Imagine attempting to explain SEO, pay-per-click advertising and social media to the grisly hack of Fleet Street鈥檚 heyday.Their eyes would have glazed over.
To be fair, you could say the same to many newspaper journalists today and probably get the same reaction.
While not everything is moving with the times and print struggles with an increasingly unavoidable fate, the business of news is adapting to avoid the severe consequences of standing still.
Technology is now the catalyst for sparking interaction between clients and companies, and the weapons of choice on the PR battleground are smartphones, tablets and laptops.
While the likes of BuzzFeed and LADbible, which made their names on social media, try to push away from clickbait, traditional news media is still accused of attempting to replicate the tired methods that made the new kids on the block so popular.
鈥淲hen I talk about media, clearly the landscape of the last 15 years has totally changed,鈥� said Katy Broomhead, senior PR manager at KPMG, which hosted the event in its Manchester office.
鈥淎 big portion is [still] tracking the news agenda and being alive to the issues that affect us as a firm or our clients.
鈥淢y role is to forge relationships with the media and basically tell the KPMG story via the press. Ultimately what I do is still the same: forging relationships and telling stories.
鈥淔ifteen years ago, the Holy Grail was that pink piece of print coverage in the FT. These days we鈥檙e just as likely to celebrate coverage in Politico or BuzzFeed.鈥�
The concept of social media 鈥� and a platform like BuzzFeed 鈥� would have been as alien to a PR of the Nineties as it would have been to Joseph Pulitzer.
As with newspaper companies, PRs must now find new ways of communicating with their target audience.
Claire Tennant is managing director of agency MC2, which employs 48 people in Manchester.
During 15 years in the business, she has seen a wholesale change in approach.
鈥淲hen I first started my clients were in the professional services sector and it was all about their messaging,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey were purely on transmit, so there were a lot more in-depth regional features for the legal sector.
鈥淸Our clients] were obsessed by legal trade press: that was their world. Then obviously the nationals on the bigger cases, but that was as far as it extended.
鈥淣owadays, if you fast forward, there鈥檚 a lot more opportunity and the way they tell their story has changed. There鈥檚 a lot more they can react to, piggyback on, so they get much more back from their audiences who they can then engage with as opposed to continuously transmitting.鈥�
Lisa Morton left university in 1989 and arrived in PR at a time when the internet as we know it today didn鈥檛 exist. In 1996 she set up the Manchester-based agency Roland Dransfield, which now employs 13 people.
Over more than 20 years, she has not been shy about changing with the times: 鈥淥nce a friend told me they鈥檇 heard someone say 鈥楻oland Dransfield knows nothing about digital鈥�, so I thought, 鈥榳e鈥檙e a PR company, do we have to?鈥�
鈥淲e absolutely did have to, so I got on a plane.鈥�
That plane landed in Boston, Massachusetts, where Morton embarked on a fact-finding mission, learning about the importance of inbound marketing and online content.
鈥淲e adopted HubSpot as an inbound marketing platform for ourselves and there were very few agencies doing similar,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think anyone else in the North West had that platform.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about attracting an audience, getting them to come to you by virtue of the fact you are publishing content that they鈥檙e genuinely interested in. When I started out in PR, it was all outbound.
鈥淵ou were pushing stuff out to people when you weren鈥檛 really sure if they were interested.鈥�
As traditional media, like print, becomes less powerful and is replaced by technology, the way the public consumes information changes.
In the same manner that TV news began the decline of print years ago, the internet and social media is exacerbating the problem.
Ben Martin, creative director of Peppermint Soda, has 19 years鈥� experience in the industry 鈥� and believes it is taking the job out of the hands of professionals, and putting it into the hands of 鈥榥ormal鈥� people.
鈥淚 think the real importance in the way social media and technology has changed the industry is that it鈥檚 no longer media outlets and marketing agencies that are doing the sole communication,鈥� he said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no drop-off anymore. There are now regular people, consumers, that are creating their own streams that have got more followers than some of the professional media outlets.
鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing the rise of the vlogger and the blogger. We鈥檙e seeing the rise of new channels like LADbible, On the Tools and Joe. There are lots of new media coming through.
鈥淏ut more importantly people have got a voice, they鈥檝e got a following and they鈥檝e got a lot of influence whereas the influence used to come from mainstream media. That鈥檚 completely changed.鈥�
Anna Heyes, managing director of Active Profile, agrees 鈥� and believes ignoring social media is 鈥榥o longer an option鈥�.
She added: 鈥淚 think the nature of social media has changed – the reactive side definitely has. It鈥檚 given us multiple new channels which means multiple skills are needed. It鈥檚 a crucial element now, rather than an option.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 certainly something that鈥檚 changed over the years to become a crucial element to campaigns. We can鈥檛 forget that instant connection with customers: everybody wants to understand a purpose and have that connection 鈥� that鈥檚 social media, really.鈥�
Whether they like it or not, businesses who have a social presence have been forced into a different kind of relationship with their customer. Increasingly, immediate communication is becoming a necessity, rather than a quirk or a gimmick.
Mary Harding, consumer MD of Tangerine, said: 鈥淭here is a real high level of expectation from a customer for a brand to engage with them directly.
鈥淚f you look at John Lewis, they have got it nailed in terms of any complaint – they respond within 15 minutes. That鈥檚 pretty good. And I think customers want to be heard constantly.
鈥淕one are the days of AVE [Advertising Value Equivalency] and ROI. I think that鈥檚 becoming less and less meaningful and impactful for clients, which might be a bit of a controversial thing to say, but I truly believe that.
鈥淲hat we do now have is lots of measuring tools, like Sprout, which allow us to measure engagement, sales and footfall. All of which is much more meaningful and impactful to our clients.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 where technology has really, really raised the bar 鈥� how we behave and the responses between customers and brands.鈥�
But blindly following the crowd to Twitter and Facebook comes with a warning from Paul Newman, director of communications for the Peel Group.
He cut his teeth on the Knutsford Guardian before spending 18 years on TV, most notably as a sports correspondent for BBC News and a foreign correspondent for TVAM, where he covered the first Gulf War.
Newman was also director of communications at the FA between 2000-03, a tenure that included the redevelopment of Wembley stadium and Sven-Goran Eriksson鈥檚 high-profile relationship with Ulrika Jonsson .
鈥淧eople are entitled to their opinions,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think the issue that鈥檚 out there for everybody to consider is the integrity and veracity of material that鈥檚 published.
鈥淛ust because it鈥檚 on Twitter, Instagram or an online blog doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 true. And I think for news organisations this is where the challenges lie.
鈥淭he job of the journalist and the editorial staff is to respond and to utilise that material in an appropriate way, using their instincts and judgment.
鈥淣ow the reverse applies for PR people. We鈥檝e all had experience of a demand for something instantaneously, and the reality is sometimes you need to pause for the sake of your client or your organisation.
鈥淛ust because instant responses are available, it doesn鈥檛 mean they have to be utilised all the time.鈥�
As with newspapers, PR firms need to be aware of the pitfalls of social media.
Jamie Watson, managing partner at Pixel8, warns that immediacy can be as much of a hindrance as an asset.
鈥淚t can be instantaneous now. The old model of bringing something in and making lots of changes is changing very rapidly for us,鈥� he added.
鈥淭he mistake we probably made is thinking that the technology is the answer, when technology is the enabler.鈥