Are we witnessing the death of PR?

Not sure, but it’s looking like the traditional PR providers are on their death knoll, according to recent reports.

Such as this article from PR Twitterati and non-traditionalist Mark Borkowski, highlighting that tools such as Sidewiki are pushing the Ab Fab brigade to the brink of extinction. Not that he cares of course – his kind of PR is contemporary.

Then there are the new breed of PRs, such as We Are Social – instigators of the Innocent Drinks Twitter feed and much, much more. I can imagine traditional PRs reading this new kind of PR delivery and quite literally crapping themselves when a client mentions the words ’social’ and ‘media’ in the same sentence. Great work, and totally audience-focused for Innocent.

Wondering what a traditional PR looks like? Check out Rubella Pymley-Bowles from Ostentacious PR for a few clues. Awful.

Let’s face it – editors are pulling sources of news and articles from a multitude of areas now, including social media channels. The availability of news, comment, and public interaction means that the Press no longer ‘relies’ on PRs to fill up empty spaces offline and online when deadlines draw nearer. That’s right, PRs – the Press don’t need you, even if newsroom numbers have been cut.

Another important fact for those buying PR is this – the “It’s who you know” argument – so often rolled out by PR firms to newly-signed clients – is less and less relevant: let’s be honest, most media contacts are shifting weekly at the moment, let alone staying put on a publication or news site online for months on end. Those days are relegated well and truly to pre-Recession.

So, the death of PR? Maybe the end of a certain type of PR. As an editor, I’m not sorry to see it go. I welcome in the new and say a goodbye to the bad old days when up-their-own-arse PRs controlled far too much content supply into the British media.

My predictions? More and more media channels will open up, leading the Press to work with fast, reliable, non-pretentious distributors of information. Contemporary PRs have nothing to fear. Old school Ab Fabs? Time for a career change, I think.

A PR firm with about as much use as a chocolate fireguard…

(Re-posting this after an inquiry about the worst example of bad PR I’ve seen. Think of it as educational rather than critical)

…and the dubious award goes to these guys.

A huge thumbs-down to the PR Directors at PR firm Dada.co.uk today: following a mis-pitch yesterday on behalf of their client Whyte & Mackay, in which a press release on the drinks firm’s re-brand was sent to a printing industry-based Newsroom (ie mine) a follow-up email was sent by myself, asking the PR Account Director to remove us from their irrelevant PR issues.

Email received back, apologies accepted, we all move on and continue to cypher the 250 daily emails from PRs.

Or so I thought.

This morning, another email from a different PR Account Director at Dada, telling me about the wonders of how Whyte & Mackay are using Twitter to promote and launch Campaigns for consumers. Fabulous. And totally irrelevant. Again.

Many thanks to the second PR Director at Dada – this guy. He was too busy to take my call earlier, asking if they could actually confirm that they had removed our newsroom email address from their database, and if they would please, please, please stop PR Spamming us. Too busy to talk to the Press? Another clanger for a PR firm to commit.

So, in the absence of a decent resolution, here we are.

To top it all, Dada’s PR pitch on their site claims that ‘No-one can offer you a PR service like DADA’ and – for completely the wrong reasons – I am now inclined to agree.

Now pass me that chocolate fireguard, it could come in useful.

The Return of Rubella from Ostentatious PR

Well, I thought the week had been going a little too smoothly. And, as if by magic, within three minutes of that thought, a PR relative of the infamous Rubella Pymley-Bowles from Ostentatious PR was on the phone. And she truly surpassed herself.

In the words of Run DMC, it goes a little something like this:

Phone rings.

Editor: Hello, ****** speaking.

Rubella MkII: Hi. Do you have a Features List?

Editor: Sure, for which magazine. We publish two here and a number of business Directories.

Rubella MkII: Oh right. Erm. Don’t you do the Disability magazine now?

Editor: ‘Fraid not, that title was pulled more than a year ago. Don’t you have any up-to-date Media databases?

Rubella MkII: Erm. We might have something of use to you.

Editor: Only if it’s relevant to the printing and/or sign industries – do you?

Rubella MkII: Erm. Aah. We promote hearing aids.

Editor: Can’t see how my Readerships will be too bothered about that. Do you have anything relevant?

