What journalists want
By Hemant Arya on May 23, 2008 in Indian PR industry, PR professionals, PRagencies, media, mediarelations
It was after a long lunch session that she shared this with us: “They promised me an exclusive. The interview with the Chairman was to happen in the next couple of days. The meeting was cancelled at the last minute. Reason? The Chairman had to fly out of the country. Next day I saw the interview promised to me in three different newspapers.”
This is part of an amusing conversation my colleague and I had with a senior business journalist from a leading English daily. The ‘they’ she refers to is, of course, a PR agency. Have you come across an incident like this in your PR career? Something promised to a journalist is never delivered – an important piece of information, an exclusive one-to-one, a research report. I am sure you have because it happens all the time.
Among the many bad things that we – PR pros – are accused of, not keeping promises tops the list. It’s an age-old discussion: “why can’t they stick to their word?” This happens in other industries and the communications industry is no different. So why is it that PR agencies are seen as incorrigible truants, and why have we created such a mean reputation for ourselves? If you have seen Colin Farrell in the movie Phone Booth, you know what I mean.
I can think of two reasons immediately. First, the stakes in this business are high and sometimes we fail to understand how important content is for a newspaper. Second, the pressure to please the client and keep our bosses in good humour. Actually there are more reasons but I want to end with two.
I have spoken with a few friends in our industry but there is no satisfactory answer on how to curb the ‘menace’. We are also naively unsure if this menace exists. So very often these incidents are shoved under the carpet and the thrust is on moving on with our lives. We are also uncertain if our industry is in need of an image makeover.
A few weeks back, a journalist from a business magazine met our client and was ready to file the article. So far, so good. But there was a problem. The information shared with the journalist was incomplete. Our client would have been in big trouble if the article was published. We contacted the journalist and promised him more information for a much better article. He was adamant. He had a deadline to meet. Even after speaking with him a number of times there was no headway.
We knew nothing else would work now. So we decided to do just one thing, be 100% honest. We called him up and laid bare the facts – if the article was published, our client would have to do a lot of crisis management; a few, very innocent heads would roll; we might lose a very good account. It was not a pleasant call but the article was never published. Of course, the journalist didn’t talk to us again. That is, till last week when we bumped into him. After some initial hiccups, I am happy to say, things were normal again.
There is no moral of this story. At best I would say that being honest sometimes works, even if it means getting badly burnt in the process. I can see many of you shaking your heads in disagreement. If you have a better solution, it’s time we used it.
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On May 23, 2008, Tushar said:
Hey, Hemant.
I nod my head in agreement. Honesty always pays.
Warm regards,
Tushar
On May 23, 2008, himanshu kapadia said:
true hemant i have seen this movie several times and its always the No. 2 ,3,4 media suffering, my honest opinion is that we make plan a, plan b and plan c. if et does not come atleast there is a bs / hbl/fe to back up. Being honest is always great as someone from fe will go to et and smile back at you. my favarorite line- take care of minutes, hours will be take care of themselves
On May 23, 2008, Bhawna said:
rightly said , being honest is the best policy. Be some times even this doesnt help!
On May 23, 2008, Anil Nagwani said:
At last somebody is talking of honesty and without any jargon or strategy ehmmm……. saying in a lucid way that PR industry has to mend its ways. An image makeover from PR Pros to PR Professionals is in the offing.
Honesty pays and it always does but in the short run dishinesty pays although its a dubious gift, and I think that many or most of us fall for it, I am not an exception to such lures.
But yes these are the real issues that we must discuss more frequently, introspect and see what is wrong as Mr. Naipaul says we ignore the OBVIOUS!!!!!!
Honesty shows in work, in your behaviour with the client, most of the times a simple acceptance of a mistake or an honest Sorry can do the magic. That person (read in personal/professional life) will be sold to you. Even if it turns out the other way, at least you will have a good night’s sleep, with thought that ‘Lord I have done my Duty’. Not an original but Lord Nelson won’t mind!!!!!
On May 23, 2008, Hemant Arya said:
I am kind of happy that you agree with me on the honesty bit. Thank you, Tushar, Himanshu, Bhawna, Anil. I was also hoping to some a different opinion.
On May 24, 2008, Palin Ningthoujam said:
Once a colleague of mine who worked in an airlines told me that airlines ticket sales people overbook their flights seats so that in case there are last minute cancellations, they can still have a backup to fill their seats. But when there are no cancellations, they run into problems and they try to adjust the overcapacity into other flights. Not perfect, but practically this is what works for sales people.
