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PR Fuel: Turning The TablesAnswers by Ben SilvermanQuestions by Jeremy Pepper You corner a reporter in a dark bar. He's drunk and his tongue is loose. What do you ask him about the business of PR and the media? ___ (Note: I certainly wasn't drunk - just high on the Marlins' 12-inning win over the Yankees. We conducted this interview with instant messenger.) JP: Would you ever consider moving to the dark side of PR? BS: Totally. I think all burnt out reporters should give PR a "spin". I mean, it's sort of like a criminal becoming a cop. I know how you guys think and I know how journalists think. I think being a PR person would be fun, but I'd only want to do corporate communications or damage control. I would not want to actually pitch journalists because I know how difficult it is. But I'd love to try my hand at PR. If I found a company, or politician or cause that I believed in, I'd be willing to go to the dark side. That is, if the money was right. You guys make a lot of money, right? Because journalism doesn't pay well. ___ JP: Do you honor non-disclosures or embargoes, or am I wasting my time sending you those things? BS: Most reporters do honor embargoes and it's not a waste of time. However, the news has to be embargo-worthy and you have to play fair. You can't embargo the news to a dozen media outlets because it cheapens the newsworthiness. Why should I agree to an embargo if you're giving it to everyone? Is it really an embargo then? Nah, it's just a limited-distribution press release. Use the embargo wisely if it you want it honored. ___ JP: I have worked with a lot of PR people - while at an agency with colleagues, working with other agencies on client projects, and when I was in-house - and it amazes me the huge disparity in competence. I'm sure you've worked with PR people that you want to scream at because of their comments or pitches, but have you ever exacted revenge in either print or by just yelling at them? BS: No comment. Haha. Um... I'm trying to remember if I've ever exacted revenge in print. I don't think I have, but I'm sure I wanted to. JP: You wanna skip that one? BS: No, gimme a sec. Ok, I guess I'll say that I do know journalists who have purposely written stories to exact revenge on PR people. To the best of my knowledge, I've never done it. On my old website I would, from time to time, call out PR people for doing stupid things. And in this newsletter I write about dumb PR moves and people I consider to be bad PR practitioners, but I protect their identity to avoid embarrassment. In truth, I very rarely yell at anyone, much less someone I'm working with. PR people yell at me more than I've ever yelled at them. (Note: I did a terrible job of answering the last question. A fine example of how NOT to answer a tough question.) ___ JP: How off-the-record can I be with you - is this going to come back and bite me in the butt? BS: You can tell me anything you want baby - I swear, I'll keep it a secret. And yes, it will definitely come back to bite you in the butt. Off the record is basically your prime spin zone. Use OTR to set the record straight, but understand that whatever you say, it will probably end up in print. A good reporter will ask whether or not the "information is for publication." Even if you say no, a good reporter will take the information to another source and get it verified. If you say something OTR, expect that it could very well end up in print. ___ JP: I think you're a really cool guy, and like hanging out with you - you're a buddy. But, can PR people really be friends with reporters, or do we always need to be on guard and worry about that on-the-record issue? BS: Why can't we be friends? Sure, PR people and reporters can be friends. Didn't the President's press secretary date a reporter on "The West Wing"? And didn't Michael J. Fox date a reporter on "Spin City"? Like any relationship, there will reach a point when you're truly friends and both sides can drop the professional guard. Some of my best friends are PR people and one reason is because we have common professional interests. We help each other a lot of and I'd rather spend time with my PR friends than my journalist friends. Once you buddy up to a reporter, there's a lot of quid pro quo that can happen. You help me with my job, I'll help you with mine. But if you touch my girlfriend... ___ (Note: Jeremy had a momentary brain freeze here and I was forced to ask him a question to get his brain jump-started.) BS: Do you ever think to yourself that ending up in PR is some sort of punishment for past sins? JP: I fell into public relations, and love it. I work with a lot of great people - PR and journalists - and have made some lifetime friends that I would have never met. Yes, PR is stressful. Yes, PR means being yelled at by reporters, clients, co-workers. But, it's also one of those professions that can help people, can change public perception for the better. I know a lot of people my age (early 30's) that are re-thinking their professions - I just love what I do. It's fun. BS: Let me just say that the answer you gave me is one reason I love PR people - you're so predictable! JP: Off-the-record, I really do like what I do. I would have left PR if I didn't. (Note: I began yelling at Jeremy at this point.) ___ JP: Are there a lot of perks with journalism? On the PR side, you get the schwag from tradeshows, and some client goodies if they are a consumer goods account. But, with the guidelines in journalism being so strict, do you get ANY goodies? BS: Most media outlets have rules about getting gifts and such, but I've never personally been told that I can't accept a gift. Truth be told, there's nothing you could give me that would sway my opinion of your company or product anyway. I mean, free stuff is great, but having dignity, scruples and a job is better. I get a lot of books, CDs, t-shirts, etc., stuff like that. I give a lot of the t-shirts to charity and such and I basically dole out the other stuff to friends if I don't want it. One of the cool things about covering the tech industry though is that I get to test out a lot of gadgets, even though I never write about 