Thanks for your insights. No, I certainly did not intend to understate the bloodletting underway throughout the media business. The key challenge for traditional media that remains foremost is how they make the transition online and remain trusted sources of fair and objective content (to the extent that any of us can be fair and objective). That’s the key differentiator that will allow traditional media to remain a viable industry before the rise of social media. On the PR side, yes, we must be able to appreciate and pursue all the available channels, traditional and otherwise, that can best serve our clients’ interests.

Social media is definitely the most prevalent of the emerging promotional channels. It is the new landscape of marketing, and as marketers we have to embrace it because its impact is incredibly powerful. Follow any of the conversations on Facebook or Myspace, and it is easy to see how influential these sites are. This is where our market lives and breathes, so that is where we have to meet them.

I’m not so certain that the death of traditional media has been “exaggerated,” as you put it. Television, newspapers and radio are becoming more and more narrow, and you hear stories all the time of the layoffs these companies are undergoing. The numbers are staggering. The reasons, of course, are more and more people are getting their news and entertainment from the internet, rather than ink and paper or TV, and the average consumer will just not tolerate advertising anymore. So in that sense, I would say the death of the media is very real and it is something for which marketers need to be prepared.

We at KMC anticipated this shift years ago when trends started emerging, but our clients just weren’t ready to embrace the idea of focusing on social media and the internet. It was hard for them to see how the internet could be a key player in public relations. So, we gave them time to warm up to the idea and now they’re fully on board. We developed a position here called Internet Advocate, whose sole purpose is to scour the blogs, social networks and other forums and internet sites and contribute overtly to the conversations, increasing the client’s presence on the web. Our clients see the benefit in it and are happy we offer this service.

Will the TV ever go away? Will newspapers fold up? As you mentioned, it’s too early to tell. The liklihood is they’ll always be around. What is clear, is that social media – specifically on the internet – should be a primary focus of everyone’s promotional efforts.