Saturday, March 14, 2009

What the Merging of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News Means for Practitioners

Public relations practitioners must be aware that journalism is a struggling business and the effects on the practitioners’ jobs caused by changes in the industry. Circulation of newspapers and magazines has been declining and large staff cuts are being made on a regular basis due to new technology. There is an increasing trend of readers getting their news online.

So what does the recent bankruptcy filing by the Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, the owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily News, and philly.com, mean for public relations practitioners?

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late February, the Philadelphia Newspapers announced that starting March 30, The Daily News will become an edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia Media Holdings, the publisher of the Inquirer and The Daily News, will count the broadsheet paper and the tabloid as one paper.

Brian Tierney, the chief executive officer of Philadelphia Newspapers, has assured that the restructuring on paper will not affect staffing, content or management. Practitioners, particularly local practitioners, will not need to experience the shrinking of potential target audiences because of declining circulation, and they will not need to remove contacts from their media lists due to lay offs- at least not yet.

This guest blog was written by PRowl Public Relations firm staff member, Evan Nicholson. Follow her on Twitter: @evannicholson

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