Where Do You Stand?

In this season of Thanksgiving, as we all gather together to give thanks for our many blessings, may I suggest that the professions of public relations and journalism put aside the most ridiculous, time-wasting fight since the Anna Nicole Smith baby-daddy smackdown and just (gasp - dare I say it?!) work together?

If you’re unaware, here’s the basic conflict in a nutshell:

• Apparently, PR people so annoy journalists with our asinine press releases, worthless emails and phone calls, and basic lack of understanding of their profession and their publications/outlets, that they would like to see the PR industry as a whole go the way of the woolly mammoth.
• Conversely, journalists drive PR people to drink with their arrogance, unwavering determination to incorrectly report even the most basic facts about a company and/or story, and complete unwillingness to acknowledge and/or correct said mistakes, despite a PR pro’s best efforts to provide said journalists with the correct information.

Lately, this conflict has gotten increasingly ugly, between Wired’s editor-in-chief Chris Anderson publicly banning 300 PR pros from emailing him and Online Media Daily’s George Simpson saying that journalists think the PR industry, and I quote, “as a rule does not attract the best and the brightest, but rather the cutest and fastest-talking.” 

Rather than continuing down this path and taking Mr. Simpson’s bait, I will refrain from denigrating the profession of journalism and those who choose it for their career path. Here’s what I will say: are there some pathetically bad PR people out there who’ve completely earned the nickname “flack”? Yep. Likewise, are there some pathetically bad journalists out there who should make other competent journalists want to break their fingers and lock them in a closet? Oh, yeah.

Get my point? Last time I checked, people, we live in a democracy and run a capitalistic economy - therefore, let capitalism work. Journalists, if you come across bad PR people, simply refuse to work with them (as Chris Anderson has every right to do, but it would have been much more gracious and classy of him to do it privately). It’s up to you whether you take the time to tell them they suck, and why they suck, but just refuse to work with them. Let the competitive PR marketplace take it from there - and believe me, it will. However, do not write off the entire profession - continue working with the PR pros who do their jobs well (as you apparently do quite a bit, according to this study released by PRSA and cited by Mr. Simpson in his aforementioned article) and everyone’s a winner. 

And PR professionals? When you come across an unethical, ridiculously arrogant, or just plain bad journalist, stop trying to work with them. I know - I can hear you yelling at your computer, “We can’t! We have to get in xxx publication - our clients demand it!” That may have been true even a year ago, but I would argue it’s not so true anymore. There are an amazing array of ways to help your clients talk directly with the communities they want to reach, and traditional media isn’t necessarily the best way to do that anymore. It doesn’t do you or your clients any good to waste time and dollars going after attention from rude, unethical or untalented journalists. Again, let the market do its job and weed out those journalists/publications/outlets that aren’t producing quality work.

Additionally, if you haven’t had a frank discussion with your clients about the smartest ways to reach their audiences, go do that now. And if they still insist on being on the front page of the Wall Street Journal even though it absolutely makes no sense and won’t even really help their business all that much, rethink your relationship with that client.

Likewise, if you have strong contacts with good journalists, or you’d like to develop them, use some common sense. Do your homework, respect their time and deadlines, and give them what they need when they need it to do their jobs.

Thank you to all the journalists out there who are talented, ethical and respectful, as well as all the PR professionals who do their jobs with dignity, integrity and grace every day. Let’s work together, weed out the bad apples, get our jobs done well and get home to count the blessings that really matter. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Strategic Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.