The great Indian PR divide
By Editor on Oct 8, 2006 in industry
On the first day of joining as an intern in a PR agency at New Delhi, I was aghast. The Account Manager there told me to scan five newspapers, and if I see mentions of certain companies, those clips had to be cut out and glued into the company letterheads. That would be my job first thing in the office every morning, followed by writing the headlines of those clips alongwith the names of the newspapers, dates, and place of publication into Word files and writing summaries out of each story. After having done a mass communications degree, I thought that was bit odd. I was wondering what my job profile will be like, but at least not that. We used to do precis writing in class IX.
I wondered if mine was an odd case, and I got a bad boss. But after being in the PR industry for years now, I see that in every agency, whether it is someone coming from IIMC, Symbiosis, or any other Mass Communication universities, thats the route everyone followed.
Some weeks after this clip cutting business, there will be an additional job profile that is – call up the journalist. One has to call up journalists for everything including press conferences, events, press releases, interviews, etc. Then you do what are called media rounds in which you go to media houses to meet up journalists. It’s another story that you will be given 5 seconds by each journalist to talk to them (oh ya I have seen the best of media relations experts).
CEOs in this type of PR agencies judge how well a client account is doing by gauging the newspaper coverage the agency is getting for the client. If there is a silence in an account for two weeks, it’s crisis time. Then you are sent off to some newspaper offices to cajole the journalists to do the interviews with your client. So as long as media stories keep coming in, every account is being serviced. The messaging, planning, word docuemnts, excels, and powerpoints submitted to clients can be mouled and handled afterwards. This is the long and short way of PR, and one way to look at it. There are agencies and PR professionals stuck with this ‘PR means media coverage’ concept. They will tell you that you are as good as the number of journalists who can recall your name.
Well, that was very pessimistic of me. We also have agencies that don’t take shit from clients or the media. When there are new clients, they try to understand their clients’ businesses inside out. They have industry experts in the agency who can advise the clients on their images. They represent their clients to their customers, business partners, government, and the communities and the clients feel at ease if they are with their PR people whenever they go out to meet some tricky people.
These agencies let know the client how they should plan their media relations campaign and what is possible and what is not. They don’t just do the ‘fix an interview’ ordeal, but make the clients realise that if there is no coverage, it’s not such a big deal. There is next time. They don’t let their clients judge the agency basis the number of clips obtained.
They are the writing experts and the clients depend on them for their internal and external newsletters, messages,case studies, environment assessment papers, etc. etc..
The PR agency is not the media coordination agency but the information management office of the clients. For that the agency makes its employees knowledgeable so that when they go out, they present themselves as consultants, who can debate on industry developments and give their sugegstions on issues.
Well, is that too much asking? No, there are agencies going on these routes. Kudos to them.
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On Oct 9, 2006, managinginnovation said:
Agreed. But sincerely scanning the papers, their competitors etc actually helps – & it happens everywhere starting from Genesis, Perfect, Vaishnavi, Hanmer, Corvo. But I think it helps in understanding the clients, their competitors, industry etc – rather than going trough the company backgrounder its much more easier to understand a client and its operations by the same process.
IIMC or Symbiosis gives you basic theoretical knowledge still there are 100 of things which one needs to learn on the job, PR can be best learned through the old fashioned way. Calling up the journalist faxing – they all help, it a simple tool through which you actually memorize the board numbers, fax numbers, names of the journalist etc of various media houses & seriously it helps on odd times (these are the learning which will not be available either on IIMC or Symbiosis – correct me if I am wrong).
Nowadays anyone with 3/4 years of experience claims that they the media specialist. See, if you go for media rounds thrice a week for six months lots of journalists are going to remember your face and name and may be your number but that is not what media relations is all about. If you handle good brands as your clients journalist will give you a call or will be in touch but trust me that is not the real media relations. There are few people who can be called media specialized who can get things done through pure relationship without big brand as client or under any reputed PR agencies banner.
I agree, PR is not all about coverage but it means a lot for 90% of the clients its all about demand & supply at the end of the day all clients will love to have coverage (quality & quantity) with good media spread and accurate messaging. So, it more of clients demand.
Although apart from media coverage newsletters, industry papers, strategic plans are required but again I think clients prefer to have the same from PWC, Mackenzie, KPMG etc. see, if a company starts a new product he will not require a strategic plan from the PR agency what he will be looking is the strategic media plan which can increase the visibility and help the brand making more noise but really don’t think a company needs a PR agency to sell its products.
But yes, planning, documentation research all along with good media coverage is what is needed for service a client.
On Oct 9, 2006, CJ said:
Most of the fresh interns in PR agency need to understand the environment in which a particular client operates. And majority of the freshers, despite armed with a good degree, have yet to develop the habit of reading newspapers and magazines. In order to make an intern understand the client this is the best route. And so is the fact that calling up the journalists, meeting them, is what makes an intern get into the loop of operations. So nothing to worry about. This is the hands-on experience which is the first step before you start calling yourself a media specialist, as ‘managinginnovation’ points out very aptly.
On Oct 9, 2006, Anonymous said:
PR can be interesting from various aspects- Writing, technolog, telecom , HR etc. But in all, communication is essentially driven by common sense..as managinginnovation says.