'em, just the actually companies. A certain company sent me a test unit of an awesome tech product about six months ago and I still have it. I pray they never ask for it back. At the same time, I've written very negatively about the company recently - and for good reason - so it's not like having the product swayed my coverage in any way. I get a lot of offers for free meals and drinks, but laziness forces me to turn most of them down. And more often than not, I go Dutch on the bill to avoid any conflict. All in all, after being a journalist for three years, I probably have less than $500 worth of free stuff in my possession, and I don't even remember who sent me any of it. ___ JP: Has there ever been a time that you didn't write a bad article about a company, because you liked the PR person or the company? Have you ever held back in an article, or its always balls-out? Or do you warn the person prior to BS: Ooh, good one. Truth be told, I don't remember any incident where I held back on a negative article because I liked the PR person or the company. I've definitely been spun out of writing negative articles. But in those cases, it was always a matter of weighing the facts and perhaps, changing my opinion when presented with new facts. There are plenty of PR-journalist relationships that evolve to the point where a negative article can be squashed. I guess I have some of those, but I've never been asked to kill an article by a PR person. My reputation is such that I'll do it anyway, so why bother asking? Take your lumps, try to put the best light on it and move it. I make very clear to PR people what the tone of my articles will be. If it's negative, if it's an attack - I let them know. I don't want to be accused of misleading someone. And there's no harm in asking a journalist what the tone or purpose of the article is. You should always ask. ___ JP: Journalism lately has taken many lumps because of the Jayson Blair incident, Stephen Glass, et al. Have you noticed that you have had problems with being trusted or respected in your paper? Have you noticed that it's harder to get stories? BS: In the immediate aftermath of the Jayson Blair incident, I did notice some people were unwilling to talk to me. This may have been because I write for The New York Post and they were confusing it with The New York Times, which is laughable for a number of reasons. I haven't experienced any problems with my normal sources and I really haven't had a difficult time cultivating new sources. Where I'm having the most problems is in interviewing "normal" people. By this I mean when I interview people for trend pieces and such. I just did an article on a new technology that is gaining consumer traction and I interviewed about dozen people using this technology. Four or five of them expressed concerns that I'd misquote them or write about the technology wrong. I don't get those type of concerns from PR people or my normal sources. I think your average Joe is getting a better understanding of how to deal with the press. ___ JP: In your opinion, are there media outlets that PR people shouldn't pitch, or is any positive press (no matter the outlet) good press? BS: Every media outlet is worth pitching. Unless it's some White Supremacist newsletter, you shouldn't ignore anyone. Pitch high, pitch low, pitch far, pitch wide. You never know which media outlet has power on a certain day. It all depends on who is reading or watching. Don't get hung up with a "target" audience idea because you really don't know what your target audience is reading or watching on a given day. If you want to reach teen girls, yes, pitch Seventeen Magazine. But you should also pitch The Wall St. Journal because those teens' parents may be reading it. I sometimes find that the best press comes from the most obscure media outlets. When I ran my record label, I had an album reviewed in a big alternative music publication and though the review was very positive, it didn't impact sales or radio play. A few months later, some website I'd never heard of ran a review and the next thing I know, I was getting all kinds of orders and emails from people saying they'd heard the album on the radio. Why? Because the website was well-read by college radio DJs. ___ BS: Okay, last one. I'm tired, cold and hungry. JP: During the dot-com boom, a lot of the mainstream and well-respected press seemed to buy the dot-com hype and drink deeply from the Kool-Aid. A lot of those columnists and reporters seemed to have walked away unscathed, but the bankers have been vilified. Why was the press able to walk away okay from the implosion and not get hurt for overly hyping vapor? BS: Well, who vilified the bankers? It was the press. The press did take heat, from people like me actually. And then I ended up in the press, so I guess I'm paying them back for hyping companies like my own $12 million-funded piece of junk. The press will always be under the microscope, and rightfully so. We're essentially public servants, like it or not. The dot-com era probably was a low point in how the modern press covers the business world. A lot of people in the press lost their jobs because of the dot-com bust and in my opinion, that's helped bring better journalism to the world. You'll also notice that as the market turned south, CNBC's viewership declined and circulation of business magazines and such dropped dramatically. That was the payback. But I think the biggest damage was done to the PR industry because you guys were the ones telling the story. I know a lot of my ideas about PR people came from dealing with the dot-com flacks and seeing my own in action. I saw how easy it was to sell a piece of garbage and spin it as a diamond in the rough. I think a lot of the heat the PR world continues to take is because of what happened in the dot-com era. Aside from the funny stories, hype and such, the whole thing was an economic disaster, so in the end, nothing was very funny about it. The hype was driven by the media, which was driven by PR, so whose fault is it? All of 'em! ___ Visit the PR Fuel website at http://www.prfuel.com for daily PR industry news and commentary.
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