Overbearing PR?

I should point out I don't transact all business by email, nor do I endorse doing so. It's good to have an email trail, but there is no substitute for a conversation with someone. If the game had been our highest priority, we'd have made a phone call or two. As time went on, it was obvious two games would be higher on our pecking order, and we put our energy into those. It's also obvious we weren't a speck of dust on the radar when the team was in the hunt for the national championship, but a key loss and a tumble in the polls later, with far less interest in the rivalry game than in many years, they found an empty chair.

Thing is, as she stated, they wouldn't have been able to give us an answer until the week of the game even if we had called. And as it turned out, we got our answer 23 hours before kickoff. So "plan accordingly" means wait until the day before the game, and maybe we'll squeeze you in. For the record, our reporter covered their games for a few years and said he knew of no such policy. We also looked and couldn't find it in writing anywhere.

My point is how she worded her email is further evidence that just because you have a job in PR, it doesn't mean you understand PR.

 

That's a great point, Mr. Dangerously. Something for me to keep in mind when dealing with this particular PR person - once the emotional scars have healed, of course.

 

Doesnt a re-signing have to be filed on the respective league's transaction list? Depends on the league, maybe it happens when the league year ends or begins....but it seems to me that if no outlet reported the re-signing and its not on a transaction list, you're not at fault. Assuming its a player.

Turn it into a scoop. Reply, so you can confirm players X and Z resigned? And terms? Then tweet according to team PR players X and Z have resigned

 

Leagues usually don't and they won't disclose the terms. Player's union will disclose both.

 

Isn't that redundant?

 

The moral of the story is not to assume something because a release wasn't issued. Seems like a Mickey Mouse organization anyway.

 

Cue the theme to the "$10,000 Pyramid," since there's your winning graf right there.

You would be amazed at the level of ignorance we deal with from other PR people. Not all, of course, but of what I call -- at the risk of starting a major threadjack here with an SportsJournalists.com buzzword -- "Heathers."

You've all seen them: the blond, 20somethings who got into PR because "they like dealing with people." They have no idea what the media needs, just that they have a message they are going to cram down your throats come hell or high water. Your needs and purpose are secondary to theirs.

It's a bullshit way to handle media relations. Yes, you have a different agenda; that's a given. But you also have a need for content and it's our job to facilitate your job as best we can -- given your parameters and needs.

Even within the PR community, I see the right way and the wrong way of handling matters. Much of the "wrong way" comes from folks who never worked in journalism and have no idea what reporters need or find newsworthy, for that matter.

When we work an event, our priority is to our client AND the media. If you're taken care of, my client will most likely be taken care of -- not only at that event, but later down the line. It need not be an either/or thing and any good PR person understands that.

It's a tactic my bosses have employed for years and it's one major reason why both of them are highly respected: by both clients and reporters.

 

What the PR person should have done is alerted you to the fact that they had re-signed and then said that if you need to know info like that in the future, do xxxxx.

That way the PR person makes his point, helps the writer do his job more accurately and makes a friend.

 

How many of those who work in public relations do not know what it really is? It's been jumbled together with marketing.

The PRSA definition of public relations encompasses this:

As a management function, public relations also encompasses the following:

- Anticipating, analyzing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes and issues that might impact, for good or ill, the operations and plans of the organization.

- Counseling management at all levels in the organization with regard to policy decisions, courses of action and communication, taking into account their public ramifications and the organization’s social or citizenship responsibilities.

- Researching, conducting and evaluating, on a continuing basis, programs of action and communication to achieve the informed public understanding necessary to the success of an organization’s aims. These may include marketing; financial; fund raising; employee, community or government relations; and other programs.

-Planning and implementing the organization’s efforts to influence or change public policy. Setting objectives, planning, budgeting, recruiting and training staff, developing facilities — in short, managing the resources needed to perform all of the above.

 

Amen ... I dealt with those 20-somethings all the time when I was doing the NASCAR circuit back in the 1990s (it was a small but quickly growing group) ... back then, the "in" thing was to hire people with marketing degrees, either not knowing (or not caring) than at the most they had a single class in PR or media relations in college ... plus, the firms could hire them relatively cheaply, and if they couldn't handle the workload, hire someone else ...

 

The PR guy's sins outweigh the reporter's miscues.

If the PR guy had given the reporter a verbal, "here's the way you are supposed to do things," he might or might not be a jerk. The fact that the PR guy put this in writing shows lack of professionalism and smarts.