Daily Dog columnist has it right: journalists don’t understand PR
Posted by sparkprmarketing on October 2, 2009
The public relations industry newsletter Daily Dog features a columnist, Jon Greer, who commented this week about journalists who sat on a panel and gave advice about public relations. Here’s the post: http://tinyurl.com/y8quflr
It is surprising to me, too, that an industry trade group would put a group of reporters on a panel to advise business owners about public relations needs. It’s unfortunate that they gave the advice that they did, because it’s likely some of their audience will believe them.
I worked as a newspaper reporter for a total of seven years, in Nevada and Colorado, and I covered business. If you had asked me then, I would have told you I knew all about public relations. I received news releases and was called by PR people – usually at awkward times, such as deadline or shortly after a story about their competitor had run.
Now, I’ve been a professional in public relations for 12 years, and I can tell you – I didn’t know anything about public relations. The reporters and editors who hear from PR professionals don’t have a clue about the strategy and planning necessary to create a positive public relations program for a company.
There is much more to a program than media relations, for instance; but that’s the only aspect reporters and editors are generally aware of. Some understand that without the news releases in their in-boxes and calls from public relations staffers, it would be much harder to “find” the news. And every reporter I know wishes they could just pick up the phone and call the CEO of the biggest company in town without being fielded by a public relations professional. But just as the reporters are very, very busy, so is the CEO.
Reporters resent knowing that an interviewee was “media trained” – they think it means the subject was taught to be unresponsive, when in reality a good media trained interviewee will give clearer, better-thought-out answers that will make for a better overall interview.
I could go on and on. But the best example I can give is that of a former client. Through the agency I then worked for, she was introduced to a reporter at a respected, national-level business outlet (Forbes). After the article, she and the reporter actually became personal friends, and the reporter told her the money she was spending for professional PR was a waste. She could get her own stories! That year, the agency scored hits for this person in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, 60 Minutes, and hundreds of other outlets in newspapers across the country. When the contract was finished, she declined to re-up.
The next year, she showed up in press a whopping three times. Forbes was one. The others were regional newspapers. Hmmmm.
