Things Journalists Hate #1: The Invisible PR

I've decided to start an occasional series about things that tend to put journalists in a bad mood (I know, it's gonna be a looooooong list, right?)

Top of my list for today? Invisible PRs. Those PR execs who refuse to be found, or who pop up only to turn tail and hide for no apparent reason.

Today, I have been writing a piece for Personnel Today. It's quite a big magazine if you're in the business of selling things to HR managers. A week ago I emailed the press officers at three of the biggest consulting firms in this sector.

At Company A, my press contact has left the company and there's no other press contact listed on the site. No phone number, no nothing. I emailed my old contact's address, hoping for an auto-reply with his replacement's name - it didn't bounce. Argh. So I mail a PR agency I know represents another part of the business, they forward the request to the agency that handles the HR stuff. This is an agency I've never had particularly great experiences with, and unsurprisingly they replied yesterday to tell me my deadline (next Monday) is too short and they can't help. No interview, no information about their client, no white papers, bylined articles. Nothing.

At Company B, the website doesn't list a press contact or phone number at all. There's a US head office, which can't help, and there's a list of press releases -- but the last one to name a press contact was issued in 2004, and is unsurprisingly now out of date. Switchboard won't put me through to anyone without a name. I fill in the "contact us" form on the website which presumably goes to some underpaid work experience kid because a week later I still haven't heard a sniff.

Company C, meanwhile, replied to me within 24 hours. They arranged a phone interview, sent over some research they'd done on the topic and lined up a customer of theirs that I could speak to. Tomorrow, they've arranged for me to speak to someone at the Health and Safety Executive who they collaborated with on a big survey. Guess which company is going to be all over the feature while the competition won't even rate a mention?

I would understand if this was a magazine where Company A and B weren't relevant, but they are HR consulting firms and this is the biggest HR trade magazine in the country. What's the invisible act in aid of?

Here's my 5 top tips on how to not be invisible:

1. Google your client's name plus UK PR agency - does your company pop up? If not, why not?
2. Check your client's website. Is there a named press contact from the agency? Is there a dedicated email that directs enquiries straight to a press officer or the PR agency?
3. Do you put contact details at the bottom of press releases? It helps a lot if you do this, really.
4. We know sometimes you don't want to publish client lists on your agency website so how about setting up an online press centre? You can then vet journalists before giving them access to the site, which should list clients, most recent releases and relevant contact details.
5. If you're representing a global company and (as in the tech sector) they're headquartered in Palo Alto, please don't let the client only have a West Coast contact number. If we're looking for comment we don't want to wait until 5pm to reach the US press office, to get a number for a UK contact who we've now missed for the day.

Comments

[Craig McGill]

Are there PR types who still think 5pm or 6pm is them for the day? Incredible. I don't know if it's having a journalistic background, but I consider myself available more or less 24/7 - and if you don't get me because I'm sleeping, you'll get a reply as soon as I can, so no one goes without at least a holding statement till I can get more details.

I sympathise with what you are writing about though - the number of releases that go online without contact details is incredible.

(having said that, I battle with clients to include either AIM or Twitter details as they tell me that they are just for personal life activities - grrr)

[Kim]

I would LOVE to know the names of the guilty parties!

I'm always baffled - as well as frustrated - by companies who don't put the names of press contacts on the website, and who leave them off press releases. What are you so shy of, guys?

Barclays, for some reason, won't let you see the names of press contacts unless you register for their mailing list. Which seems equally pointless when you're just trying to get hold of someone in a hurry.

[Maria McCarthy]

Totally, totally agree with all of this. The 'not having a press contact phone number on website' issue is particularly infuriating.

I've had to phone their general call centre in the past and try and get through that way - takes ages as the call centre person is just used to dealing with standard calls and doesn't know where to refer you on... aaargh! I think it's because they don't want us getting in the way of their messaging each other on Facebook!

[David Child]

Hi Sally

Agree entirely with your comments - not being able to get hold of someone is frustrating, never more so than when you're on tight deadlines and have other pressures weighing down on you.

I would add one thing though, journalists are also frequently wont to do exactly the same thing to PRs and their clients. This week a journalist who was also working on a HR feature emailed on Wednesday afternoon asking for written answers to questions from a client with a Friday deadline. Having called the client, whipped up their enthusiasm and asked them to clear some space in their diary we duly waited for the questions to arrive. Two emails and a phonecall later it's now Friday afternoon and no questions have arrived. The client's deflated, we look inadequate at best (fraudulent at worst) and it makes us less likely to jump around the next time and offer to help out.

I totally understand how planning as a journalist is rarely easy and few people would intentionally do this - but it does happen. Sadly us PR types are probably too nervous to say anything lest the journalist in question added us to their blacklist - scuppering our clients' chances of coverage.

So let's not remember that none of us are perfect, we all err at times - and often it's not intentional. By all means lambast our profession - quite often we deserve it - but don't forget to stand back and question whether journalists' halos are so well polished.

PRs are under similar time pressures - and have clients and bosses adding pressure just as an editor would. We're happy to take a battering from time to time but don't expect us to sit back so meekly and take it. Sometimes we ain't the bad guys...

[Sally Whittle]

Hi David

This sounds spookily similar to a situation I experienced this week - a PR offered email comment from a client for a feature I was working on for an HR title.

I agree and tell the PR my deadline is Friday. “Hmm,” says the PR. “Not sure we can do Friday actually, so how about talking to another client?”

