Doug Haslam » Blog Archive » Uttercast: Relationship vs. Value in PR

Uttercast: Relationship vs. Value in PR

December 23, 2008 – 9:43 am

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Last night I took part in a chat among journalists, bloggers & PR flacks, called "journchat." For summaries of these Monday talks, use Twitter Search for"journchat" or go to http://journchat.info/. There was too much to follow, but one discussion I took part in was one about PR relationships with journalists.

I have ranted about "rolodex PR" before so I’ll boil it down to 2 of my missives:

"Most PRs who sell themselves based on their relationships with journalists are lying." The lie to me is that they imply guaranteed coverage. Don’t fall for that when hiring a PR firm. I’ll take a good pitcher without relationships if I must choose.

"Want a relationship? I have info that’ll help you write a good story. There’s my &*%$# relationship." Do reporters really want to be our buddies? No, they want us to be good sources.

Am I out of line here? I don’t think so.

Mobile post sent by DougH using Utterli. Replies. mp3

Bonus: As part of the discussion, i linked to Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb, noting that my knowing him doesn’t mean he’ll write about my client. I think I caught him by surprise (but yes, he did get the joke).

(btw: Marshall doesn’t drink coffee)

4 Responses to “Uttercast: Relationship vs. Value in PR”
Twitter Comment

@DougH Noon your time. An audio comment would be fantastic.

– Posted using Chat Catcher

By shel (Shel Holtz) on Jul 5, 2009
Twitter Comment

@DougH Dynamite.

– Posted using Chat Catcher

By shel (Shel Holtz) on Jul 5, 2009