Why do PR people pamper the media?
By Editor on Oct 7, 2008 in Indian PR industry, PRagencies, featured, issues, media, mediarelations
When I was a caterpillar in the PR profession, I used to enjoy learning everything about the media. Making media contacts was one of my favorite roles. I engrossed in it to the extent that I shifted my profile entirely to media relations.
However, one thing that has confused me is pampering the media unnecessarily. I was stunned seeing my colleagues giving endless gifts to the media. It was a shock as in my professional course of Advertisement and PR I have been taught about professionalism. But I could not see any professionalism in taking gifts for attending events or for doing stories.
During my professional traveling so far for events, I have seen a culture that many times the media asks for gifts openly. They ask bluntly about what gift you are giving. It was really shocking when some of them asked straightforwardly for cash in an envelope to attend an event.
It’s not only the PR agency that encourages this culture but somewhere the clients are also responsible for the same. One of the biggest players in automobile industry thinks that if they do not give gifts to media, the event will be considered incomplete. They also think that the media will not write their stories without gifts irrespective of the fact how important the news they are sharing is.
Last year we had a big event in Rajasthan. One night before the event, a government minister died in a road accident. I started getting calls from the media till late night saying that they would not be able to attend the event as a minister has died and they will be busy in that. They asked me what we are giving as gifts. I was left with no option but to tell them and next day I found all media persons at the event. I believe gifts were more important than the death of the minister.
This seems more of buying the media rather than indulging in media relations. Or in other words, we can say this is the another definition of MEDIA BUYING in PR industry.
Later on I came to know that this is not the case in tier two cities alone, in metros, the scene is worst. Even in the capital, so many journalists from reputed media houses attend events just for gifts. Sometimes journalists give phone calls and ask for gifts without attending the event. And of course even after this, the story is not assured. But if the editor will eliminate the story, the journalist will never say that he or she has taken a gift from PR agency so please don’t stop the story. There are journalists who create issues for not getting the gifts. They make excuses for not attending the events from next time and also try their best to stop the stories.
It is a regular practice that has been carried by PR, journalists, and clients. But it creates a problem for small organizations who can’t afford expensive gifts for the media. We have noticed few journalists who try to stop stories of PR agencies that refuse to give gifts.
Another issue I believe which doesn’t make any sense is the pick ‘n’ drop for media. There is no point providing such facilities to media. In exceptional cases like providing drop back facility to female journalists in the night or taking media out for a day is quite acceptable. But calling a cab at your place four to five hours before the event and using the same for the rest of the day is really unethical. It really doesn’t make a sense to provide a cab to such a place which is just half kilometer away from the venue of the event. Still many media persons ask for pick ‘n’ drop for these small distances, despite the fact they get paid from their companies for traveling officially. They say it openly if we want us to attend an event, you have to provide the pick ‘n’ drop. PR agencies need to spare one executive to coordinate the cabs for these special guest of our. Sometime it feels like doing transportation business rather than real PR.
There are also some people who attend events without being invited for it and they openly ask for gifts too. They belong to such media houses, which are not relevant either for PR agencies or for the clients. Some people do not belong to any media houses but still claim to be journalists and ask for gifts. Few retired journalists are sometimes also being noticed attending events for their share. Sometimes they start misbehaving or threatening PR persons and try to show them the MEDIA POWER.
Sometimes they ask for two gifts at one go. Helping media in getting a discount in a clients’ product is acceptable but giving gifts, cabs, and other facilities to them to get the stories done is extremely unethical.
Needless to say that they have stronger network than any other in this industry. They update themselves with all the events everyday with the exact timings and venue. Sometimes clients ask us to find out the events happening on a particular date and we find it difficult to find all the relevant details. I must say it is an indirect learning for all of us.
I have noticed Mumbai as the only place where these practices are not followed. In the rest of the country the meaning of professionalism goes for a toss. I don’t know who is to be blamed for this. PR agencies or Clients? Obviously we cannot blame the media as we only support these practices for one or the other reason. I feel this process will continue like this and media will keep on taking the advantage of it. But still I want to stop this crap. Don’t know how.
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On Oct 7, 2008, Sandeep said:
I totally agree. Every time i have an event in Mumbai i feel relaxed about it. Ironically the worst affected ones with this phenomenon is not the tier two cities but the media in the national capital, i.e Delhi
On Oct 7, 2008, sj said:
I agree.
It’s important for both clients and media to understand that none of them are doing the other a favour, and therefore the expectation/extending of any incentive/bribes to cover stories is totally invalid and uncalled for. While companies need to disseminate their news, it is the journalist’s basic job function to cover stories that are newsworthy and of value to investors, shareholders and customers alike. But quite often, agency executives are in the wrong at the outset for they tend to deify the media in their approach towards them.
