Have you read my blog yet?

Last week Guardian journalist and serial blogger, Charles Arthur, wrote a piece on his personal blog about the nature of the relationship between PRs and journalists.  You can read it here -

He was prompted to write the piece by a “did you get my press release” call from a PR Exec.  Charles likened the relationship to that between a car maker and a component supplier – and in his analogy, the PR people are those trying to build the car and the media supply the components.

Charles reasons, in the end, that it is no wonder PR people call the media to – in effect – check whether they have got “the order”.

The post by Charles has attracted many comments – one of them by me – and many variants were also provided on the analogy.

But rather than make excuses for those phone calls, I think that we in PR have to ask ourselves just how productive we think it is to make routine calls to busy people following the issuing of a news release.

I always thought that the best time to call a journalist about a news story is before you issue it – especially someone on one of the nationals.  What’s more, you should only make those calls when you honestly believe that the story has the strength to make it into a national paper.

Charles argues that sometimes PR people make these calls because their client or employer expects it.  If that is the case, then we are derelict in our duty to act as consultants and advise our clients and employers on best practice PR. 

Any call we make to a journalist should be to impart some information, to add value to the detail they already have, or to make a genuine offer of something new.  And the sooner we cut out the practice of making ritualised calls that do not add value, the better it will be for everyone concerned.

Last week, I went to the AGM of the CIPR in Scotland. I was made to feel very welcome and the few words I said at the end of the meeting seemed to be well received. I’d like to thank the committee for inviting me, and the members that gave me such a warm welcome. And I hope I picked up a few more readers for the blog along the way.

Comments

[Heather Yaxley]

Thanks for posting on this - it is something we debate every year with the CIPR Advanced Certificate students as so many have been told this is the practice by their employers.

I always point out that it is the number one complaint back from journalists - so why would you set out to annoy them in this way.

Like you, I've always found the pre-release phone call is much more effective, especially in terms of relationship building.

I feel the post-release phone call as described is part of a spam approach to PR. It is about as welcome as British Gas sales calls.

[Stuart Bruce - Wolfstar]

Great post Kevin. I sometimes wonder about how making those type of spam calls/emails to journalists sits with the CIPR code of conduct. iSurely those doing it don't "Maintain the highest standards of professional endeavour..." or "Respect the customs, practices of... and other professions."

Not sure what the answer is, but I'd certainly like to see the CIPR look at the issue.

It's making me rethink my stance that the CIPR shouldn't have a seperate code for social media because it doesn't have one for traditional media relations. Maybe what I should be saying is it should have a well-publicised one for media relations as well!

[Anton Avdeev]

"To call? Or not to call?" :)
I consider it is a problem for the agency rather than for the in-house PR-people... IMHO

Being an in-house at the association of the insurance companies I NEVER call... Most of my colleagues at the insurance companies NEVER call... Not sure about other businesses, but we do persuade our directors not to disturb journalists...

[Paul Noble]

I agree that it seems more of a consultancy issue than in-house. But pre or post release, my adage is 'have a reason for the call' - over and above checking that the delivery has arrived.