How is social media changing your PR contact lists?

PR pros are juggling social media versus traditional media and trying to find the right balance

Organizing media lists—and figuring out who was on the A-list and the B-list—used to be a lot easier. The big-city dailies and the TV network news shows were at the top, along with national print magazines. Regional dailies and trades rounded out the rest of the list, and circulation and Nielsen numbers easily indicated which outlets were the most influential and worth pitching.

Fast forward to today, and the modern media list filled with bloggers, who might only have a couple of hundred readers but wield enormous influence and have the power to push news to the front page of The New York Times.

Then there are the trade and local newspaper reporters whose blogs or Web coverage might garner a far larger audience than mere circulation numbers indicate. Add podcasts into the mix, and you can see why managing media lists is now much more complex.