Calling up journalists without proper planning
By Palin Ningthoujam on Sep 4, 2008 in mediarelations
Apparently a DNA journalist last weekend wrote a story about how a PR executive called him up to pitch a guest article by her client, and she expected the journalist to give her ideas her client can write on. So he was pretty upset.
Normally we all have our own versions of what is good and what is bad and I tend to ignore such whining of journalists and bloggers’ little egos that one can find so many if do a search. However, this one is interesting. Not because of anything else, but because the thread has been picked up by the PR Yahoo forum and seems many PR people want to discuss it.
I wonder if the incident Vivek mentioned in his article actually happened or has he just cracked up his weird imagination and ‘boring’ sense of humour. Seemed more like a PR person called him up and when he’s pondering over what to write for the day, and there he rediscovered his lost muse.
But what if the incident actually happened? Which agency in today’s time calls up journalists and asks them to suggest topics for their clients? I mean we were all taught to be creative and think of interesting topics and pitch them to journalists. Not the other way round – call up journalists and ask them to be creative for us.
Of course one call pull off these provided he/she knows the journalists really well. I have heard my media team head calling up journalists and starting with ‘oye, tu ek story karega? ….’. But that’s another level and please don’t attempt that in case you are not a PR veteran and the journalist is not your childhood friend or a relative.
However, I bet it’s safe to stick to the rules, though often we are tempted to look for shortcuts. It takes all kinds to make this world, and it takes all kinds of journalists to make the media. Sometimes, senior journalists have helped me a lot by giving me insights about a particular vertical when I called them up. Other times, I have my journalist friends helped me out by volunteering to call my client for a telephonic interview when the other journalist, who was supposed to do the interview, chickened out at the eleventh hour. But sometimes, some just groan. Other times, they just want to feel great and write a story about how victimised they feel when PR professionals call them. Even if you and the journalist are related, you might very well become pesky relative.
Have you called up journalists without having any proper agenda, or a pitch topic? Share your experiences and learnings in the comments.
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On Sep 4, 2008, himanshu kapadia said:
well yes, i have called up a jounalist without an agenda many times, just called them and said hi , they asked wht it was for i used to say just wanted to say hi, and had no agendas no relase to follow up on no story ideas because i did not have any, many a times they would love the idea of someone calling them without a hiden agenda and they would inform me that they were working on susch and such story ideas and if any of my clients wished to participate. After all jounalists too are human and come from earth, so treat them as friends and not secretaries to type your dictations.
On Sep 4, 2008, Abhisek said:
Such incidents may happen if there is little experience in pitching to the journalists. All such incidents point to one serious missing aspect of training and mentoring a young professional who just joins an agency and is expected to “call up”.
In most agencies there are no training and induction programs. The gap between academic training and the practical ground work remains unchanged till the newcomer learns it the hard way.
Is it possible for the industry bodies/higher mgmt. of agencies to make regulations for including regular training of PR staff a mandatory affair?
On Sep 4, 2008, Sam said:
Yes, these things happen regularly in the country, but you cant blame all PR people for it. Same goes for the other side. At the end of the day, all sectors have some good professionals and some bad.
Unfortunately for our country, there are just more bad professionals than there are good professionals!!! By bad, I mean mean selfish thugs
On Sep 4, 2008, Palin Ningthoujam said:
Good perspectives, gentlemen. I am supposing we all tend to agree on one thing – good training by agency seniors for freshers and young executes, which brings to another point – how many agencies actually ave training sessions for their employers….
On Sep 5, 2008, Michelle said:
I read that article too and commented there and then… i so totally agree…the journo’s view was totally biased and i dare him to write the same after speaking to a veteran…
On Sep 5, 2008, Free Bee said:
I actually feel bad for some journalists. Getting calls about “did you get my email with the press release” must really be a pain in the wrong place. For example how many of us actaully listen patiently to all the telemarketers and finally politely say “no, thank you.” Chances are you bang down the phone as soon as you hear ABN Amro or Standard Chartered.
BTW, Michelle, don’t think PR veterans call up journalists to fix interactions. I find that these jobs are left to freshers like me. You know, after a certain stage in your career it’s not cool to do these things…
On Sep 5, 2008, suri Ben Noah said:
Hi,
Do you also ignore the big egos of most PR professionals as encountered by me? In over 12 years of working with media and communication professionals for a media development organisation based in Singapore that I represented here in India, I have found that only PR professionals can match or outdo the egos of journalists, which I do agree is rather overinflated. These people don’t realise that their own egos are the biggest obstacles to effective communication between one another. I personally believe there is no harm in asking a journalist for his take on what would be seen as suitable topics and vice versa by a journalist. It all depends upon the relationship you
have built and continue to maintain with the journalists.
The very fact that you seem to think that it is only PR professionals who have been taught or have the ability to give story ideas to journalists, reflects your own ego. Kindly contemplate on it. I don’t mean any offence and hope my comments can help PR professionals who tend to be rather snobbish when dealing with commoners like me to
dismantle their egoistic ‘know it all’ attitude.
I guess it takes all kinds of PR professionals to make up the PR sector. I hope you will be transparent and honest enough to share my views with the readers.
On Sep 9, 2008, Bhawna said:
Well, after reading the article and the comments as well, I think there are some snobs on the each side. There has been plenty of time when we have helped a journalist to come up with a story idea and even a questionnaire and then get the responses not only from our clients but from the other players in the industry as well.
And there had been times when some Journalist friends have helped us understanding a newly assigned client, thus, helped us in making pitch note. But there had been bad incidents as well when some journalists been rude to PR people and they took revenge by not keeping them informed about new developments. But in this case I think client is the one who suffers the most. So instead of hating each other or being egoistic we should understand that we, journalists and PR, complement each other and should respect each other.
On Sep 12, 2008, Priyanka Batra said:
Hi,
I think calling up journalists without proper planning, just to say Hi, is possible with only those PR professionals who have already established some reputation with the journalists.
For a new industry entrant (irrespective of the fact that he /she holds any degree or not) it is really a risky exercise. Just imagine the scene where journalist is very much busy in brainstorming some story and he gets a call from a PR professional without any agenda or purpose!!! The risk will be of same scale, in this scenario, even if such a call comes from a old friend too.
What say?
On Nov 12, 2008, Dr. Ashok K Sharma said:
This is true, calling media persons without proper planning is suicidal but at times this happens with all the inevitable fallouts.