The trend of newspapers building up their online comment and blogging platforms is growing and there are no signs of this slowing down. Just this week the Mail Online launched ’Right Minds’ – it’s very own online blogging space, much like ‘Comment is Free’ from The Guardian site. Not only does Right Minds feature online-only comment from its regular journalists such as Melanie Phillips and Richard Littlejohn, but it provides links to outside bloggers such as Guido Fawkes, Politico and Conservative Home. Readers are urged to join in live debates and vote in polls. Next week, the free London newspaper, City AM, is about to launch its own version called ‘The Forum’, as media don Roy Greenslade reports. So the boundaries between journalism and readers are falling, with greater interaction between the two. This will allow newspapers to know their audiences better and be more accountable for what they write about, which over time could substantially change the nature of newspaper reporting itself.

But what does this mean for PR and communications? The trend of newspapers evolving their basic operation from print to online is full of opportunities. With an initial article becoming the platform of debate, potentially involving a whole pool of specialists and experts, emphasis will shift from the individual journalist and media outlet to the wider discourse on a subject. And in turn, the role of communications will be less and less ‘behind the scenes’ but increasingly public, transparent and open.

Some believe they are, but they certainly won’t become extinct. Rather, they will evolve to be a different beast altogether in the next ten years (if not earlier). The reason most newspapers suffer is that so many duplicate the same content. In other words, three newspapers reporting on the same football game in one city cannot profit. But if one newspaper has exclusive content the others don’t, then game on. This is exactly why regional papers have suffered so much – they need strong hyper-local content, otherwise they are just competing with other news sources when it comes to things like sports news and film reviews. Niche interest is therefore the name of the game. So newspapers are getting thinner, and those that do survive this exodus of readers will serve highly specific roles and have a super-strong editorial focus. Yes, they will survive and probably across multiple formats (apps, websites and some in print), but the content and audience will be very different.

This leads us to a perhaps familiar conclusion for healthcare communications. We really must all become accustomed to non-traditional PR tactics and opportunities. Yes, think Twitter, Facebook, SEO and social media. To think of a media campaign without these is cutting out a huge audience, and also drastically reducing your ‘opportunities to see’.

If you’re interested in the latest developments in the media and digital space, why not start by reading our latest edition of Core.