Strange Bedfellows?

A reporter was walking down a lane with me after an interview with a client and suddenly blurted, “ I like working with you. You’re not like most PR officers I know. You’re easy to work with and very efficient. Nice.” I was like…really? BLUSH!

After gushing out a non-audible gibberish of thanks, I asked, “Did you say most PROs are difficult? Why ah?” And suddenly the list was unending. I was completely floored.

Basically the reporter listed the following:
1) Inaccessible.
2) Arrogant and self absorbed.
3) Unreliable with timely data, vital information including audio and visual records.
4) Most times offering irrelevant and non-newsworthy pitches to their audience.
5) Irresponsible and unappreciative of the media representative’s time: atrocious time management!
6) Ignorant.
7) Ridiculously written press releases and plagued with grammatical errors.
8) Relentless and annoying with back-to-back calls for updates.
9) Telling half-truths to arrange interviews that end up as a sales pitch!

There were probably more, but it was such a whirlwind of complaints, I didn’t quite get the entire list…but I got the picture. I would’ve taken out my notebook and start jotting the nightmare, but I suppose that would’ve taken the conversation a tad bit too far off tandem. She meant to socialize and share experiences…so, I obliged (and tried very hard to maintain a sharp mental faculty to ensure I understood a press member’s unhappiness with PROs).

I wondered if she was talking about the newbies, but she commented that it is the older generations who are completely unable to untangle themselves from their ‘old school’ mentality and are the worst to handle. The younger ones, on the other hand, are disillusioned with Hollywood make-up of the field hence, are hoping for a Sex and the City version. I sighed and thought to myself, it’s no wonder my mother-in-law thinks that I get paid to party all night! I wondered if there is any one of us in between the two mentioned extremes.

Nobody knows why...

I recall a conversation with a more senior editor of one of Malaysia’s leading English paper referring to one of the gurus in our local PR scene. I was nervous about taking certain steps and strategies, based on the guru’s suggestions that I could annoy media members in the process. I suggested my strategic ideas to the editor and the editor said, “You may want to consider that your PR guru is wrong and you are right. Don’t deny the fact that you are equally educated and experienced in your own capacity. What makes you think your guru has not annoyed her press peers? Do you think that your guru has not irked her friends in the media recently? As journalists we understand your predicament, but you must also understand ours. We don’t blacklist anybody unless you REALLY screwed us up. After all, it’s too small of an industry to boycott each other. We live in a very symbiotic environment…” or something like that. (I didn’t take notes then either).

I know that press members and PROs have a long-lived love and hate relationship. It troubles me when I read articles themed “PROs and Journalists dos and don’ts” with numerous versions coming from reporters complaining about PROs lack of professionalism. For example, “We have a job to do and we are responsible to report objectively to our public, so just because you have a story, it doesn’t mean we will run it.” Then some days you read an apology for a reporter’s misquote or incorrect reporting because due diligence was not conducted, what should a PRO do then? Still, I rarely read a write-up about such errs from a PROs perspective…why is that?

I once encountered a young reporter who wanted information from me. She set an appointment and I moved my schedule around to entertain her request. Mind you that she made the call and was asking me for a favor. I traveled to her office as negotiated and called her to inform that I had arrived. I must add that the location is festered with traffic and had very few parking spots. She didn’t take the call and 20minutes later text me that she’s unavailable and asked me to come another day. Excuse me? Is my job so frivolous that she thought my time is significantly less valuable? I suppose this is one of a PRO’s irk that don’t get reported much though I don’t think it happens in isolation.

Having said all that, I assume there are members of the press and PROs out there who have a secret list of names who’d they like to send a gift in forms of blue eyes and bruised knuckles. I think both parties can agree that for every complaint one have over the other, each side has committed a crime accused to each other…it usually comes back in full circle. Finally, we can agree to disagree and I think it would be nice to admit that as much as there are rotten apples in both of our fields, there are diamonds and bejeweled talents as well.

Best of friends and the worst of enemies.

One of my ex-student caught up with me a couple of months ago. She is a journalist in one of a more reputable local finance publication. She was complaining how some PROs butt in, in interviews and cut short Q&A sessions in very untimely and rude manner. I offered her a possible scenario: the PRO was just doing her job based on instructions by clients and bosses. Maybe they didn’t like the question or the questions were irrelevant to the purpose of the interview. After all, the job of a PRO is to manage an organizations image, brand and reputation…everybody does have a job to do, right?

She looked at me quite amused and concurred that both sides have a side to the job that really sucks! And there’s really nothing anyone can do about it! The world of communication is going to chug along, anyway, whether you like it or not. Que Sera Sera…right?