Traditional media: Is it dead as a dodo?
WELLINGTON – Traditional media is dying but that’s an opportunity for the tourism industry according to Jane Dent, Tourism New Zealand general manager International PR.
Speaking at the NZ Inbound Tour Operators Council (ITOC) annual conference in Gisborne last week, Dent said that with the demise of traditional media, international media outlets were desperate for content and Tourism New Zealand had moved in to meet that demand.
She said in the last year in the United States about 120 newspapers had closed or gone entirely online. More than 24,000 journlists and media professionals had lost their jobs.
In the United Kingdom more than half the newspapers could be shut by 2014, she said.
“But that’s an opportunity for all of us to push our own content into the media,” she added,
As a result Tourism New Zealand has set up its own global news room (www.newzealand.com/travel/media/) to try to generate more stories about New Zealand.
It is using its staff and PR agencies to share ideas and monitor international news for events that could help profile New Zealand positively.
Successes to date include stories that have been generated through bungy jumping’s 20th birthday, getting the British Twitchhiker to New Zealand and hosting a Bollywood actress and the Indian international cricket team in New Zealand.
“Quirky, unique, newsy, funny, celebrity stories, luxury, wildlife, New Zealand as home of the next Rugby World Cup: these are all stories we are looking to build on and get into the international media,” Dent said.
“And with the Hobbit films being shot over the next couple of years, there is also a chance to raise New Zealand’s profile once again as ‘Home of Middle Earth’.”
And the message for the New Zealand tourism industry? Keep us in the loop, tell us what you’re doing and we can try and make your story go further.
“You’ve heard of the stadium of four million people. We want New Zealand to be a newsroom of four million people,” Dent added.
Ian Jarrett
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