the long tail

Here's a great article in PRWeek about the latest buzzword "long tail". But it's also an article on how using the "smaller" media (like blogs & viral internet promotions) can be more effective than using traditional big media. An excerpt:

Some PR practitioners now argue that a strategy of approaching the smaller voices can be as effective as going to the larger voices.

"In the 'Long Tail,' media coverage comes in great and small numbers, and they all have influence," Rubel says. "Putting bloggers on the same playing field [as the national press] - that's 'Long Tail' thinking..."

"...There is a generation growing up [that is] not used to reading newspapers and that is looking for less mediated engagement, and they're not particularly looking for a press release translated by a writer and interpreted by an editor."

There are many questions and challenges to be answered by the PR industry - and a huge, long ginormous tail for the rest of us to ride.