And I suspect the need to deify only arises when (a) your understanding of public relations is limited and reduced to media relations and therefore there’s nothing else that you know to do except manage media, let aside guaging and building public opinion from other marketing fronts/channels … and (b) you are not in a position to command respect yourself from members of the media when you havent taken the trouble of analysing your client’s brand, the sector, business dynamics and most importantly what this implies for customers and investors… and therefore you are not in a position to hold an intelligent conversation with journalists on elements pertaining to the brand/industry you represent.
Let’s get it straight:
…The basic role of journalists is to cover newsworthy developments. They get a salary for it. They arent doing you a favour, or your client a favour. Their publication has a specific readers’ base, all of whom have specific interests as consumers/investors in certain brands and so its the basic function of any newspaper/publication to provide relevant news value to their readers on relevant companies. (That’s assuming you are indeed targeting publications that are the most relevant to your target audience… and that you are not bullied by your client into getting all publications under the sun to attend a press conference, which is unfortunately a widespread yet ineffective practice).
…Nor are you doing journalists a favour; because your role is to channel newsworthy stories out through them to stakeholders. You get paid for it.
…And its the client’s obligation – more so if its a listed company or a company operating in the financial/banking sector which complies by strong corporate governance policies that demand transparency – to share information/developments/financial disclosure to stakeholders. They get paid for it too indirectly by means of investor support/shares bought by investors. So if we all understand what our basic functions are, it rules out scope for any unneccesary pleasantries.
These are merely general observations. I totally empathise and agree with the author of this article and in no way mean to imply that the author is not doing the best to avert such unethicalities.
On Oct 7, 2008, Sayan said:
Agree with you Vikas… but I guess this is more prevalent in Delhi and among the IANS/vernacs. I have never faced this issue in Bangalore or Mumbai… but yes, Tier II cities do expect gifts and they have been pampered more by the smaller agencies than the bigger ones…
On Oct 8, 2008, himanshu kapadia said:
nice one but somewhere we all are to blame, dont do it , there are some bad apples but even in the cities mentioned above i have come across people with greater self disipline than many other so called city journalists
On Oct 8, 2008, BM said:
I agree.
But I think it’s totally our fault. Giving gifts to the journalists is a very common practice in all PR agencies across India. All said and done we all do it. If not us, the senior people in the industry and also the promoters of various agencies, they all do it. In a place like Gujarat, it’s a very common practice and it was started by agencies only (advertising agencies handling PR assignments for various companies coming up with their IPO’s). Moreover, lot of time our clients also insists on the same. And frankly it’s a practice in all cities, why only blame Delhi. We have to understand that Delhi is the capital and all important media houses including all vernacular and regional media has a presence in Delhi, which makes Delhi an important media center compared to other cities. The representatives of the regional media are all marketing people who have no clue about news, but we call them for our conferences and we also pamper them by sending cars, gifts etc for a pan India coverage spread.
I think it’s our duty not to encourage this practice and also convince our clients on the same.
On Oct 8, 2008, Saurabh said:
Hey Vikas,
True True True!!!!All the way true.
This really puts us in a fix…some clients really hold different opinions about this…as in this might be surprising for you but some of my clients do not like to follow this policy. That does not go well with the media. I gues u agree, the news value (on every news) is appreciated highly by the clients but is highly depreciated by the media. Normal practice is that we excite the media (not all, some select) by lunch n gifts. Petty things but they work. The clients who do not prefer this practice create chaos in colossal sizes for the agency. An example…. a very good colleague of mine got calls from media askiin for gifts aftr mnths of a particular event. One journo evn threatened to stop the stories if the valuable was not provided to him.
If any media rep is reading this I would just like to say…. that may be U dont appreciate this phenomenon but it most definitely prevails in the fraternity.
Vikas I found this post really good. Keep it up.
Saurabh
On Oct 10, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
Dear Sandeep, Himanshu, Sayan, Bhaskar and Saurabh
I appreciate your comments for the post. I agree that PR agencies and clients are responsible for this but we need to take some initiative to stop these unethical practices. I also agree to the point that there are few journalists who manage to do everything on their own. That shows real professionalism.
Dear SJ
I think you did not get the key message of the post. Well thanks a lot for your in-depth knowledge of PR and media relations and sharing the expert opinions.
On Oct 10, 2008, BM said:
Thanks Vikas…
I am sure we all will work towards the same.
Look forward for more posts from you..keep it up..
Cheers,
Bhaskar
On Oct 10, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
Dear Bhaskar,
Thanks for the appreciation. We will definitely work on this as it needs to be stopped now. Its becoming a serious problem for everybody.
Vikas….
On Oct 10, 2008, Shivani Ramaiah said:
Yes being on the PR side of things I have heard of such stories quite often.
However, to give the devil its due…I would like to mention that there are certain Publications ( Mint I can recall clearly)which discourage this practice.
