We’ve all read the obituaries about traditional news organizations, dropping like flies thanks to the rise of consumer-generated media and the digital revolution.

With the advent of real-time online news created by citizen journalists and propagated across user-generated wikis, the dinosaurs of mainstream media (MSM) seem to be rapidly nearing extinction.

But this just in… The MSM old guard is making a strong showing in the world of online, digital news.

In fact, Media Metrix reported earlier this month that venerable print media like the NYT and broadcast pioneers like CBS News are among the top *online* sites for news. Right up there with Yahoo and AOL News.

Media Metrix says that seven of the top 10 online news sites are the kind of traditional media that many had relegated to the analog bone yard, unable to make the crossover to a digital media model. The top broadcast sites alone accounted for 47 million unique visitors in Feb, a collective yr/yr gain of 63%.

An obvious takeaway for PR and comms professionals is to not throw the MSM baby out with the analog bath water. But in doing so we can’t simply apply the rules of old-line media relations to these outlets regardless of their mainstream roots.

So for those new media- and blogosphere-focused PR types out there, realize that Tribune Newspapers should be on your top influencers list. For folks who have yet to take the digital plunge and see national newspapers and TV networks as their priority, realize that the Tribune chain, despite its old-school status, is a decidedly digital play and needs to be treated as such.

The opportunities with online MSM targets seem to expand daily as news sites expand their horizons to capture more consumer eyeballs.

Many news sites are looking for angles beyond breaking news, stories with broader impact, drilling deeper into a subject, covering everything from self-help to entertainment to consumer generated opinions and reviews.

Check out MSNBC.com’s new campaign promoting its “Fuller Spectrum of News” as a sign not only of the expansion of online news content but as an open door for more PR people pitching more brands to sites with readers in the tens of millions.

Ultimately all this comes together as a hybrid of both new and old media sources, the former forcing the latter to evolve and giving those old media outlets that survive a chance to actually lead the model of tomorrow. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

If you haven’t already, take a closer look at a hybrid media model, you’ll likely see the benefits of leveraging the best of both worlds.