Media Bistro – This site offers great courses taught by media professionals. If you sign up for the Avant Guild program, you will receive discounts on all of your classes. Programs range from PR to social media to copywriting to magazine writing. The content taught by the professionals is very informative. And there are weekly chat sessions scheduled with the instructor so you can ask any questions you may have about the topic. In addition to online classes, there are workshops held in a variety of cities including Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago. It’s also a fun way to network with other professionals in your field of interest.

Boulder Digital Arts – I am fortunate enough to live in a city that offers a program that teaches digital workshops in the evening. A major requirement of the industry is to have digital media skills. Many journalism schools are just now realizing that they need to add digital media to their curriculum.  The workshops at Boulder Digital Arts have made impossible software programs like InDesign, Dreamweaver and Final Cut Pro seem like a breeze. After spending endless hours trying to figure out these programs on my own, I discovered BDA and took a chance by attending a class. Within three hours, I had a comprehensive overview of how to use the program to suit my professional needs. Workshops like this are a huge time saver.

Books – While I haven’t upgraded to a Kindle yet, I do have a growing collection of PR books to inspire me. I frequent Amazon on a regular basis to see their inventory of PR, social media and marketing books and textbooks. Even if the book was published in 1992, I find some lessons in the books are timeless for our industry.  Plus, it also gives me hope that some day I can find time to actually write a book while keeping up with a busy public relations career.

Web Tutorials – Never underestimate the power of the Internet. With sites like eHow and YouTube, you can watch a video on how to do just about anything. Need to learn how to get over the fear of public speaking? No problem. There’s a tutorial for that. And I have been able to find a ton of digital tricks through watching videos that walk me step by step in to completing a task. The Do-It-Yourself movement has really taken off online thanks to these tutorials. And, the best part is that these videos are submitted each day so there’s always something new to learn.

Get out there and learn something new. Then come back and tell us about it!

The ideal candidate has the following qualifications:

• A personal passion for emerging forms of communication; a hybrid of techie and creative minds. The perfect candidate is constantly learning about new technology, ideas, trends, and tools. An early-adapter who asks a lot of questions.
• Hands-on experience with social media tools, both in community building and in targeted campaigns, including blogs, twitter, social networks, podcasts, etc.
• 2 – 5 years experience; has managed multiple agency accounts; an organized individual with great client service skills.
• Has supervised administrative or intern staffers
• Knows how to build and analyze social media reports.
• An understanding of the ethical rules and best practices presented in emerging media. The ability to articulate these guidelines to fellow staffers and clients when necessary.
• The ability to integrate new media tools into a multi-outlet campaign with the goal of strategically reaching a target audience.
• With guidance, the ability to educate / train staff members and clients on new media.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills (written and oral).
• Is self-motivated, creative, brings new ideas to the table.
• Is detail-oriented and energetic.

Additionally, special weight will be given to candidates with these skills:

• 1-2 years of experience working in traditional public relations i.e. writing press releases, media relations experience, crafting pitches, etc.
• Relevant tech skills, such as HTML, advanced photoshop, etc
• Experience in the travel industry, or with fashion/outdoor brands

Email resumes and salary history to Angela Berardino at angela@turnerpr.com.  No phone calls, please.

In my opinion, traditional media isn’t going to go away fully, but it will most likely evolve into something we can’t foresee right now.  It will be something totally different than what we have today.   I think we’ll end up with an overall expansion of the media industry.   However, in the meantime, I think it will become much more segmented… more regional, more personalized, more tailored to interests.

Case in point is the New York Times expanding regionally to offer local news with a national eye.  It’s a smart tact and one I think (and hope) will pay off.  (Here’s hoping they opt for a Denver edition).

Same goes for magazines. I do think there will continue to be a reduction in the number of magazines (very sad to say) but the good ones will stand strong for now.  If I love architecture, I am not going to abandon my subscription to Architectural Digest.  If I love sports, I am not going to get rid of Sports Illustrated.

I believe that if you supply great content and stay true to your consumer base, people will buy it (and this holds true for an online subscription model also).  I attribute this increasingly personalized and individualized content to the Internet and, namely, Twitter and Facebook.   Here, savvy marketers know to reach their already loyal consumer base with a message that will appeal to them individually.

Guccione’s comment is that in the ’70s and ’80s, newspaper editors would ask him how to get his generation to read papers.  His response: “You’ve got to make it interesting.” Guccione goes on to say that one of the problems is “that they haven’t made it interesting to young people. They have not made it relevant.  They are literally anachronistic.  Until they accept and realize that, they cannot begin the treatment that will save them.”

He also comments on how financial folks and shareholders controlled too much of the content in publications – instead of catering to the wants and needs of the consumer and end-user.  He sees this pendulum swinging back and correcting.

Further, he points out that the very thing that is traditional media’s greatest inherent strength is also its biggest asset – which is quality.  Its power lies in the fact that due to natural competitiveness among traditional media, the very best writers are with the very best publications.

Very interesting times indeed.

Overall, the tone was exceedingly positive and a wide variety of perspectives were provided, as each media attendee represented a very different area of the industry.

The media panel included:

• Kyle Wagner – travel editor of the Denver Post; an active blogger, tweeter and foodie.
• Lois Friedland – a freelance journalist, and editor of national and regional magazines and newspapers.  Friedland is also About.com’s adventure travel guide, and the Colorado Ski Resort Examiner for Examiner.com.
• Tim Shisler – a published writer, videographer, photographer, speaker and founder of Plus Ten Media, a digital content agency for outdoor and travel brands. Shisler’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Backpacker, Bicycling and Mountain Bike. (www.timshisler.com)
• Jason Hussong – an independent blogger who narrates stories about his travels around Colorado and the world at www.jasons-travels.com.
• Kara Williams – an award-winning freelance journalist with more than 18 years of national and regional print experience. She also is a founding member of both the successful www.travelingmamas.com and TheVacationGals.com.
• Kris Wagner – the map editor for Backpacker, Bicycling, and Mountain Bike magazines. His work in interactive media, GPS, and maps has garnered more than 20 web and publishing awards, including three national magazine awards. His research on the limited lifespan of digital gadgets was also published in Wired magazine.

Here are some of the key learnings:

• Travel trends we will see in 2010:  experiential travel, luxury travel deals/specials, volunteer travel, organized tours.
• As the media industry continues to evolve and print content decreases, the digital arena is becoming increasingly significant.  That doesn’t mean that print is totally dead (as some people love to claim),  it simply means that you shouldn’t ignore the digital world.
• Along with sending journalists a pitch from which they’d lift copy for a print outlet, send them a 40-character or less phrase that they can lift and use as a Twitter message to promote your story.
• Travel coverage may get more regionalized as local papers have fewer resources for national/international stories, and readers continue to take more driveable trips.  To this end, the future of print newspapers will be led by the larger, national dailies, with regional bureaus providing them with local news feeds.
• Travel content is more fluid than ever, and we’re seeing an evolution in formats. Audio slideshows, geo-coded maps and video are being used as regular parts of travel features.
• Not surprisingly, Twitter should be used to engage in a conversation with journalists and build a relationship, not just to push your ideas and pitches on them.