Seriously social Social media can be very introspective and self-serving. So it’s good to get out and about and be a bit more social.

Last night I joined 20-odd folk including Ben, Ged, Justin and Jaz at the Charlotte Street Hotel to hear Hotwire’s Drew Benvie, Mich Fealty creator of Slugger O’Toole and Brassneck, and Simon Nixon of Breakingviews, debate whether social media is set to spell the end of print media.

It isn’t of course. Zuckerberg’s piss poor performance at SXSW, coupled with Facebook fatigue mean print media needn’t get overly concerned – for the next decade at least.

But it is changing the rules. Drew said that blogs aren’t killing mainstream media but they are strangling it while Mick said lower orders of knowledge were driving attention away from traditional media via peer-to-peer networks.

The disintermediation of media means print media such as the FT, Telegraph, Times and the Guardian has a future. Print readership may be declining but according to Fealty, readers like the edginess and opportunity for dialogue that bloggers provide.

Blogging has accelerated the media process. Bloggers lack the limitation of editorial control and so can report on stories extremely quickly. The only way for a brand to survive is to respond to conversations equally quickly. What goes online stays online cautioned Justin Hayward from the audience.

Fealty gave an excellent tip for pitching bloggers: headline, laconic (I had to check the dictionary this morning) comment followed by a semi-colon and a URL, plus real world contact details is what he expects, and is how he gets the attention of US bloggers.

After the debate discussions continued on personal blogs versus agency blogs, sibling relationships and rivalry, writing a book, Chubby Brown versus Peter Kay, and Preston’s identity.

An excellent evening; thanks to Taylor Bennett and Unicorn Jobs who organised the gig.

Ged has posted an exhaustive transcript of the debate: Event notes: Social Media - the death of print.

Update: Ben Matthews has also posted a story: PR Event: Social Media - The Death of Print?

Labels: after work, social media

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