Comments on: Is PR Being Infested With Ex-Journalists?

By: Sean Wood

Sean Wood — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:36:37 +0000

It is a shame that so many journalists take the “going to the dark side” view. Yet I made the leap this year after 20 years in print. I’d like to think I’m different. I still have plenty to learn about strategic communications development. But I sure as hell know what a reporter is going ot ask and why they’re going to ask it. I have a great ability to anticipate which I’ve only witnessed from a few of my colleauges. And that’s not a knock on them. What they offer from the strategic standpoints make up for what I lack. But what I offer from the practial media relations side of the equation, complements their talents. So don’t count the journos out. They have plenty to offer (even if they don’t dress that well.)

By: Leo Valiquette

Leo Valiquette — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:06:01 +0000

As a someone who moved over to PR after eight years as a business journalist and editor, I have experienced first hand the challenges of making the switch. We have four on the team. Our managing partner has 30 years experience in both journalism and public relations. He is the strategy guy. The others have public relations backgrounds. We have a very horizontal account structure to ensure continuity for clients. In this team environment, what I bring to the table with eight years perspective as a journalist adds value, and yes, my role is much more on the tactical level. But the important thing is we have a team approach intended to leverage the different strengths of everyone involved.

For our managing partner, there are two key skillsets that are paramount. The first is outstanding writing skills (which he has found lacking in many PR practitioners). This is much more than being able to string together grammatically correct sentences and paragraphs. It is the ability to intimately understand a client’s story and value proposition and communicate that to a target audience clearly and concisely without hype or jargon. The second is the ability to pick up the phone and begin a dialogue with a journalist with whom you’ve never spoken before and convey what value your client’s story can bring to their publication.

If you’ve excelled at these communication skills as a journalist, they can easily translate to PR. The biggest challenge moving over is adapting to working in a service industry with high expectations for customer service.

By: Leslie Hawk

Leslie Hawk — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:10:31 +0000

I agree with you totally!!!!!!

By: Joel Drucker

Joel Drucker — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:07:33 +0000

Journalists have long been part of the path into PR. Having done it more the opposite — from age 23 to 33 I worked in the agency business — I think that’s effective to a limited degree. Far too many journalists — and by that I mean experienced journalists — enter PR with mock reluctance, issuing silly comments about “going to the dark side” and therefore polarizing communications. Often they go from being gate-crashing reporters to gate-keeping press secretaries. They’re also mostly tactical, pretty much failing to grasp the differences between publicity and public relations, or really what marketing is and how that fits into the mix. And except for reactive media situations, I’ve found them not particularly great at building genuinely effective PR programs. That said, it’s inevitable that organizations will continue to hire journalists, probably more as tactical communications practitioners than strategic consultants. But at many levels, that’s OK.