This is how we see it at the Wilkinson Group for public relations and corporate affairs practitioners: our working environment will evolve at a yet greater pace than last year, and the 
opportunities will be in identifying the change-areas.
- Some CEOs will become more stressed or frustrated by the yet greater speed of change, some will be more intimidated. This will require us to become better interpreters, and navigators.
- Traditional newspapers will become less relevant to business. The surveys are already indicating this trend. In short the big companies will still consider traditional media the most reliable source of business news; but if you are reaching out to SMEs or you work in small to medium businesses, newspapers are not the place to be seen.
- Social media will become more relevant to business as more leaders decided it cannot be ignored. So public relations practitioners will be asked for more help in this sector – work loads will increase. We’ll see the rise-and-rise of smartphones, tablets and Apps. If you haven’t got an iPad then put it on your birthday present request list.
- Newspapers will normalise the paywall, and the public will get used to pay-as-you-use. We’ve already seen this start at the end of 2011 (SMH, AFR, NYT, FT, etc).
- The cloud will become an accepted location to store data, aided by the war between Apple and Google.
- Video streaming/integration of vision into written content/blogging will start in earnest (later in the year or 2013) and replace blogs and e-newsletters as the latest growth area. Cisco says that >90% of internet content will be visual by 2015. Those of us with some television experience will be beneficiaries – others might want to start revising their media training skills/handbooks.
- Blogs will remain relevant in the new media, with celebrity bloggers increasingly
taking the stage, with many others tiring of the time commitment and stopping. The quality of writing of some blogging will creep up as celebs emerge, and we will start relying on some bloggers for reliable information. There will be increased demand for good, quick writers. - The concept of ‘communities’ will become more defined, integrating online and offline. Our advice will be needed here. Consumers (including us at home) will be encouraged to adopt a trusted community newspaper (witness the way News Ltd and the SMH are competing for this space, and also your suburban paper, and the NYT and the FT, and more); then there will be brand communities – the brands that consumers choose to trust will become ‘favourites’; retailers will learn and start down the process of ‘catchup’ with this, and some won’t make it; coffee shops, etc., will increasingly offer Wi-Fi so that they can be a part of your community; membership offers will become more frequent. All of this in an attempt to make this complex information revolution slightly simpler and more defined. The opportunity for us public relations practitioners is to be involved personally and professionally.
- Traditional PR networks like the PRIA, the IABC, and IPREX will be challenged if
they don’t keep up – the competition to provide us with friendship, networking and information sharing will be increasingly intense. The opportunity for us is at a personal level and the challenge is to choose cleverly.