Rubella MkII: Isn’t that relevant? Can you use that for those magazines?

Editor: Not unless we launch a niche magazine to hard-of-hearing print directors. Or deaf sign makers. Ahem.

Rubella MkII: Erm. (No laugh, or indication of a joke having just been made)

Editor: Thanks for the call, I must get back to production on our totally-irrelevant-to-your-Client mags.

Rubella MkII: Erm. OK. Bye.

And there we have it. Now, before any of the fabulously effective, switched-on PRs and PR Account Directors out there deem it fit to tell me I was harsh and unfair on an individual who is so clearly an inexperienced, ill-informed, and pretty damn green PR Account Exec, think on this – who instructed her to put the call through in the first place?

Aah, yes, an Account Director, looking to write something/anything under the ‘Media Relations’ column of Deaf and Dumb Hearing Applications Ltd’s PR Client Contact Report for the month of August. Give me strength.

Introducing Rubella Pymley-Bowles from Ostentatious PR…

Re-posting this following an incredibly-pointless media call from a London-based PR fluffy…

First things first!

PR people – when you are in the process of ringing editors to check and see if they received the press release you emailed 12 days ago (how painfully annoying is it when they ring up chirpy, gormless, and completely unaware that their head is firmly stuck up their own arse?!) – ask this simple question FIRST:

“Hi, is this a good time to talk – are you on Deadline?”

Rather than launch into a micro-pitch about the benefits of your Client’s latest widget-thing to the readership of my magazine…you will win SO many more brownie points if you demonstrate a bit of understanding of how a typical Newsroom works.

Typical PR conversation:

PR: “Hi is that the editor?”

Editor: “Yes.”

PR: “GGGRRRRRRRREAT. Hiyaaaaaaaaa, this is Rubella Pymley-Bowles from Ostentatious PR. We are representing the client More Widgets Limited, and I emailed over a press release 12 days ago about their latest widget, which is being launched exclusively in a remote part of the country tomorrow. Was the press release of interest?”

Editor: “I get 250 emails a day from PRs.”

PR: “RIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGHT. Busy then? Gosh! (pauses on phone) So…did you read the press release?”

Editor: “And it was sent 12 days ago?”

PR: “Yah. I thought it would make a lovely News story for your readers.”

Editor: “All our News stories for that magazine are picture stories. You didn’t send any images. Have you ever read the magazine?”

PR: “Sure, sure, sure. So, shall I re-send it today with a Client company logo?”

Editor: “Company logos are not appropriate images for a News story, unless the story is a re-brand. Have you read the magazine News section before?”

PR: “Yah. I can re-send the press release right now with a company logo.”

Editor: “I am not sure you are understanding me. You need to send relevant images at 300dpi resolution – no logos thanks.”

PR: “I think there was an image with the original press release – can you check?”

Editor: “Not right now. As I said, I get 250 emails per day. And I am on deadline now.”

PR: ” Sure, sure, sure. I will re-send the press release today with an image and call you to check you have received it then – is that ok?”

Editor: “Which email address do you have for editorial here?”

PR: “I don’t have that information to hand.”

Editor: …confirms email address…

PR: “GREEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAT, I’ll email and call you later then.”

Editor: “It would be more useful if you simply email the information. Again. With an appropriate image. At 300dpi resolution. As I have already mentioned.”

PR: “Sure, sure, sure. My account director asked me to check if you had the client information.”

Editor: “Wonderful. Does the account director read the magazine?”

PR: “Yah.”

Editor: “Excellent. So this conversation, in reality, should never have happened then. Had you been fully and properly briefed. Or even better, if you had read the magazine before randomly picking up the phone.”

PR: “Sure, sure, sure. I’ll re-send the information and call you later in the week.”

Editor: ” Just the email will be fine. I don’t need a follow-up call from you to confirm that I have received your re-emailed information. As I mentioned, I get 250 emails a day from PRs, and would rather not get multiple emails covering the same stories from PRs. Thanks.”

PR: “Ahhhhhhhhhhh, sure, sure, sure.”

Editor: “Thanks Rubella. Goodbye.” (puts down phone before PR continues to waffle and returns to deadline, muttering a select choice of expletives including fuckstick, arse and muppet).

Any PRs who consistently ask an editor if they are on deadline BEFORE a random pitch win my vote.

