For decades, the public relations industry relied on the media to publish clients’ stories and help them raise visibility to achieve results. An agency would pitch a news outlet on a potential story, and that news outlet would either run the story or not.

As publicists, we were all at the whims of reporters who could determine whether our message was ever heard. For that reason, it was imperative to think like a reporter — finding out what a given reporter finds newsworthy and then fitting in the client’s message accordingly. What was deemed newsworthy was different every day of the week depending on what else was happening in the world. In truth, this is still important, but the world of public relations today barely resembles the one from even a decade ago.

With the rise of the internet, more and more people are seeking information about a variety of topics, but are trying desperately to avoid advertising and other forms of overt marketing. After all, barely one-third of global consumers claim to trust “most of the brands they buy and use,” according to research by Edelman. And 56% report that they’re able to spot “trustwashing,” a term used to describe when “brands use societal issues as a marketing ploy to sell more of their product.”…[Read More]