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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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“Pitch me!” says blogger; “Sorry,” say PR reps

While an army of bloggers have been complaining about PR pitches, Ewan MacLeod has the opposite problem. MacLeod, who writes SMS Text News and blogs at Mobile Industry Review, likes getting pitched. He even reaches out to PR people representing mobile companies in search of news. Amazingly, he’s more likely than not to be told they don’t have anything for him.

MacLeod is offering to share the agencies on his “er, no news” list with companies. After all, the work of public relations goes well beyond blasting out press releases. As MacLeod puts it, “You shouldn???t be paying them if they can???t broadcast and react.”

What do you mean you???ve got ???no news???? NOTHING has happened with your clients? Nothing?? at all? What you mean is that you haven???t got a press release to issue. But you???ve most certainly got news. Surely? If you don???t, what the hell are you doing in the PR industry? But, well, it seems a large chunk of the PR industry is stuck in broadcast mode. Happy to talk to you if they???re flogging a press release, but highly, highly unable to react to a request for a shout-out.

MacLeod’s estimate of the number of practitioners telling him they’ve got nothing for him? An amazing, depressing 80%.

It’s frankly a stunning notion that professionals in this business can’t manage to find something to say about a client when the media or a blogger comes knocking. As I noted in my commentary about MacLeod’s post in today’s FIR, I remember the Symantec media site years ago, when Craig Settles was working on it. You could always find a list of story ideas for journalists noodling about looking for something to write about. If someone called me about one of my clients, I’d be able to rattle off three or four things they could cover; I’d also offer interviews or sound bites from somebody with the company.

Is this something you’ve encountered? If you’ve told someone you have nothing to share about a client, could you explain what on earth would possess you to do so? We’re not talking about a response to a specific issue here, just a simple, “Anything I can report about your client today?”

What agency would tolerate such a response?

08/21/08 | 4 Comments | “Pitch me!” says blogger; “Sorry,” say PR reps

Comments

  • 1.Shel, I can't tell you the number of times we have won new business from a client that told us its old agency couldn't seem to generate any coverage when there were no news releases to issue. It's the inevitable outcome of an entrenched-but-broken agency model that sees the most labour-intensive work -- actual outreach to journalists -- delegated to the lowest-cost resource in the agency, far too often someone who probably wasn't even at the client briefing, didn't write the materials, and built a media list by punching some key words into a database. The only way that person can function is if she or he has a news release to hang onto.

    Francis Moran | August 2008 | Ottawa, Canada

  • 2.I'm not sure what to make of this...maybe he's not reaching out to the right folks? Too junior...the contacts are the people at the agency sending out mass releases, instead of relationship-building with reporters? Or, possibly, their "no news" really means "our client wants us to save our powder (and billable hours) for when they have a well-coordinated launch"?

    I guess a company doesn't always have news, and there's always the danger that talking to a reporter when you don't have anything substantial to say will end up in an article trashing the client. Not exactly what clients are looking for, IMHO.

    That doesn't seem to be the case here though, I'm mystified.

    Jen Zingsheim | August 2008

  • 3.One possible explanation (not an excuse or defense) may have something to do with getting client approvals to release particular news items. Of course, one would hope that this groundwork would be laid well in advance of such a situation, that the PR practicioner would have gained credibility with the client and/or an ongoing list of items had been pre-approved for media distribution.

    Alas, I suspect that all too often no one has even thought about this issue and then it is a Chinese fire drill when the opportunity arises and no one has the authority to say "yes."

    Craig Jolley | August 2008

  • 4.Twice in the past month, someone in our agency has received phone calls from local reporters looking for news. A quick IM to the staff resulted in multiple stories to share with the reporters and eventually, multiple hits for several clients.

    The lesson? If you don't have anything to share about a client, surely someone else in your agency does. If no one does, that's a strong indication you need to be much more immersed in your client's business and much more thoughtful about helping them achieve their goals.

    Mistie Thompson | August 2008 | St. Louis

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