In a move that represents the further blending of PR and the media, former New York Times Company president and CEO Janet Robinson has joined the international advisory board at Fleishman-Hillard International Communications.
Robinson began her career at the Times in 1983 and served as the CEO for the past seven years. "As I've seen during my tenure at the New York Times Company, the communications landscape is changing almost daily," Robinson said in an official statement on Feb. 21. "That translates into potential challenges and opportunities for companies and organizations trying to increase their visibility and burnish their brand and reputation.”
Dave Senay, Fleishman-Hillard president and CEO, said in the statement that Robinson has a deep, firsthand understanding of the forces that are affecting the business of the media, particularly how traditional publishing and broadcasting have been transformed by a convergence with emerging digital technologies.
The relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners can be simultaneously cooperative and conflicted. It's said that anyone with Internet access is a publisher, and Robinson's latest career move puts her on a track to help brands find new ways to expand their audience—and become publishers themselves. As the modern newsroom shrinks in terms of both budgets and hired hands, we can expect more media minds like Robinson to climb over the crumbling wall.
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