“PR is an intermediary. We sit between the media (and increasingly the public) and our clients, trying to control the flow of information between the two. The internet has no respect for intermediaries – media and consumers can find information in other ways; they are no longer dependent on us to provide access to it. That’s why we will become increasingly intermediated unless we find new ways to deliver value to both sides.”
So says Niall Cook. Hmmm. Does that help my earlier case for PR to add value in an online world?
Technorati tags: Niall Cook, internet, Public Relations
An intermeidary trying to control the flow of information between the two? What a bizare description of PR. I have list count of the times the end of the PR industry has been foretold and yet it grows and grows.
I think it’s an accurate description if you hold the conventional view that PR is about controlling the message/information.
It works in rather a favourable way if you view PR as helping facilitate and provide the context for information. Viz a viz PR as ‘public relationships’ over ‘public relations’.
It wasn’t a description of PR, David. Nor was it the foretelling of the end of the PR industry. Please read the full context on my blog if you haven’t already.
I was merely pointing out that – historically at least – PR has been an intermediary and the internet has no respect, and indeed encourages the bypassing, of that.