Here’s where I suspect the PR and I part company. I don’t consider that I have any obligation to interview the second client, I haven’t agreed to interview the second client, and actually I’ve never heard of the second client. I'm not in the habit of presenting a firm as an expert on a topic unless I have some idea of their credentials.

So I don’t accept that offer and instead take comment from another PR that's offered comment, because they represent a firm that I know and have interviewed previously, and they've no problem with a short deadline.

In my book, if the PR has “whipped up enthusiasm”, and gone so far as to get a client to clear space in their diary when a journalist hasn’t requested or confirmed an interview opp, then perhaps the PR is being (just a teeny bit) incompetent?

I'd also point out that this blog is extremely even-handed when talking about hacks and flacks, as a point of principle. We don't much buy into the "evil journalists beating poor defenceless flacks around the head" argument round here, mate.

What I’m talking about in this post is more akin to institutionalized incompetence, though – companies that don’t provide press contact details, that have generic contact forms which simply disappear into the ether, or don’t provide a PR contact on press releases – it’s horribly common and incredibly frustrating.

And yes, if companies are so cretinous as to make it impossible for hacks to even find them, I think they deserve a good (virtual) kicking.

[Sally Whittle]

David

Also, I just wanted to clarify that I don't have a "blacklist" of PR execs that have ticked me off - who cares, right?

I do have an auto-delete which removes messages that are sent to me multiple times because an agency has multiple addresses, or where I've been put on a distribution list by an agency that operates in a sector I don't cover (LIKE TRAVEL, PEOPLE!!)

Here's the post:
http://gettingink.typepad.com/getting_ink/2008/05/journalists-and.html

[SteveR]

If this is going to turn into a row, can you wait until I get some more popcorn??? ;-)

[David Child]

Touche!
Sounds like every story has two sides - both parties see different things. I get your point and it's a lesson learned, the thinking was that rather than let you down it'd be better to deliver the goods but by a different means. Wholly good intentions.
One final point - and this isn't the first time this has happened - but I don't think the offer of the second client was actually turned down. So the 'whipping up enthusiasm' was simply to be prepared in case the offer was taken up rather than dump work on a client at the last minute. Does that make me incompetent? I hope not - not even a teeny bit. Trying to second guess journalists is difficult but part of the job, clearly on this occasion I should have made the 'did you get my email and do you want to speak to me client call' - not one I enjoy, and one that more often than nots irritates journalists.

Anyway, here's to the start of a good weekend - hope you have a relaxing one.

[Anne]

"Switchboard won't put me through to anyone without a name." Ah, that old chestnut. I am still amazed that I managed to get hold of the director of a debt collection agency the other day by phoning their standard 'you owe us money, ring this number to pay now' number.

I remember someone once posting on Journobiz about a company that refused to give out the number of their press officer. They couldn't give the number to journalists, they said, or they'd start getting loads of calls from journalists...

[Sally Whittle]

@David - indeed. I guess it's an etiquette issue. With something that like feature, where I got over 100 emails offering interview comment I take the line of "only successful applicants will be contacted", so it wouldn't have occurred to me that you'd be readying your client. But is this bad form, do you think?

@Anne - Still not as good as the response I once got from a government press office when I called: "How did you get this number?" Er, it was on the press release you sent me???

[David Child]

Thanks Sally, I think on the basis that a conversation - albeit brief and by email - had been started a quick 'no thanks' would have been sufficient.

Once a discussion has begun whether email, in person or over the phone it just enters the same 'rules' that govern normal discourse - kinda like approaching someone at the bar that you think is good looking, saying hi then realising they're actually toothless and smelly then just running away: bad form but understandable. And by the way I'm not smelly or toothless but hopefully you see my point!

[rob]

It looks like you've hit a contentious story here Sally.

What would also be great is the ease to track down the PR agency (using Google). I'm not an expert on SEO but the ability to type into Google - Apple PR agency and have it come up with Bite or any other company's agency would be a great thing.

Mind if I stumble in with my size 9s?

@ Craig - there are very few situations where you need to be there 24/7. Yes, people are on the west coast and in China so timings can be difficult but yes, you should be able to put the computer down and walk out of the office. It's your time (8/9 hours per day) the company has bought... not your soul.

@David - (sorry could be much more diplomatic) When I was a PR I usually found that the line... "we've been speaking to X about a feature he/she's writing... I wouldn't normally tell you but it's a tight deadline. Could you please have someone on standby on the off chance that she does want it. I'll keep you informed if anything comes of it and here's hoping"

[Ben Roome]

Absolutely agree: a name you can call directly is a basic must-have if your company is taking PR seriously.

And it generates fun calls! The current favourite is people ringing to ask if the SMS they've received saying they've won hundreds of thousands of (insert currency here) in the "Nokia lottery" is legit. On Saturday evenings.

[Sally Whittle]

You mean I didn't win anything after all? Oh, man....

I approve of phone numbers but must admit I don't buy into Craig's view that we're in a 24/7 job. I have a separate phone line for work and it gets unplugged on weekends. I'm a slacker, and proud of it.

[Anne]

@David hmm. If you approach someone at the bar, you also don't expect them to run off and plan the wedding. Bad metaphor, but you get my drift. But I'm a bit touchy about this as several PRs have contacted me recently telling me how their client is already really excited about the prospect of being interviewed for a feature idea they haven't actually bothered mentioning to me until now. I get that they needed to suggest the idea. Less keen on them getting the client really excited, because now if I ever do want to interview them for something that isn't totally mis-pitched, as these were, they may well say no.