Likewise, Himanshu mentioned,I think PR agencies have no choice but to pitch to at least 3-4 journalists for 1-2 interviews for say a visiting spokesperson. Problems come all the time when you have more interview confirmations than you bargained for and when the spokesperson has no extra time slot.
On May 24, 2008, Hemant Arya said:
Valid observation, Palin. Nevertheless, I haven’t seen a positive report on the airlines industry and its functioning in a long time now. We are sort of walking (or flying) in tandem with our brethren in the skies.
On May 24, 2008, Anil Nagwani said:
The problem actually comes when there is an exclusive promised and the story ends being shared with more than one journalist.
I have journalists complaining that the story that was shared to him as an exclusive and red hot was in fact an year old. The only mistake the journalist made was took the PR guy on his word and has to face a furious boss.
Its not that journalists are not at fault, sometimes an exclusive (first mover advantage to be precise)it gets into an endless loop, its gonna be next week, its gonna be next day and so on. And the story gets grounded. It is then on the experience and judgemant of the PR person to act judicoiously and work in the best interest of the client. But should give out a clear signal to the journalist, explicit or implicit, that the story is going out to others.
See lets face it, we have a problem, which needs to be tackled looking the other way or justifying a wrong by a wrong done in some other industry is no good. Airlines get abused and poor girls at the counter get to face the ire of the customers for no fault of theirs.
How would you feel about missing an important appointment just because they plan to fly planes like Delhi’s Blue Line buses!!!!!! Cheated of course.
On May 27, 2008, samir kapur said:
Hi Hemant
While Honesty is a good policy but i believe being diplomatic is always better. Just to remind you of an incident from Mahabharat that even Yudhishtar was diplomatic in giving reply to his own guru Dron because the overall objective or goal of winning the war is important. Coming back to your point. Each and every PR person has to work like a media planner i.e. he has to understand that resources ( here – top management’s time) are always limited and hence he has to fully optimize these resources. You tell me if you have to reach out to SEC – A in Cosmo- metro which publication will you choose – ET or FE and while you would have pitched to both as in our business we are not sure where it might click, if your client or your boss says that he has time for only 1 interaction what will you do? I think in these situations our diplomacy is tested – baptism by fire. So while our “guilt” might make us feel sorry for the “other” person, i guess we need to come out with better ones rather than saying ” he has an urgent flight to catch”
On May 27, 2008, Hemant Arya said:
Hi Samir, thank you for a new perspective. Diplomacy and baptism by fire? I would call it managing the situation better and leaving no loose ends. But sometimes you just can’t win the war.
Recently a friend of mine was in a soup becasue her client lied to her. What’s worse – journalists squarely blamed her even when she had no clue what was happening. She spent a whole day on phone, tackling media ire. Now I would call that baptism by fire! As they say, the only thing you gain from a loss is experience
On May 30, 2008, Ruth Seeley said:
I once ended up in a situation where I had pitched a story and the client would then not make their spokesperson available. It was agonizing, as the reporter kept calling me and the client (having previously agreed to our media relations strategy)took his sweet time to tell us that they weren’t prepared to make a spokesperson available.
I was so upset about the situation that I took it up with the general manager of the agency I worked for, who was managing the account. I’m still not sure he got it: that he was putting my credibility on the line, and that I only had a certain amount of collateral with journalists. Sometimes, when you’re dealing with publicly listed, very large corporations, these things happen.
I think too that journalists are slow to understand what C-suite schedules are like – brutal. Twelve-hour days are the norm. Board meetings, analyst briefings, investor tours and participating in due diligence for new acquisitions are things that really just can’t wait, no matter what the journalist’s deadline.
On May 30, 2008, Hemant Arya said:
I agree. Sometimes it’s difficult to make journalists understand that a company head’s time is as precious as their own. Also, very often PR pros are squashed between the pressure created by cleints and journlaists, and if they are very unlucky, the boss also join in.
On Jun 9, 2008, Rajul said:
When I tell people I am into PR, I can read “Liars, Spin-doctors, fixers” written on thier faces. This makes me wonder- Why on this earth just PR? why not marketing? or advertising? after all they too are entrusted with the job of fooling others! But I guess the answer to this question lies in the intricate meaning of our profession, which many times people as well as professionals fail to understand. We are here to build trust. We are here to be loyal. But to whom? public? client? journalist? agency? It is a fine line indeed. To be honest is great, but to whom?
On Feb 27, 2009, Virender said:
Hi All,
i have done pgdmc but i dont have time to join media can i work online without any profit or join any medis agency.as a journilist