On Oct 9, 2006, Anonymous said:
There is no Indian PR divide – that’s how they ( PR Professionals) have been trained; same thing is applicable to all other jobs – consulting, journalism, accounting, finance etc etc.
The basic problem arise when the guys with 3 months of experience wants only to make so called strategy presentation without knowing even the basics.
Without reading on a particular industry how can you even research on it properly?
So the disconnect is with those who want to reach the top using lift(s) & elevators without realizing that learning is an evolution rather than a revolution.
On Oct 9, 2006, hobbit said:
Good feedbacks we have here. I agree reading up newspapers can be one of the fastest ways to get knowledge on an industry. Calling up journalists, faxing, and making reports come as part of the learning process of a PR trainee. We all have gone through the grind but need to understand and make the young people understand the need to do it. The approach needs to be structured and clear. I’m of the opinion that strategy and messaging comes first and followed by reaching out to the media, not the other way round that I see in some PR agencies where focus is on things like knowing what the journalist do in his spare time.
Media relations constitutes a huge percentage of PR. However, the emphasis here is on smart media relations and being consultants rather than being mechanical and the PR firm becoming a media facilitation agency/ courier service of the client, which journalists complain of today.
Let’s remember just as good media networking is important in media relations for any PR professional,ultimately it is the story that sells. Our expertise comes not only in having a good media list or remembering journalists’ names but also in developing the messaging and identifying good story pegs in a way that will work both ways for the client and the media.
Let’s imagine a scenario when I am very friendly to a journalist and I
give him a bad story pitch. Let’s also imagine a second scenario where I don’t know the journalist and I give him a good story pitch. Thirdly, what if I know the journalist well and I give him a good story pitch. I’d prefer the last two scenarios, and I think any journalist will too.
As the market becomes more and more complex today, companies require different kind of studies to help them. If they want a industry study to help them develop their business, they’d go to market research firms. But any sort of studies/insights concerning their image in the media, community/customers is where we can add value as their image consultants.
On Oct 11, 2006, managinginnovation said:
When it comes to pitching stories again its not rocket science..no particular degree will actually help…its common sense …knowledge about the publication, knowledge abt a particular media house, their editorial policy, writing/nature of the journalist(reading 3/4 articles of specific journalist comes handy before going to pitch a story) its not about good english or strategic thinking its common sense, which again comes with age and number of years in the trade..No one needs relation to get easy things done..with time professionals understand how to sell What to Sell & where to sell…relations actually help when u hav a story which sells but the editorial policy of X publication house is not permitting it…no PR agency can do market studies..if someone says so they simply are fooling around..perception audit of the journalist is the only realistic things can be done by any PR agency..market research, industry research – no PR agency has the manpower neither the expertise to do so(they can outsource it)…what can be given to the client is plain vanila cut paste job from the net..
On Oct 11, 2006, Peter Pan said:
If you are a local PR shop at Nizammuddin, you don’t have resource than just fooling ard with journalists , but if you are edelman, fleishman hillard, BM, etc.or make effort to be one..then you give these world class services.simple as tat. talk abt edelman coming out with Asia Pacific Stakeholder Study recently.
On Oct 11, 2006, hobbit said:
Knowledge about publication, particular media house, editorial policy, writing/nature of the journalist- all these help, but what do we pitch?…tats where good planning and thinking come helpful. We have to pitch in sync with the goals of our clients, not exactly according to what interests the media. We have to find a way to suit them both. In addition to common sense, we need knowledge and intelligence on our client’s industry to figure that out. I would not pitch anything that my client says is an interesting story peg, unless I’m sure about it myself, no matter how well I know the media. For instance, if my client, say a telecom company, wants me to pitch a particular technology, I need to know what is going on in the telecom sector, what other players are doing abt tat, what the media has been writing abt tat, so that I can figure out a good hook to sell the story.
The cut paste job we do from the net is called secondary research but it also comes with lots of thinking. And you need to have a macro understanding of issues to collate all the information from the net and gather some sense out of it,and give a 10 point recommendation to the client.
On Oct 12, 2006, manisha said:
It was the same with me. My first day at perfect saw me reading news papers and checking out what kinda stories are done on which page and whose writing wot. At first i thought probably am an intern in such a big agency, i might not get to learn anything. but i was proved wrong when after few days that knowledge helped me in doing certain projects at work. I think reading papers is the first step to become a Good PR. In our agency teh first thing that was supposed to be done in the morning was readn newspapers for an hour and believe me guys, it actually helps.
On Oct 12, 2006, hobbit said:
Tats great, Manisha. Like someone said we should never stop acquiring knowledge, and newspaper reading is one good way to acquire knowledge about current happenings.
Here’s a few lines more from his speech I read yesterday – today’s public relations professional must possess a knowledge base beyond public relations. Our clients and employers look to us for information applicable to their business or to their specific problem or issue. If one is to succeed in the world of technology, s/he must be able to speak the language of technology. If the assignment is helping a pharmaceutical company defend a challenge to the efficacy or safety of a specific drug, s/he must have grounding in pharmaceutical marketing.
On May 28, 2007, Raja said:
I had one question. Is it necessary to train all the interns in the same way? Or is it better that the agency segregates the interns as per their aptitudes/strong points, and train them accordingly?