Edelman says PR becoming more like journalism through blogs

Link: The Globe and Mail: On-line era leaves media out of loop: PR expert.

Blogs and other on-line tools that enable companies to speak directly to consumers are pushing the news media out of their central role in public relations, says the head of the world's largest independent PR firm.

Richard Edelman, president and chief executive officer of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, said that as PR practitioners rely less on the media to get messages out, they need to act more like journalists.

I got this link from Steve Rubel who also adds this great comment:

Richard is spot on, but he doesn't explain - at least in the article - how our industry should train the troops to think like journalists. Truth be told, this is something we should have been doing all along. The best PR professionals are doing this by rote, day in and day out.

My feeling is that the best way to teach PR pros to think like journalists is to encourage them to become bloggers. I have learned more about journalism through one year of blogging than perhaps anything else over my entire career in this business.

Every PR agency large and small should be giving their employees the "keys to the blog." Let your employees dabble in the blogosphere and learn. Even an internal blog is better than no blogging at all. Will the big PR agencies rise to the occasion in such manner? I highly doubt it. Many of them are risk averse. Is Edelman doing this? One hopes.

This is why I feel for the first time in perhaps years small and mid-size agencies have a chance to use blogs to their advantage to showcase their talent, acquire new clients and grow.

Steve is so right, especially about the learning experience and, ultimately, I think about the advantages blogs offer smaller agencies.

Being Australian I'm a bit blunter than a mere New Yorker: I reckon if you're in PR, especially if you're just starting out, the message is get blogging or die.