I have been meaning to blog about a recent survey that caught my eye. It looks at the attitudes of PRs to the online v offline coverage debate (I mentioned it briefly in a previous post).

Gordon Macmillan brought the survey to my attention and since then others have contributed (including here if my Vietnamese is up to scratch…). Andrew makes a great point about perception versus reality in terms of media consumption.

I don’t have much to add in all honesty, but do strongly feel that this is (unfortunately) a poor reflection on our industry if these survey results are indeed to be believed.

There is no doubt that client opinions have much to do with this print-is-everything mindset, but that is no excuse, as we are supposed to be the so-called ‘experts’. Any agency that does not at the very least have an understanding of the complex nature of ‘online’ (or digital or 2.0 or whatever you want to call it) needs to tread very carefully indeed. SEO, social media and the like are no longer dots on the horizon. These aren’t terms that can be sprinkled in new business pitches without any true ‘understanding’.

These concepts are mainstream. Online is growing exponentially. A large proportion of the media are very very very aware of this.

We need to be too.

picture credit