Media insolvencies hit industry hard

According to this story, with nearly 300 companies going down in the period up to June of this year. What does it really mean?

Well, apart from a newly-redundant editorial and design pool of media types pounding on doors for work, there is the discontinuity effect on ex-clients: where do they go to get their account work delivered?

Maybe some of the ex-employees deliver on a freelance basis to some of the old clients, but this is only a piecemeal and short-term solution, particularly if a client has been used to getting full-service Agency account handling.

With this level of media companies going to the wall, more mergers look likely – and when the editorial power lies in the hands of the few, we know from experience that it is the employees who usually suffer, as their job choices are permanently limited.

Nice sentiment Jeff, but how will competing newspapers collaborate?

Great inputs, as always, here from Jeff Jarvis – and yes, collaboration surely lies the grassroots of survival for journalism.

But, the biggest challenge is surely how to get competing newspaper publishers to collaborate to create sustainable opportunities: I recall working on a newsdesk within a regional publisher delivering two local dailies across a region, and being amazed to see no tangible co-operation or collaboration between the journalists, editors and number-crunchers there – and they were part of the same newspaper Group! The attitude was “If it isn’t directly in my remit, I don’t want to know”. And this is typical in regional journalism across the larger publishers across the UK.

So, Jeff, in the light of a complete lack of any desire, motivation or reason for these guys to collaborate – even in the midst of fighting for commercial survival – how exactly will they come to a place of collaboration? I am struggling to see solutions.

Wanted: an editor who can also sell ad space

Is this the way forward for journalism? It certainly appears so, according to the job advert listed on holdthefrontpage.

As a senior journalist, I’m astounded.

Astounded that the company are recruiting for a senior editorial professional, but also attempting to lump a full-time sales position into the role too. Would you take this vacancy seriously if you were an experienced, NCTJ-qualified journalist?

Strikes me that there are two positions here, and the firm are attempting to save cash by rolling it into one vacancy. Awful.

Utilising tweets for cross-content benefits

Excellent post here on how to integrate content and attention online.

Interesting tips, including cross-linking from bigger sites to gain additional readers, aswell as making sure that the timings of postings – to both Twitter and your blog – are linked carefully together, and in line with your overall blogging strategy.

I am a huge advocate of online content, including blogs and tweets: it raises the game of most content-producers and journalists alike, as well as giving more information to the audiences out there. And let’s face it, from a journalistic perspective, anything which adds value to the audience and stimulates readership loyalty and sales – especially in the current climate – can only be positive.

Read this post and learn!

It’s all about content, dummy

Great post here today from Gina Chen, and it raises a basic and fundamental point which many publishers and media management bods are missing – the mass audience is dead, replaced instead by individuals requiring content as, when, and where they want it.

Readerships want flexibility. Different avenues to hook into their news and current affairs. Various places they can access the information they want.

Buying a newspaper or magazine in the traditional way is simply not relevant for many media consumers today…and still the publishing behemoths continue to flog their outdated business models. Or offer an online replica of the print version.

Definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.

Chen’s post highlights many salient points, but my favourite is quite simply that it is all about content.

Content drives media interest and purchase, whether that be of newspapers, magazines, online portals…it all links back to content. Why would search engines be completely driven by fresh content if it wasn’t valuable?

The concept of investing in ‘hyperinterests’ of content for sites, whereby visitors can search for exactly what they want, as proposed by Chen, is absolutely superb: it reinforces the importance and relevance of content.

Having reviewed this, it may seem like a rant – not so. I am passionate about content. Content is the key.

Don’t journos ‘get’ Twitter?

Judging from this story, it appears not.

Then again, coming from a traditional daily newspaper background myself, it’s taken me a good nine weeks or so of observing before deciding to engage with Twitter, set up an account, get tweeting and try to fathom out what the latest social media tool can do – not just for the Press, but for personal networking and Brand-building.

There are countless examples in my contact database of individuals and businesses which are gaining exposure, positive coverage, even cold, hard cash from being a part of the tweetosphere. As with all social media, it takes time and commitment – things which many newsroom journalists are lacking today, given the backdrop of cutbacks, recession and mal-management.

Time will tell – and that, of course, is the precious commodity which most deadline-driven media folk don’t have. Ironic.