I’ve discovered two e-books this week that should be a must read for any PR that is keen to understand how the remit of a journalist is changing and to gain an insight into the future of regional media.

Both books are written by London-based journalist Adam Westbrook, a City University graduate that has worked in Ghana, Iraq and the UK.

In Advice for Multimedia Journalists (free PDF download) an ebook created from a series of original blog posts, Westbrook spells out the opportunity for journalists created by the upheaval in publishing and distribution.

In the digital age journalists need to be brands in their own right. There is little room for humility. Westbrook says that journalists must overcome the discomfort of blowing their own trumpet quoting SEO specialist Brian Clark, “if people think you’re important, so will Google.”

Diversification is the key combining skills such as copyrighting, photography, video production and web design with journalism to create a portfolio career. Westbrook provides insights into each area as a means of generating an income.

In Newsgathering for Hyperlocal Websites (£7.99 PDF download) Westbrook tackles the rising genre of hyperlocal blogs and describes how to set up a hyperlocal blog, create a newsroom and describes the process of newsgathering and reporting.

The basic skills of a journalist have changed little despite the upheaval in the media. Much of the craft such as maintaining a news diary, digging out news from local sources and on-diary versus-off diary that Westbrook shares would have traditionally been taught on a NUJ training course.

Westbrook spells out the technical skills needed to set up a hyperlocal site, signposting sources of further information and sharing tips for automating much of the news gathering process. His sections on web mining for stories and Freedom of Information requests would provide a near constant news stream for any hyperlocal site.

Westbrook makes clear his attitude to PRs that fail to understand the remit of hyperlocal media and pitch inappropriate stories. But then regional media has long been poorly served by the largely London-based PR industry. PRs need to work out how they can best embrace the emerging segment that is hyperlocal media.

Westbrook is clearly a talented journalist with an entrepreneurial flair that has a bright future whatever the future of journalism.