Here’s a PR opportunity as trends in content distribution include fewer live media outlets.  The city of San Diego, like other municipalities, notes The San Diego Union-Tribune, “is posting its own “news” stories “on a website that resembles an independent media outlet.”

“Such sites are becoming more common, as media outlets slim down and government public-relations staffs bulk up – often with former journalists.” 

Why shouldn’t a municipality – a town, city or county – start telling its own story on the web? It will need to be concerned with accuracy and credibility – the same virtues that anchored good journalists – or lose its potential audience pretty quickly. If information doesn’t seem to matter, or is viewed as propaganda, it won’t be sought; if it’s deemed helpful, it will spread. Good PR people know and apply the difference.