Can’t live with them, can’t live without them

While interning at Frause, I have dabbled in media pitching and observed the delicate dance that takes place between journalists and PR professionals. The relationship is a bit of an oxymoron, where both require the other to function, yet the road to success is imbedded with bumps and potholes of frustration.

Ragan’s PR Daily has also noticed the symbiotic rapport between the media and public relations, recently posting “33 things the media wish PR people knew.” This list of thirty-three insights is a great starting point (especially for learning interns), but the thirty-five comments at the bottom of the article are just as astute as the article’s content. After reading the article and its comments, I have picked several themes worth repeating.

The first piece of advice the article gives is, “not everything your organization does is newsworthy.” While this is not a shocking reality check to most PR professionals, it can be difficult for clients to understand and thus support such an idea. To overcome this, I have noticed scenarios where Frause is able to identify what is or is not newsworthy on a client’s behalf and then recommend an appropriate course of action, thus balancing the client’s and the media’s interests.

Several of the article’s ideas can be summarized as finding alternative methods to sharing your content with the media. The press release is highlighted as a great starting outreach tool, yet it must be combined with something more engaging. This could be a compelling email subject line, using a journalist’s social network to initiate a dialogue or using multimedia messaging like photos and videos.

Close to half of the thirty-three points center on how to mediate the conflict that rises between PR professionals’ goals for coverage and what is of interest to the media. This is likely to be frustrating for both, but as communications professionals, we have the skills to navigate obstacles as, “corporate messaging goals and good journalism are often at odds” or “that spin is downright annoying” or “the media are the filter, not the enemy.”

From my experiences as Frause’s intern, I look forward to the day where I communicate for a living! If the relationship between the media and PR professionals is a delicate dance, as I learn and gain professional experience, I look forward to the day where I have learned the waltz, foxtrot and tango of media pitching. On the other hand, right now I am managing to boogie along with the funky chicken.