Readings for week 8

Sallot, L. M.; Johnson, E. A. (2006), To contact…or not?
Investigating journalists’ assessments of public
relations subsidies and contact preferences
In Public Relations Review, 32 (2006), 1, 83–86

This text was really interesting because it provided in brief some very useful insights in dealing with the needs of journalists as a pr practitioner. For me one of the central notions was that the practitioners should know how journalists work and what they want. Moreover, they must not lack skills in journalistic writing and (local) framing of stories. The more the stories meet the expectations of the journalist, the higher the probability of placement. Hence it was logical that practitioners with former journalistic experience are more successful in writing for and contacting the media.

Also the results regarding the contact methods were interesting. I agree that e-mail is a boon for both sides because it allows both immediate information and further enquiry. However, I think that face-to-face contact is still needed to maintain good relationships with journalists, a fact that was also revealed by the study. From my viewpoint e-mail is just a reasonable channel for delivering information quickly – but these interaction has to be founded on a good relationship between the practitioner and the journalist.

In this focus of relations it wasn’t a surprise that journalists wanted to be treated in an ethical correct manner – but 69 % were mentioning that practitioners have lacking ethics, in addition 78 % lamented about practitioners being too self-serving. I think that’s the crux for every pr practitioner who wants to have lasting and prolific relationships to his media contacts. Treating journalists with honesty and integrity is the only way to create trust in the long run. That’s especially important because it is self-evident that journalists don’t place stories from practitioners with bad reputation – the study revealed that one journalist even refused any contact with unethical practitioners. And that means that the relationship to this specific medium is broken, which is the worst case for a pr practitioner, because public relations, as the name implies, as about establishing and maintaining relations.

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How To...Ten Steps to Press Release Perfection
In PR News, Mar 20, 2006. Vol. 62, Iss. 12; pg. 1

This text was a short but practical guideline for writing media releases. From my point of view there were both logical “classics” (e.g. define audience, keep it short and simple, relevant head, check and double-check) and interesting new findings in it. The latter were as follows: From my point of view the most important is that pr practitioners should not mistake a press release for an advertisement. I think that crucial because the central point of pr should be information and relations, whereas everything regarding the promotion of products etc. should be a matter of advertisements. Trying to transmit surreptitious advertising through media releases is just self-serving and will, as mentioned in the first text of this weeks reading, diminish the trust between journalist and practitioner.

Another very interesting point was the notion to consider the different needs of particular mediums regarding the size of the press release. “One size fits all” will not be the appropriate solution for all mediums. Also the hints for handling quotes were useful as well as the animation to do the reporters jobs for them. Last but not least the notion about giving more contacts was really new and practical for me. I think it’s really crucial to establish more contact persons and possibilities for journalists where they can make further inquiry or give feedback.

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Wise, K. (2005), The Importance of Writing Skills
In Public Relations Quaterly, Summer 2005, 50, 2, p.37

The last text of this weeks reading was also a good insight into some opinions and experiences of public relations practitioners, although I have to admit, that it was the least interesting text for me this week. The notions in the text were mostly self-evident and not really new. However, the most interesting insights were the arguments about importance of writing skills apart from press releases. I think it’s really important for a practitioner to be able to every kind of writing-related tasks to handle the different kinds of communication and relations in everyday work. Moreover, the emphasis on versatility is a crucial part in doing successful pr work. Every practitioner has to consider that different clients have different stakeholders and audiences that require different writing styles. The last interesting notion was about the overestimated role of media relations in pr education. From my viewpoint, same as the author’s, it is important to have this knowledge, but initially the entry-level work are writing-related tasks. Thus, these skills will be needed first to actually achieve a position as a media relationship manager in the long run.