It is more than twelve months since we introduced a course called The Fast-Changing World of e-PR. Huge numbers of you have been through it. However, almost by definition, that course has changed a lot since we introduced it. Because the world of e-PR is changing fast.

In the early days, the social media - MySpace etc. - warranted mention, but not a great deal more. Today, there is enough to say about that to warrant an entire course on its own: PR Through the Social Media.

e-PR is no longer a bit of a technique. The new media are starting to supercede the old media, especially amongst the young - the digital natives. Yet PR strategy is still largely set by older folk. Those of us who are over, say, 23 are not native to the digital world. We are digital immigrants. Yet most of the reporters we are dealing with - not the editors, but the front line reporters - are native to the digital world. We can ape their accents and vocabulary, but they can tell that we are immigrants. We have to work very hard indeed to retain any credibility we may have built up over the years.

So even if you went on a course six months ago, you are probably out of date already. Don’t see that as a threat. It is a huge opportunity to see why the new media are so popular. It is probably for the same reason that email has overtaken fax and iPhones could overtake Blackberries. It is not faddish. It is a hard-headed sea change because they are so much easier to live and work with.