Corporations Need to Get With the Post-Newspaper Times

It's a sign of the times when the President of the United States hammers the death knell into the coffin of print journalism with an interview on an Amazon Kindle.

The "old times aren't coming back," President Obama said last week about the demise of the newspaper amid the rise of trendier, more powerful new media franchises like Buzzfeed.

Most everyone seems to have grasped this reality except for big corporations. Their interface with the outside world-the PR department-is still stuck in the old times.

Corporate communications knew simpler times back when Tom Brokaw was around. In those days, if you ran PR for a multinational, there were only three things to worry about: morning drive radio, the newspaper, and the nightly news.

You were the gatekeeper, making certain that nothing "got out" that could hurt your employer's reputation. When controversy hit, "no comment" was the venerable convention of the day.

But the PR executive from this bygone era is alive and well, still working in some of America's largest corporations. Though times have changed, the corporate structure has stayed the same. The big boss is to blame. CEOs helming today's enterprises are rightly focused on expanding profits, but they have wrongly miscalculated how public perception factors into those profits.

It's time for a radical shift in how corporations approach their PR function.

First, the design of these departments is outdated. Its professionals are organized in a Cold War standoff with the press when, in fact, the press as we know it may soon be gone.

Secondly, the function of each PR professional in the unit bears some semblance to an assembly line: Someone handles earnings. Another does national press. Someone handles trade press. A young Millennial does "social." And someone senior oversees them all. But how can anyone truly own the corporate narrative in this set up?

That narrative is swirling all around multinationals today-with or without their consent-on Twitter, in print, on cable news, on blogs, in investor chat rooms. How have multinationals dealt with this trend? By staring blankly, as though at fish in an aquarium. Many contract with elaborate services to analyze this activity, cram it into a dashboard. Although they may be eavesdropping on this virtual conversation, what are they saying about themselves?

The trends portend that this reticence is ill advised, if not fatal. For example, why would a multinational have several people dedicated to handling media relations when Americans are reading less? A paltry 9 percent of the public claims print media as their main source of news, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Why are these departments monitoring social media instead of engaging it to drive their own narrative? There will be over 140 million smartphone users in the U.S. next year. Yet, the corporate communications; reflex is to reach investors via the pages of the Wall Street Journal instead of the APPs in their iPhones.

It's time for some bold CEO to blow up the structure of their PR department and start from scratch.

Their profits depend upon it. Soon, earnings will be derived from today's Millennials. By 2020, this 18-34 demographic, which comprises 30 percent of the 18+ U.S. population, will all be recent college graduates and well-heeled, double-income married couples with kids of their own. And, like the rich, to paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, these twittering nabobs of narcissism are very different from you and me.

What should be done?

To compete for Millennial money, CEOs must reimagine their companies as film studios. "You are a content provider. So be the media," I would argue.

Every company has moviegoers (shareholders), critics (analysts and media) and a leading man or woman (the CEO). What's missing is a producer, director and editors-and in that order. But first they need their screenplay.

Some companies are getting it right. Does Heineken sell more beer by issuing press releases or buying commercials? Neither-they head to the airport.

In a brilliant stroke of viral marketing, Heineken erected a billboard in JFK International Airport in New York City, asking travelers to drop their plans and fly off to an unknown destination. "Departure Roulette," as it's called, has become a media sensation: the YouTube Video has over 2 million views and a Google search for the contest produces nearly 5 million results.

Of course, a popular consumer brand like Heineken understands the importance of gaining mindshare better than, say, a global supplier of office supplies. But every brand has a soul. Heineken wants to portray itself as a risk taking, adventurous brand, to "recommunicate" itself, with the public. This kind of soul searching is precisely the variety multinationals must start practicing.

If the CEO of Corporation ABC wants to modernize the model of his PR department here are my top recommendations:

1. Video, video and more video-Story telling is the new megatrend in brand building. Where there could be a press release, a video would be a ten times more persuasive alternative.

2. Social media is not a side dish-Social media is media, commensurate with the power to influence of most major news outlets. Use it in non-traditional ways. Instead of sending a press release into internet oblivion, tweet your announcement to your 250,000 followers. If you don't have that many, you are doing something wrong.

3. Transform your website into a channel for your brand-If you tinker with only one aspect of your brand, make it your website. Use it as a content portal for all the story telling about your company. For example, instead of publishing an expensive 350 page manual about your sustainability efforts (and tossing the PDF on your website), break it down into a series of compelling micro-films.

4. Invest in new media relationships-That NPR reporter your PR executive wines and dines may be out of a job soon. Is he or she spending as much time with editors and writers at prominent online outlets like Mashable?

5. Establish new positions-To dramatically alter how your company interacts with the world, hire a full time writer and producer from Hollywood or the broadcast news world. These individuals know how to tell stories, and they could do it from the inside-out at your corporation.

There can be no half measures taken to revolutionize the contemporary, corporate PR function. The late adopters, most assuredly, will be the first casualties.