There has been some fairly swift and aggressive reaction to an article this week in the New York Observer: http://www.newyorkobserver.com/20060313/20060313_Jason_Horowitz_media_newsstory2.asp. The article quotes my boss, Richard Edelman: http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/ following our firm winning PR WEEK'S Large Agency of the Year last week in New York.

In comments at the award dinner, Richard discussed the state of trust in institutions and talked about how the media environment is changing from one dominated by mainstream media (MSM) to one increasingly balanced with on-line media and blogs (my paraphrase). As a result, Richard believes that the PR industry is entering its golden age, a time when PR firms and practitioners manage real-time dialogues with multiple stakeholders -- including MSM and bloggers.

Some media in this region are speaking out on Richard's comments and suggesting that our firm clears the air. In essence, they believe that Richard is suggesting MSM are losing their importance. Clearly that is not the case.

However, I believe there needs to be a discussion in this region about the evolving media environment. Briefly, the new environment is:

1. Opinion leaders and consumers are using multiple sources of information in forming opinions about companies, issues, governments, products, etc.


2. In this multi-stakeholder and multi-media environment there is an increasing convergence of media and technology enabling greater peer-to-peer communication along with enabling MSM, companies and their advisors to interact in real-time. That is one of the reasons why most MSM use a related on-line medium to satisfy the real-time, interactive demands of their 'readers'.


3. Clearly, MSM remain center stage as a player in this environment. However, they are now not only reporting news and analyzing issues, they are also part of a multi-faceted dialogue.

Specific to the debate in this region, I am aware of reaction to the New York Observer article in Mediaconnect Asia: www.mediaconnectasia.com (a member only forum). The debate on mediaconnectasia.com reinforces my view that with pervasive digital access, non-traditional channels of media are influencing opinions and are a source of debate that we need to engage.

Bottom-line: We're in a rapidly changing environment where the importance and influence of MSM remains strong and has the potential to become stronger as it becomes sources of information for online media and vice versa.