PRs need a wide range of skills to achieve a strong reputation

The Cision 2020 Global State of the Media Report highlights the limited resources available to today’s busy journalists. This represents a fantastic opportunity for PRs to place their stories, particularly for  those that have a strong reputation with the media.

PRs have a challenging intermediary role to perform. On the one hand they represent an organisation trying to find ways to get its story told through the media.  On the other, they are trying to place stories with a journalist who could be filing 10+ pieces of copy a week, and is one of the 14% who, according to Cision, receive 151+ pitches a week. 

Recently, a journalist told me about a PR who called to see if a story they had emailed was going to be used. The PR was told no because the story wasn’t interesting enough and, in any case, it held little interest for their readers. This explanation was insufficient for the PR who asked for a more   in-depth rationale to go back and tell the client. The journalist explained they did not have the time or the inclination to go into any further detail. Actually, they put it rather more agriculturally than that. 

I am sure this was just a mis-step from an inexperienced PR but clearly it’s important to understand the pressures and timetables journalists face to establish a strong working relationship with the media.

This story also illustrates the challenge of working with clients if it’s an agency or colleagues if it’s   in-house. It is not unusual for people to think they have a great story to share but as a PR you know it simply will not fly with a journalist. It takes tact, diplomacy and a degree of courage to manage this situation in the best interests of all parties.

The Cision research also prompted me to think about the many skills and qualities PRs need to have a long and successful career. I’ve made a list of some I think are important:

1.     Managing relationships

As the story about the PR illustrates, it can be challenging to manage the expectations of everyone involved in a process, which may seem to some people like a relatively straightforward linear transaction: Story+PR+Journalist = Publication 

2.     Perspective taking

It’s important to be able to provide advice with one leg inside the organisation and the other outside – metaphorically speaking obviously. PRs are expected to provide objective guidance to businesses based on their ability to bring the outside world perspective into the decision-making process.

3.     Sociability

Spending time in the company of journalists is rewarding so having a programme of regular catch-up meetings is important. Journalists are customers for PRs as well as fellow communicators so it pays to understand what their motivations are.  

4.     Writing skills

PRs must have the ability to write in a variety of different styles from press releases to a blog and even a foreword from a CEO in an annual report. They will all demand a different approach, so the ability to write succinctly and make strong points is a real skill.

5.     Resilience

I started with a story and I am going to end with one. A PR once told me about a challenging relationship he had with his CEO. Everything the PR wrote for him always came back with lots of amends and after a while the PR felt rather bruised. Later, the company appointed a PR agency and everything they wrote for the CEO’s sign off came back with barely a change. The PR wanted to prove a point to himself so he wrote something for the CEO and said it had come from the consultancy. Guess what? It came back virtually untouched.

A career in PR means learning how to deal with challenging people, difficult situations and disappointing setbacks and then bouncing back to fight another day.

www.markbishopconsulting.co.uk