The future of local news

I looked through my daily email from the Public Relations Society of America - Issues and Trends - and found a neat little article about local news, and whether or not it's still proprietary.

The article suggests that though many consumers are now perusing the Internet, and other electronic mediums to get their news, there are segments of journalism that are still perceived as important. The quote du jour seemed to be this one, "The Pew report noted that audiences consider newspapers to be more valuable than before. In fact, news content has slightly increased in popularity during the recent months."

So it seems that journalism hasn't altogether vanished; but the article, written by Barbara Bry for the PRSA Tactics, also states that there needs to be a major change in the way traditional media distributes the news. If you think about how Twitter works, people who regularly use Twitter could find a piece of news, a press release or whatever - possibly quicker than they might be able to find it on a search engine, such as Google News.

Which leads to the main point of the article, that news is no longer proprietary, or exclusive. Bry mentioned bloggers who are increasingly putting forth news on their sites.

For example, yesterday, local news reports here in the Twin Cities brought forth a report about the new Budweiser Party Deck that will be constructed at Target Field - the new home of the Minnesota Twins. I frequent a blog at www.twinsballpark2010.com which, over the last three months or so, through pictures and guided tours from the blog's host, has suggested that something was going to be built out in the left field area of the ballpark.

So, it was really no surprise to me when I saw it in this morning's newspaper, or last night's 10pm newscast. This example seems to prove Ms. Bry's comments - that in order to be relevant, something will need to change in the way local news is presented.

Her full article, can be read here: http://www.prsa.org/supportfiles/news/viewNews.cfm?pNewsID=842348074

Thanks for reading.