Ok, maybe not yet, but they need to be. There has been a significant amount of discussion in the blogoshpere this past week about the end of the press release. Much of the discussion has lead to there being no reason to put out a press release in the new “Conversational Era” of PR. Both Shel Israel and Stowe Boyd touch on this point.

With the release of the Forrester report that I wrote about yesterday, the growing importance of blogging is pretty obvious. Shel has a great quote in his blog post about the impact of this new Conversational era on PR:

What is a great matter, if you are in the PR proffesion is that you will not succeed if you focus on smiling and dialing a media list of strangers, if you are intent in inject hubris into what you have to say or write. If you think you can succeed by being just cute or clever, you are living in the wrong Era.

Today, you need to join the conversation. You are part of the news distribution system, not just for your clients, but for the community where your clients would like to flourish.
So take heed all of you in the PR and communications industry. Your job is going to become more about being part of the conversation than guiding the conversation. By creating a blog, companies are going to be able to extend their voice in the conversation, and help consumers see that it’s not just a big company on the other end, but an organization of people with ideas and emotions.