread news has changed. Bloggers, industry-leaders, business communicators (public relations and marketing professionals) and the general public are all publishing and curating content. How could we survive if we only target journalists and traditional media outlets in this changing media landscape, and most importantly, how could we fulfill the mission we promised our clients – to spread their news far and wide?

Our Global CEO, Ninan Chacko, was interviewed by Campaign Asia in Singapore last week. This is one of the key trade magazines covering the region’s marketing-communications industry, and the discussions covered how search, social and mobile transcend paid, earned and owned media. They also discussed how our company, a 60-year old business, transformed from a content supplier for news organizations to a content-marketing platform. The expansion of our influencer database (including but not limited to journalists) and online syndication network as future goals was also outlined by our CEO.

You can read more on his visions and plans to serve the corporate communications and marketing community in Asia, and on how we adapt to the heterogeneous market in the region by clicking the image above, or click here.

Sarah Tam is the Regional Marketing Director for PR Newswire. Follow her on Twitter at @sarah_tam.