Analysis of "This is PR..." (part 26)

Communication Channels and Media (part 1)

An Analysis by:

Charles Lamson

Publicity Through Mass Media

Publicity prepared for the mass media is totally uncontrolled. Information about an institution, product or person that appears as news in newspapers and magazines or on radio or television is used at the discretion of news editors. Thus it may be used in any context or not at all ("This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations 9th ed.;" by Doug Newsom, Judy VanSlyke Turk and Dean Kruckeberg; pg 247).

Information reaches the print news media through many routes but three are basic: news releases, coverage of an event and interviews. To be acceptable, a news release must be written in the style used by the particular medium and it must be presented in a form suitable to the technology of the medium. Awareness of the technological demands of each medium and it must be presented in a form suitable to the technology of the medium. Awareness of the technological demands of each medium is also important if you expect coverage of an event. A speech may be an event and certainly a news conference is, but an interview is not. The public relations person may formally arrange for a reporter to interview someone in a position of authority. Or the reporter may interview the PR person as representative or spokesperson for the institution. This informal situation - it may be a phone call or a visit by media representatives - can be an organization's most significant source of publicity. Generally, it is the source preferred and used most often by the media which often ignore events and throw away publicity releases (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 247).

More and more often media interviews are handled by the chief executive officer (CEO) with the aid of the PR person. The PR person's job therefore extends to preparing the CEO to be an effective and efficient spokesperson. Some PR agencies, notably Burson-Marsteller, have become specialists in providing such training for their clients. Much of the bad publicity an organization gets can be attributed to errors by management: poor planning, ineffective communication or bad policies. Not getting any publicity at all however is probably the fault of the publicist. News people say they throw away 80 to 90 percent of the news releases they get , because they are not usable. Not usable may mean the stories are not complete, inaccurate, not timely or just do not fit the news need (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 247).

Getting information to news media in a timely way usually means delivering the news electronically. It also means that the material in the release had better agree with other information on the same topic available to the editors online . To avoid bad publicity and nonpublicity, you should always observe the following six rules:

1. Make sure that the information you offered is appropriate to the medium in content and style, and is timely.
2. Check all facts carefully for accuracy, and doublecheck for missing information.
3. To deal with any questions that may arise, give the name and phone number of the person newspeople should contact.
4. An image, digital or printed, must be accompanied by the name, address and phone number of the supplier; most important, however, is the caption. However, since sending photos digitally has become the norm, the information/caption must be sent in a way that can be easily associated with the correct digital image.
5. Never call to find out why a story or photo did not appear; and certainly do not ask, as you submit an item, when it will appear.
6. Do not send out a note with mailed releases asking for clippings. Newspapers do not run clipping bureaus (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 249).

End