In my 20-year-long career I have garnered journalistic, PR agency and in-house insights and perspectives giving me a 360 degree view of the triangle; I am not sure if that would make sense from a geometrical viewpoint, but what I know for sure is the truth; the right answer to the perennial question that has baffled media and PR industries’ commentators for decades; who is right, the journalists who complain that PR pros don’t understand their needs or the PR pros who complain that the journalists are not responsive to their pitches?
In journalistic terms they are both blatantly wrong. in PR lingo neither of them is entirely right. The truth, as always, has many shades of grey.
The journalists are wrong because they view my colleagues as an unnecessary barrier between them and our clients - who are always right, remember? They detest seeing their inbox flooded with spam (that’s how they refer to emails containing press release attachments), they loath having to occasionally answer a telephone call to acknowledge receipt of a ‘spam’ email and they totally dislike making a commitment to publishing a story for which they find zero value or interest in. They forget though that almost 70 per cent of a daily newspaper’s editorial content is either directly or indirectly, in its entirety or partially, verbatim or transliterated, impacted by the work of a PR pro, agency or in-house.
The PR pros are also wrong, because they view my ex-colleagues (The Press) as an unnecessary barrier between them getting a nod on the back from a satisfied client or getting one of those looks by their direct agency reports who are adamant that the press release is of great value and it should even make front page news in next day’s paper. They sometimes can forget as well that journalists are in the news-making industry and news they must receive if they are to oblige.
The journalists are wrong because they feel that their request to interview the visiting CEO of our multinational client for an exclusive deep look into its Middle East bottom line was declined by my colleagues just to get back to them for not using our press releases. They forget though that it is the client who’d determine the confirmation or the timing of such interviews based on their communications objectives at any given point.
And PR’s are also wrong for making pitches for interviews that are of little or no relevance to the media. But they also have the duty to educate clients about the process and the type of spokespeople and content journalists look for their editorial needs.
Who is right and who is wrong? It’s a chicken and egg situation and the yoke, instead of bright yellow, is of course, grey.
My thoughts exactly!
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