He went on to
add: “More disturbing, perhaps, PRs seems to have become more powerful and
effective as gatekeepers and minders of businesses, celebrities and public or
semi-public figures.”
In my
20-year-long career I have garnered journalistic, PR agency and in-house work experience,
industry 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.
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
a press release on the launch of a new vacuum cleaner is of great value and it
should even make front page news in next day’s paper. PR and clients sometimes
forget that journalists are in the news-making industry and news they must
receive if they are to oblige.
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 release on the vacuum cleaner.
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. Copy the link on your browser to watch this six-minutes video to help you form an opinion of your own.
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