A recent article in PRWeek reports that several of the industry’s top publishing houses have recently reduced their budgets and workforce. One prominent company that is scaling down is Rodale, publisher of Men’s Health, Prevention, and Runner’s World, Time Inc. owner of Time, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune and Condé Nast whose titles include Vogue and Men’s Vogue.

For decades, the magazine industry has struggled to maintain and increase advertising revenue to support circulation costs. But much like the tech bubble that popped in the Silicon Valley in the early 2000s and forced companies to lay off workers or go out of business altogether, the recent economic crunch is pushing magazines to cut budgets and staff. This in turn is forcing these publications to move their content online and find other creative ways to remain a ëmust-read’ for audiences.

As budgets and staffs shrink, so do the opportunities to garner coverage. Several publications are relying on wire services and material contributed by contract writers and vendors to help round out the content. This growing trend highlights the importance of strategic media relations.

PR professionals and organizations need to tailor their strategies and tactics to fit in with the current media landscape. In order to build relationships with reporters and ensure coverage, consider the following:

Do your homework – This seems like a no-brainer but remains true even in today’s media climate. With limited staff, reporters are often juggling several unrelated beats. Make sure you are pitching information that is relevant to the reporter.

Make the reporter’s job as easy as possible – Package up all of the story elements such as the pitch, key data points, links to additional background such as industry or analyst reports, surveys, etc. so a reporter can easily digest it. Taking this approach is almost always appreciated by journalists who are crunched for time and don’t have bandwidth to do background research.

Consider alternative mediums – As noted above, most publications are moving to an online format that includes features such as webcasts, podcasts and blogs, which offer other opportunities to secure coverage and interact with reporters.