How PR’s value transcends media relations

PR pros must be savvy businesspeople to excel in their roles.

With shrinking newsrooms and crowded digital channels, it’s not enough to share a press release to get your organization’s story out there. You have to be a shrewd media manager—and show your value to the bottom line.

The digital disruption driving this recalibration of the media industry was the focus of a fireside chat at a recent Ragan conference broadcast for our Communications Spotlight podcast.

The chat featured Amy Patti, communications director for the Museum of Science and Industry, and Lee Gordon, director of marine communications and public relations for Brunswick Corporation. It was moderated by Eric Benderoff, senior vice president of brand solutions at Burson Cohn & Wolfe.

Here are some highlights:

Thinning newsrooms

Brand managers must be prepared to tell their own stories. Patti concedes that being in a major media market helps the Museum of Science and Industry, because the Chicago Tribune still has a robust Arts and Entertainment section. Communicators in other markets aren’t as lucky.

She says you have to “balance the thinning of the newsroom with the rise of the influencer.”