By Leo Valiquette

Yesterday I enjoyed a lively piece from PR executive and co-manager of The Bad Pitch Blog Richard Laermer about the gradual extinction of the newsprint dinosaur or, at least, the dinosaur mentality of those who run the old-school journals of record.

He asserted that traditional media suffer from a fatal self-importance (I’d say arrogance) that sees most media empires failing to appreciate the threat and opportunity that is social media. As evidence he cited the mass layoffs taking place at major dailies across North America as advertising revenues droop. For PR practitioners, It’s a problem exacerbated by clients who don’t see the value of online media coverage if there isn’t also some ink to stain their fingers.

Bottom line: Blogs, Twitter feeds and the like are giving consumers of information more nimble, responsive and interactive channels through which to get the news and comment most important to them. It’s a point not to be overlooked by PR types either.

As a former journalist, I wholeheartedly agree that print media outlets must go far beyond simply offering their content online, even offering exclusive online content. They must be ready to engage directly with their audiences and provide the news in a much more dynamic fashion than has been the norm.

A perfect example of the way in which a newspaper can take advantage of the tools offered by social media (and one that also demonstrates there is hope for change) cropped up today at A Shel of My Former Self. Shel Holtz talks about how two local newspapers are using Twitter to cover a sensational murder trial in Idaho. One is simply using Twitter to alert interested readers of when there is new content available to read, while the other is taking the truly pioneering step of providing real-time updates of the proceedings direct from the courtroom. Now that’s what you call dynamic news coverage.

There is hope after all.

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