This is a presentation that I gave to the CIPR North East regional group in Newcastle this morning. It explores how the media is changing as all media becomes social and social media becomes a media category in its own right – and the resulting opportunities for PR practitioners. The North-East has itself been a place of incredible innovation in media business models during the last 18-months and the hunt in Rothbury for Raoul Moat made it the location of one the biggest news stories in Britain this year. Local journalists from GMG-owned Real Radio led much of the reporting nationally. The Northumberland Gazette was the first regional newspaper to trial a paywall. Josh Halliday, a former-student at Sunderland University and now journalist at The Guardian, was one of the first individuals to explore a hyper local media model with his SR2blog. And the Trinity Mirror-owned Journal in Newcastle has pioneered a network of hyper local blogs throughout Northumberland. The presentation content abridges much of the Social Summer series that the CIPR has been running in London each Thursday evening since early June.