Is the PR model broken? Thoughts from a media person.
My thoughts are, obviously, not fact and are merely my opinion which stems from having been on the receiving end of the public relations world for the last decade. Take it with a pinch of salt. I have come to learn that, at times, my opinions fall outside of how the majority. Anyway. Here goes. It may seem like a bit of a rant, but that is not my intention.
Today has been a slow day. I have only received about 10 press releases and event invites. On a good — depending on where you are standing- day, I will receive in the region of 20 across 4 email addresses. When I was editor of the men’s business and lifestyle magazine, Destiny Man, I was up to 50-plus a day and when I left at the end of 2014, it dropped down to about 1 a week. It was bliss. I was no longer consider of use to PR agencies who get paid to get their clients media coverage.
Towards end of last year, I joined Kaya FM and host a weekly 1-hour talk show, which had me ‘(re)discovered’ by agencies I had interacted with during my mag days, although not too many. I was useful to some again. And then, in July, it was announced that I was joining Afropolitan magazine as editor and, the very next morning, the first press release landed in my inbox congratulating me on the appointment and pitching a client. The floodgates re-opened.
Relationships
I have always believed that there should be a healthy relationship between the public relations fraternity and the media, especially those of us who some call ‘lifestyle’ media, which is where I have spent most of my time in the media, whether on commercial platforms or on my own. PR agencies are hired to publicise the work of the clients while the media is tasked with providing their audience with ‘the good sh*t’.
Over the last decade, I have built some great open and honest relationships with PR practitioners, some even becoming friends. They understand what I am trying to do and will contact me when something fits within that. We will then craft something accordingly that benefits them, their clients and myself. And, if it doesn’t fit, the relationship is such that I am able to tell them that it doesn’t, without any awkwardness.
The industry is mildly incestuous and there are people who have moved across different agencies and businesses over the years. There are those who will move and let you know that they are now elsewhere and who their clients are and check whether there is any synergy between whatever it is you are doing in the media space and those clients. And then there are those who will only holler when they want you to cover a story. Any story.
Life, and business, is based on relationships and managing expectations, and I can never understand why more PR practitioners do not spend more time on cultivating relationships with media. We are all professionals trying to do best at the end of the day.
Doing Research
This leads to my next gripe which is how few PR practitioners seem to deem it necessary to understand what it is I do, the topics I cover, how I cover them, etc. Granted I, for example, have a radio show that engages with a broad range of topics so it is understandable that I will be pitched a variety of topics. But the format is a bit different from other similar shows in that each show only focuses on 1 topic, which means that, when deciding on what to explore, we try to look at multiple angles, as opposed to punting 1 business in the space.
It is not a one-size-fits-all. Different people, publications, platforms, etc have different approaches to content from a tone and angle perspective. A tree falls into the middle of a suburban street. The angles are endless. The suburb itself. The reason for the tree falling. The municipality. The people who live in that suburb. The weather. Tree removal. The environment. The type of birds that nest in that type of tree. Whose house it fell in front of. The state of the actual road. Life itself — trees that fall in suburbs aren’t like trees that fall in the forest without witnesses. Waste disposal. The best trees for firewood….
I acknowledge that there is an element of laziness in the media space, particularly in this day and age. I have contributed to press releases and seen those press releases published in full. But, that shouldn’t serve as the standard by which PR should measure itself.
Press Releases
I wonder how effective the press release is. Firstly, I receive so many that, unless I allocate specific time to that, amidst everything else that I have to do, I generally only give them a cursory once over and then file away.
I once missed an invite to a trip to Germany with a company that was an advertiser for the magazine I worked for because it was drowned out by all the press releases that were effectively clogging up my inbox. I also gave up on Inbox Zero after a year of trying. The one time I decided to actually work through my Inbox, it took just over two months to get it to zero and then I went on a trip for 5 days and when I came back….press release central.
Also, I know that you are sending that press release to every media house, writer, journalist, influencer, etc on your mailing list. Now, if I decide to write on whatever it is you are pushing in the press release, I will essentially be duplicating what a bunch of other people are doing which is why I, personally, would prefer that a press release merely detail enough of the basics to allow me to find my story in it as opposed to the angle being prescribed.
And then there’s the assumption that all one is doing is sitting around waiting for press releases to come in. Think about it. If one is getting 10 press releases a day, 5 days a week, that equates to 50 a week. If one is then spending 10 minutes on each press release, that is about 8 hours a week (if my maths is correct). And then there are the emails or phone calls following up whether the press release was received, read and decision was made. Perhaps there are those who do but I, honestly, don’t have that amount of time to be solely dealing with press releases.
I must also make special mention of ‘thought leadership’ pieces from clients sent for publishing. I take these as press releases written by clients. There is often valuable information in them but, unless the person ‘writing’ them is being positioned as a ‘thought leader’ on the subject, in general, as opposed to them merely talking about a gap in the market that their company seeks to fill, it is a press release.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I do regularly develop stories from the press releases I have received but the sheer volume and the hounding often puts me off.
Events, Press Conferences, Launches And The Like
As with press releases, the world of launches is a potential minefield. There was a stage when I would be invited to at least one launch, press conferences or related events a day, sometimes during the day, often at night.
I eventually had to create rules around this for myself, which were: I attend a maximum of 2 a week, especially in the evenings; I don’t do weekend events; and it is first-come-first-serve. I found that trying to determine which events I attended on the basis of perceived ‘importance’ was a slippery slope and was, in a way, disrespectful.
I have a family whose company I enjoy, and prefer, most times, and attending events meant not being there for the important moments and the not-so-important moments, which are often as important. Homework, school concerts and sporting events, dinner, television watching, conversation, etc all suffered as a result. One of the reasons I left the magazine I worked for was because I had no time for my children.(See I Left My Job For My Children.)
Yes, you are putting together an event for your client. Yes, I am interested in what it is your client is launching, truly. But, I need to be able to reconcile that with all my other commitments, work and personal. And, sometimes, I don’t have the time to let you know that I won’t be attending. And, yes, I do notice that you stop inviting me because I haven’t attended one or two other events. And, yes, I do notice that you have stopped inviting me because I am no longer working in a space that you deem important to you.
But, like you will probably, eventually, leave where you are currently working for another space, if I work in a particular sector, I will also move to other places that will, once again, be useful to you. And, because I notice the above, I will probably be less open to what you are pitching next time around. #justsaying
So What Next?
The PR sector is under pressure and in flux, like so many other industries. We are living in times of immense change when it comes to how we live our lives and do business. What this means is we can’t keep doing things the way we have always done them.
There is a symbiotic relationship between PR and media and so we need to be able to operate from an open and honest space, as opposed to the sparring that seems to inform the current environment. There needs to be greater understanding from both sides and a willingness to work together. The media needs the PR industry to be better and the PR industry needs the media to be better. It sounds mildly utopian but I do believe it.
My random thoughts.