I agree with you that this practice is frustrating and I wish there was a forum to report abuse of journalistic powers.
On Oct 10, 2008, Sanghpriya Gautam said:
Yes it’s true dear Vikas.
But somehow we all being a part of PR industry forgets that the relationship we share with the media should always be symbiotic.
There are resons behind the problems many of us has faced with the media,
1) How many of us beleives in that this is a symbiotic relation.
2) How many times we educate the client about the peroblems occurd with the media.
3)How many of us targets only on the news value(as most of the time there is)
One more thing i would like to add is that most of the PR practitoners lack the su8bject knowledge of PR just two years back Agencies used to hire ppl from any backgrounds and i happy to see that nowa days many newcomers are very well versed with the PR.
On Oct 10, 2008, Shael Sharma said:
There is no smoke without a fire just like there is no supply without demand, this Bombay, Bangalore vs delhi is pure bullshit too…there are intelligent, intellectually sound people everywhere just as there are laggards and also-rans…so easy to blame the system…I’d like to talk to someone here who has not been a part of this or winked at something either in omission or commission.
On Oct 10, 2008, BM said:
Hey Shael,
I totally agree with your views…well said…
On Oct 10, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
Dear Shivani
I do agree that there are few publications which discourage these practices. Also request you not to mention any publication or organization name here. Unfortunately there is no forum to report abuse of journalistic power. However it’s a good thought.
Dear Sanghpriya
I can only say two things here.
1. We make media relations spending so much of time but still end up following theses practices. This is disheartening.
2. I agree that most of the PR practitioners lack PR knowledge. Not PR practitioners but companies also lack this knowledge before hiring PR agencies. Even most of the organizations while hiring a secretary or receptionist say that they are looking for a PR professional.
Dear Shael
Just one thing is that no one would like to be parts of this but without this, thing are not working in PR industry.
I would appreciate if anybody can suggest some solution for this.
On Oct 11, 2008, BM said:
Dear Vikas,
It a great idea, few thoughts:
- I think first we need to identify journalists who demands for gifts or other favours.
- We need to educate our clients not to entertain those journalists. As those people will turn to the corporate communication guys/company spokespersons if not entertained by the agency people.
- We have to stop inviting marketing people from the media for Press Conferences, select press meets etc.
- Before any press conference or press meet convince and educate the client of the ground realties of the media turnout so that at the last moment in order of showing number one have to invite people who are not journalists and are marketing or sales representatives from different media houses
- Stop interacting with people who asks for favors or gifts send across a clear message that barring the festive occasions, gifts and other favors will not be entertained.
On Oct 13, 2008, BM said:
Dear Vikas,
Thanks a lot for your comments, really appreciate your valuable inputs on the same.
Would like to correct, I don’t think 50% of the media fraternity is like this. Well, may be I am wrong.
Cheers,
Bhaskar
On Oct 15, 2008, sj said:
Vikas,
To correct you, indeed i did very well comprehend the message of your post, else I wouldnt have expended time in offering you a solution via a comment. But it’s apparent that you have failed to understand the depth of my comment – which was in agreement of the quandary that you are facing with the media, and which addressed the crux of the quandary – which is an inadequate understanding on part of clients, pr agencies and the media on their raison d’etre and relationship with one another.
If you want to weed out a problem, you must first arrive at its roots and question why such practices (media’s expectations of pleasantries such as corporate freebies/favours) exist so that you can effectively deroot them… And this is exactly what my comment addressed.
It’s obvious that there’s a lot that you are yet to learn in public relations and effective problem-solving! I wish you luck.
On Oct 21, 2008, Tripti Das said:
I agree. The problem is that people have come to expect it and if its not given it can leave an unfavorable impression. Given the social and emotional context of gifts in India, a non gift culture is difficult to implement. One of the ways to tackle this at a psychological level and make the gift as something that will make their relationship with us more efficient at a professional level. Gifting pendrives, iPods (www.ipodyourlife.co.in?channel=blog4), CD cases inscribed with company logo etc. is a better way to maintain relationship. Cash is something that should be avoided as their is no brand building or associated benefit for the company.
On Nov 2, 2008, Venkatesh said:
Hi
I’m from Bangalore and have practiced both in PR agency and Corporate Communications. Journalists in Bangalore are very cooperative and show interest more in the story than the gifts. Yes, they do accept gifts if it is given to them, but I have noticed that journalists from the Times Group do not accept gifts at press conferences or even at their office! They have not “demanded” for gifts either. However, during a press conference I attended in Hyderabad, journalists attended in large numbers and we were short of gifts. But, they refused to leave the venue until they got a gift! The client had to actually “purchase” gifts from a nearby shop and give it to them! I would also like to add that in Bangalore the bunch of journalists who hang around at the Press Club are of a different breed compared to the rest of the journalists from leading publications and electronic media.
