With the digital world growing and increasing its domination of our lives, some have for years been calling time on traditional media; Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once described it as "a dead man walking". In 2019 digital ad spending overtook traditional ad spending for the first time, and since then the gap has only widened. This matters because the majority of traditional media is funded by advertising revenue. No money... no media; And logically, no media, no media relations. When a carefully crafted tweet can garner a hundredfold more eyeballs than an article in The Times, or a Tik Tok video can go halfway round the world before dear Auntie Beeb has got out of her bed. Does media relations and the PR pro with her Rolodex of contacts matter anymore? Or have changes in the media landscape made our outdated skills obsolete? The Little Questions podcast is presented by Matt Young and Andrew Brown. Joining them to discuss this topic is their Apella Advisors colleague, Janelle Romano. Janelle Romano is a Director with experience working across corporate, B2B, B2C and internal communications briefs in technology, energy, financial services, learning and skills, transport and professional services. Clients have included American Express, Bank of America, Capita, Chicago Booth School of Business and LinkedIn. Matt Young is an Apella founder partner with 25 years of experience in corporate affairs. He was Corporate Affairs Director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. Apella partner Andrew Brown is a former Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Ageas Insurance. He has more than ten years' experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors, developing considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc. Find out more about Apella Advisors at www.apellaadvisors.com and you can get in touch by emailing [email protected]

This podcast was produced by the www.thepodcastcoach.co.uk