Having worked with several hacks and flacks, and hacks-turned-flacks, it’s often the ideal fit because they understand the needs and role and certain markets so well, that they can get creative and deliver more than just a one-off story pitch. Maybe I’ve just been lucky to work with some top talents, but that approach seems like it’s built to last, whether it’s dealing with top-tier media, up-and-coming bloggers or anyone in between.

Dara– exactly. Lots of transferable skills, most prominently the ability to communicate.

Tim– I would even say sometimes there is only one side to a story, or that the “other side” is manufactured and irrelevant (sometimes).

And I was definitely angling on the naivete of assuming journalism is objective. Good journalism covers many facets of a story (if they exist), but even great journalism is not impartial.

Is someone who rewrites AP copy and reads it in front of a camera a journalist?

Is someone who produces podcasts and video and written bylines for a client a PR executive?

It’s naive to assume that journalists don’t take sides on some level, however subtle, in the stories they report.

The conventional dogma among mainstream pundits that there are “two sides to every story” is even more of a stretch. Usually there are many more than two sides.

You can either tell a good story or you cannot. It’s a human skill that remains unautomated and uncommoditized. I’ve never met a talented hack or flack who wasn’t able to spin a good yarn.

When an agency pitches a piece of business, more than likely they are pitching it to a gray hair (I am one myself, so just cool your jets if you are insulted). These decision making gray hairs usually don’t understand anything but media relations, and the idea of actual public relations is foreign to them.

So the agency has to cater most pitches to traditional media first and foremost, with social media/direct customer PR as a secondary attack. They need to do this to win, and the cycle starts again where traditional media takes precedence and PR gets addressed if budget allows after everything else.

Agencies that get it (shameless plug for my old stomping ground LPP) are changing things. But I don’t think the ultra focus on media relations versus public relations will change anytime soon.

Joe (an old colleague)- thanks for coming by- you have provided much sharper advice than I about what to consider if making the leap.

Something I didn’t mention above- some of the jobs out there are writing- content creation- even “reporting” and *gasp* “blogging” for hire. It’s a new world.

My brief (18 month) experience as journo-turned PR guy was this:

Intellectually the work is pretty similar. The biggest challenge in transition, I found, was attitude and values. Specifically,when you’re a journalist, at whatever level, you’re used to a certain sense of power (deserved or not). As a PR person, like it or not, you are in a service business. As someone once told me, there are two kinds of jobs: Those that give people headaches and get headaches. Journalists are former, PR is the latter.

Concretely, you will go from interviewing a hotshot CEO to being his minion. You better be comfortable with this or it won’t work. Be honest.

Second, in journalism, truth (in theory) rules. In PR, you are more like a lawyer, an advocate for your client. Not saying you lie (I never did) but have to be comfortable with sins of omission. I made peace by deciding to tell the best story in the most favorable light.

Other big difference is loss of freedom. In an agency, especially, every minute is tracked and billable. That is quite different than the journo life.

Finally, switchers must consider if they are willing to be “tainted” for future journalism jobs if/when the industry revives.

It’s a big move. Think hard and talk to people before you leap.