Online and offline PRs used to have very distinct roles. Instead of print journalists, online worked with ‘bloggers’; instead of pitching to news desks, online had conversations with ‘influencers’. It was all very clear-cut.

But now, with social media officially in the mainstream, PR is going through an identity crisis. Whether this is another effect of the recession – publications going online-only or newspapers completely shutting down – no one can say for sure. But what is evident is that the lines between online and offline PR are blurring fast, particularly with national newspapers.

Most newspapers used to have separate online and offline news desks. Increasingly, there is little difference between the content that’s in print and the content that can be found online. You can sell in what you believe to be a story for print and then find it on the web site only in a few hours time. With publications vying to be the first to break a story, it seems that the immediacy of online has begun to take the lead over print.

With all this ambiguity, it’s very difficult to have a thorough understanding of who covers what space – and the tools that PRs normally use to research exactly this type of information don’t necessarily work in an online world.

Going into a ‘list-building’ site like Media Disk to find specific contacts for online news, you are bombarded with a plethora of outdated, ambiguous or inaccurate information. Faced with titles like ‘online editor’, ‘online reporter’, ‘web correspondent’, or ‘web editor’, you’re left with little more than speculation as to what it is that these people actually do.

Does the online reporter just post articles online, or does he or she write about online trends? Does the web editor delegate stories to a team or does he or she actually manage the daily upkeep of the site? And what about the national newspapers’ bloggers?

Ask any journalist what is their biggest pet hate about PRs and 99% of the time they’ll say ‘they don’t do their research’ – but for online-specific enquiries, the information isn’t always readily available. This poses a problem for PRs whose personal and professional reputation depends on making informed pitches to journalists and gaining the right sort of coverage for their clients.

Unfortunately, it’s not an easy fix. Most PRs are hesitant to contact journalists without the necessary groundwork in place for fear of making a fool of themselves or their agency. Journalists are also put in an unfair position as they are often unaware of how they’re listed or described on these sites.

So it seems there is a way to go in terms of marrying online and traditional journalism. For PRs, all they can do is try their hardest to keep as up to date as is humanly possible and there is little substitute for thorough research. It may be more painstaking than ever before but the results are well-worth the trouble.

Mel is a social media strategist at onlinefire.