As media reinvents itself, executives seek owned channels to engage stakeholders.

A recent survey of corporate affairs directors and CEOs showed declining interest in engaging with traditional media. According to the research, 68% of CEOs say engaging with other stakeholder groups now takes priority, while 61% said business journalists are now less experienced than in the past. The survey also suggests business media is perceived as being increasingly focused on click-bait stories and mired in "gotcha" politics, often preferring controversial tones rather than prioritising a well-balanced discussion. This is forcing the C-suite to reassess the most efficient methods of communication with key audiences and whether engaging media is worth the efforts.

These C-suite sentiments come against the backdrop of the journalism industry taking a longer and harder look at its purpose and its business models, while grappling with declining global readership. After numerous layoffs across leading publications on both sides of the Atlantic, this is especially pertinent. American professor of journalism, Jay Rosen, recently tweeted that growing competition for attention, hollowed-out business models, and the decline in advertising revenues, swallowed up by Google and Facebook, are contributing to the decline of the press as an institution. Wealthy individuals and entities tempted to rescue failing papers may not necessarily provide profitable solutions, according to Rosen. Too often, the likes of Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who owns the Washington Post, have little understanding of how to run a profitable newspaper; there is a temptation to cut corners and save costs. As a result, standards decline, which only feeds the loop of business leader avoidance and declining readership.

While the media remains an important channel for communication, it cannot solely achieve clients' objectives. Media also cannot be controlled and does not exist to serve the needs of companies and organisations. This poses a degree of risk. As digital and social media channels developed and advanced over the past 15 years, more companies became publishers and embraced the possibility of engaging directly with their audiences through messages they can control. A busy CEO today is much more likely to record a 2-minute video for LinkedIn or approve a short article for the website than to ask staff to seek out responsive journalists and attempt to relay key messages through the media. Communications as a practice continues to morph into an integration of channels and messages, all designed to address key audiences through touchpoints that make the most sense to them.

In the 1940s, Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the phrase "creative destruction," a dismantling of an established process in favour of new technologies and innovation. There are downsides to this in the short term. However, what typically emerges, according to Schumpeter, creates longer-term value. Just as digital cameras destroyed Kodak and the Internet was said to destroy newspapers, media as an institution will most likely go on a course of self-reinvention. Perhaps, it is now less important to put CEOs in front of the right journalist. Letting go of the emphasis on media relations in favour of communicating through owned channels is a better priority for companies to adopt. Seeking holistic communications and engagement will make organisational strategy more effective, appropriate, and engaging.