On Feb 3, 2009, Amit Sharma said:
I believe, its the system fault. We have to put a full stop over it later or sooner. Rather, I feel the sooner it is the better it would be.
However said that, I believe you cannot get a story published everytime by pushing the gift under the table. I will also ask the PR professionals to actual do an introspect about the need of generating a press coverage for an event or release. As most of the time in our Indian scenario, clients and sorry to say agencies take a root which is often travelled suggesting (Press Conference)for everything. As in are scenario PR is seen and a column centimetre generation tool.
I firmly believe its more than that, as it creates a long lasting impression on to the minds of the TA. It helps to create an impression of the brand in long run.
On May 11, 2009, rohan said:
Interesting points brought up. The pick up and drop thing sadly is prevelant in Mumbai too and generally the media using these facilities don’t matter much. It’s just the agency pampering the media at the client’s cost to ensure more coverage for their other clients. Professionals working in PR agencies have this habit of pampering the media at the cost of the client with all the gifts/pick and drop business as the client can afford to lose coverage in select media but the agency cannot. Delhi media is a different story all together. They’re just like the politicians that they are so used to seeing aroung there. Amongst PR agencies and clients if someone has to be blamed for this, the blame is 100% on the agency as they are the consultants encouraging such practices. But their say is that if they don’t some other brand will provide these perks and the way the majority of Indian media works, that brand which offers these perks will be better off.
On Nov 9, 2009, JC said:
This is a very interesting post and applies to all, i have had journalists threatening to not come for my event if i do not provide a pick up and drop facility to a place that is less than a kilometer away from their office. I personally do not want to encourage such an unprofessional behavior but if the higher management does not do anything about it there is not much i can do.
On Jan 13, 2010, Akansha said:
I have been on both sides of the table – journo and corp comm.. in fact I know a few of you who have commented here as well..
Yes, we have bad apples everywhere, but you cannot bunch them all into Delhi Vs Mumbai etc. I have spent a lot of my time as a journalist in Delhi, and my organisation and personal ethics never allowed me to accept anything more than a pen… something I keep losing ever so often.
Refusing to accept gifts certainly goes a long a way in ensuring the account exec respects you and your deadline.
However, as journalists there are many things that irk you which PR guys could look into.
One, there are certain PR people and certain agencies which I will not name here who believe that if your CEO is landing up at 1, let’s call media at 12… that used to be irritating, because that means you just a lost one solid hour of work. Also, some PR agents (men in particular) believe that if they flirt with the journalist, their story will be published… Why?
And the worst…I wish I was mean enough to name this company, who gave the interview questions I had sent in, and the answers they were supposed to send to me as an exclusive, to their Singapore communication office…AND was published on a news website VERBATIM! Of course, they weren’t doing financially too well then, so I totally jacked them later in my stories…after all I was bureau head! But one tip, never ever take one journo’s story and pass it to another.. .it’s career suicide.
Ok, this will become a long post… I will cut it short. Moral of the story – taali ek haath se nahin bajti.. look at both sides of the picture.
On Jan 30, 2010, SA said:
Hi All,
I would really like to appreciate everyone for sharing his/her experiences. But I also do agree with this that sometimes very important client’s assignments having great news values are handled by budding (fresher) PR executives and puts high pressure on them to get it carried by publication which ultimately leave them with no options to offer such gifting and pick n drop facilities to media people. However there are my organizations with professional journos who straightly deny accepting such gift. Last year I went to the office of a very popular tabloid of Capital and Mumbai to distribute some gifts on Diwali, we (I along with my ex colleague) greeted journo in very formal manner and offered her gift. I was amazed when she said in very friendly manner “are yaar tumh special gift dene aye hoo ,but we are not allowed to accept giftst mujhe gift nahi kuch interesting story do” ( Sorry we are not allowed to accept gifts, but if you can suggest me any interesting story idea that would work more for me ). So instead to blaming any particular fraternity I think it’s better to identify the right person to pictch and let these new babies (PR executive) to analyze and learns skill from their experience mentors.
On Feb 6, 2010, Ravi Menon said:
Being a journalist, I liked your last line: “…I feel this process will continue like this and media will keep on taking the advantage of it. But still I want to stop this crap. Don’t know how…”
Saying that the media takes advantage of a corrupt system (which the companies and their PR firms created in the first place) would be self-defeating, wouldn’t it?
Remove all vestiges of temptation — cheap gifts, free rides, gift vouchers and other dildoes which companies and PR have been peddling to journalists all these years… do not give junkets to journalists with the hope of getting them to write a appreciative saga about your company… DO NOT INITIATE THE BRIBERY PROCESS AND YOU WILL NOT SEE CORRUPTION…
Most journalists are eager for a good story, but most PR people have no idea what a good story is and what a journalist is looking for…