You Are Expendable

Journalism is unlike any other industry--high powered, pressured, and probably one of the most competitive, cut throat jobs any single person can take on.

Case in point--the pure turn over of the industry is mind-boggling. You are merely a replaceable part in a giant wheel that continues to turn out news 24 hours a day. As things like blogging take off and newspaper readership's decline, the media industry itself will only continue to cut into journalists bottom line and downsize bureaus and force people to work more hours for less pay. Its a vicious cycle in a dieing industry.

Greenies

There is a great article written in the The Bulldog Reporter on why the greenies should never pitch big media. It pretty much sums up everything I have been saying about the relationships between PR and journalists.

Every PR junkie should know it inside and out!

Ain't too Proud to Beg

Ok,

So today in the short 4 hours I was in the office, I managed to delete 500 mass emailed press releases, sort through about 20 PR phone messages and deal with 3 annoying "why did I pick up the phone?" pitches.

But the one that stands out the most today... was a pitch from a woman who has been stalking me for some time now. A few months back I agreed to meet with her to talk through some of the things she had been pitching. Mind you, its not that her ideas were bad or that her clients were even lousy, no, its that she has literally been stalking me for weeks on end. Emails, phone calls--unending amounts of time uselessly used up saying "no" over and over again, but she just doesn't seem to get it. And the thing that gets me is that she says she used to be a "producer."

Now some people will tell a journalist these types of things just to get on their good side. Its a relating tactic they use to help drop the journo's guard. They are presumably looking to get the journo to cut them some slack, since they were once on the other side of the table.--or so they say. Unfortunately, its become blatantly obvious that this Flack has never been on my side of the table. EVER.

She left me a message today regarding a possible interview, that she had heard through the grapevine, we were going to do. Now from all of my knowledge, we aren't planning or even toying with such an interview, but she has it in her head that we have already set the plan in motion and its as good as done. As a result I got this voicemail message:

Hi--I am calling in regards to the possible interview you may be doing with a guest and think that at the very least you could interview my guy because he just lives and breathes this topic. Much more so than the person you are considering. Given the conversations we have had over the previous months, I would hope you would consider just doing a "pre-interview" with my guy and see what I mean. I am...well... begging you.

What struck me the most were two things--

1. The passive aggressiveness--the way she said "the very least you could do" and alluded to the "relationship" we had built via email over the past few months. Please note: if you have to allude to the "relationship" or remind someone of its existence, it quite obviously does not exist in reality and you are just plain making it up.

2. "Begging" is an interesting choice of words. I have heard stories from PR friends of green Flacks "begging" a journalist to run a story or quote their client. Many of these stories are the butts of jokes we all get together and tell at the end of the day. Which brings me to my second rule:

Rule 2: Never EVER beg.

Begging will get you no where in the media world. If you tell a journalist on a tight deadline "I am begging you to do this or I could lose my job," you aren't doing yourself a world of good. More than likely the journo will say, "Oh gee that sucks, I have a deadline to hit and you haven't got a story. Goodbye."

The funny thing about this story--is that it doesn't end with a phone call.

Oh no.. I get a follow up email.. another source of major griping for journalists--"the follow up" contact. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have substituted the name of the guest with "Guest A" and "my guys" to protect identities and prevent embarrassment. Check it out below:

Before you schedule "Guest A" to discuss financial topics, I want to remind you of "my guys." Their book was based on tons of interviews and provides the tools, tips and strategies to low risk financial investing based on interviews with a number of investors; people who have had great success and failures and have learned the best strategies to take when creating long term wealth.

"Guest A" is a successful author of many best selling books. "My guys" live and breathe this topic every day and can speak better to the subject matter than "Guest A" can. "My guys" have each been interviewed by national media --CNBC, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, etc.

Before you agree to an interview with "Guest A," please pre-interview one of "my guys." I have video of all three gentlemen to share with you.

Warmest regards

It always astounds me.

Apparently some Flacks simply "ain't to proud to beg."

Complaint 1: BAD PR

Welcome to the first of many installments of what I like to call BAD PR. Here you will find some of the worst pitches of the day as well as some of the biggest gripes journalists have when it comes to dealing with PR professionals.

Don't get me wrong--there are those out there that are absolutely a pleasure to work with--those a journalist can call last minute to get a story or a segment together--those who will come through like a super human force and put together Emmy award winning content in a single afternoon--those who can create "something" out of "nothing" and "get" the "impossible get." There will be space for those on this blog as well. But to establish a baseline, we need to look at the worst of the worst.

Here is today's WORST pitch--names and locations have been changed/deleted to protect the identity of those unfortunate few who will land on this site.

Hi there, just heard that your show may be closed down, is that true? If so I was wondering if we can get my mortgage people on before. If not I understand, but these guys are pretty good on TV.

Thanks

This is a prime example of a PR FLACK breaking the first and cardinal rule of pitching a journalist. A little something I like to call:

RULE 1: NEVER PITCH OUT OF DESPERATION

This Flack obviously thought that by appealing to this journalists sense of....What? I can't think of a single thing this appeals to.

First of all.. this journalist is obviously losing their job because of the impending implosion of the show they currently work on.

Second--if this was received on the day the news broke in the tabloids, the Flack is obviously flustered and worried that there will no longer be any outlet for their obviously mediocre guest (the moment a flack tells you that their guest is "great in print" or "great on TV" big RED flags should go up everywhere). There was obviously no thought put into this pitch and the Flack was relying upon the relationship they had assumed existed between the journo and themselves.

After reading this pitch you can imagine the journalists reaction. I am betting this one went to the top of the BLOCK EMAIL list.

This one definitely earns a GOLD STAR in my book of BAD PR!

Welcome

Generic I know, but welcome to the wonderful world of journalism, where you will be titilated, tormented and kicked to the curb by a variety of egos, aristocrats and daily deadlines. Let's see where this ride takes us shall we?