Is the traditional PR pitch dead?

Thanks to the power of new information channels such as social networking, online video, and blogging, PR professionals can create and syndicate content at the click of a mouse. Forget a press conference or interview—instead, people and companies push out self-made online videos, blogs, and Facebook posts to avoid the hard questions and control their message.

You are your own media outlet—or at least you can be.

“Blogging, Facebook, and Twitter have made it so much easier to pitch the media. It’s real time, 24 hours, and easier to manage,” says Teana McDonald, founder of InStyle Diva. “It’s created many more opportunities for us to pitch our clients.”

Facebook and Twitter are now pathways to news, but their roles might not be as large as some have suggested. A January 2013 poll from the Media and Public Opinion Research Group found that about 31 percent of Americans get their news from cable TV, and 29 percent access news from network television. The Internet placed third, followed by newspapers and radio. So, social media platforms are additional paths to news, not replacements for traditional ones.

So, is it possible to practice PR without reporters? Sure.

Is it smart? Not really.