This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Two articles published in this week’s Business in Vancouver Newspaper got me thinking about how rapidly the media world is changing.
1) Right after PR firm Quay Strategies closed its doors, Mat Wilcox announced her closure of The Wilcox Group to become a private consultant, given the way that social media has changed the way that businesses (and consumers) announce their news and communicate in real time.
2) Vancouver company Mobify, a developer of websites for mobile devices, is one of three companies that closed a deal in Japan to convert Japanese websites into mobile ones for Western phones. Mobify sites can be recognized with the .me suffix at the end.
I’ve seen CEO Igor Faletski speak at an IIMA event and see him every so often at events and on Twitter, so it’s amazing to see the international development of his business. Vancouver has become such a huge hub for digital media and wireless service providers. According to BIV, Hootsuite, which is my social media platform of choice, hired two Japanese-speaking employees to service its 39% of web traffic located in Japan.
I only foresee these services growing bigger and better in Vancouver, which is a great place to test them out. Vancouver has become quite savvy in the new media realm with the emergence and staying power of groups like the Social Media Club, DIGIBC (an amalgamation of New Media BC and the Wireless Association of BC) and Meetups like Third Tuesday Vancouver (on social media) and the Vancouver Blogger Meetup Group.
I also notice a lot of traditional media changing the way they deliver news – more navigatable websites, mobile apps (I often use Metro & The Globe & Mail‘s iPhone apps), columnist blogs, and digital editions. 24 Hours was one of the first I noticed that had PDFs of its back issues available on their website 5 years ago (an important feature when you have to collect coverage for a client), and the other local papers slowly followed. With much of the news being free now, it’s interesting to think about how traditional news outlets will be able to stay alive with the dwindling number of print subscriptions (that also obviously use paper) and paid advertisements.
As for the closing of two of my PR competitors, I can only say that it’s a reflection of a possible new model for marketing, and that businesses of all sizes must be extra careful in these economic times of what they charge and how they spend public relations funding.
