As publications shift into the digital space, competition is rife. In August, BlueChip attended a panel discussion hosted by the IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) about the impact of the digital revolution on the news cycle.
The panel comprised Damon Kitney, the Victorian business editor of The Australian; Nabila Ahmed, companies and markets editor at the Australian Financial Review; and James Hall, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs at Brambles.
With fewer staff and a 24-hour news cycle, the challenge for journalists is to be first to report the next big breaking story. For the communications and media specialist, the challenge is getting ‘cut-through’ with time-poor journalists and finding the best way to interact them to get a ‘win-win’ outcome.
Mr Kitney summed up the key message from the event: “Relationships are valuable, it comes down to the simple premise of trust”.
For communications specialists, this means building trusted relationships with journalists by reliably providing information that’s relevant to their remit, by their preferred means –at a time that suits them.