|
|
|
TIPS
Where does PR actually start for editors?
Police reports, company figures, political quotes, announcements: They
form an important part of the information base that we use. But is that
all "just PR"? And if not, what is that editors receive from companies
and organisations?
Journalists complain about the flood of information coming from press
offices. But they often depend on the work of the PR people. What actually
makes statements "PR junk", and when do editors talk about "journalistically
relevant information"? Alexander Marinos, head of News and Politics
at the Westdeutsche Zeitung, goes through all sorts of notices every day.
"Comments by politicians or other functionaries are basically PR.
Everyone is pursuing their own interests. I can't see anything wrong with
that. The only thing that is important is that we journalists formulate
our own interests clear. We are the ones who have to sift out the relevant
information. If a comment, which is actually PR, contains this information,
it's valuable to us."
"The PR effect of announcements tends to be secondary", says
Senior Editor Matthias Onken. Journalists think differently about notifications
issued by the Police. "I don't regard official announcements from
the Police Press Office as PR", says Jörn Lauterbach, for example,
from WELT/WELT am SONNTAG in Hamburg. "This statements are part of
their mandatory task to provide information about violations of the law.
And the vast majority of these statements don't contain any information
that goes beyond the event described and would indicate that there is
any hidden agenda", Lauterbach continues. Companies quoted on the
stock exchange are also obliged to provide certain information. So are
"ad hoc statements" actually PR? "Strictly speaking, no,
because ad hoc statements are governed by strict statutory requirements",
says Bernhard Jünemann, one of the senior editors at BÖRSE ONLINE.
"But this doesn't mean that there aren't a few flowery PR phrases
in there somewhere too". And the media themselves? Exclusive information
is often forwarded as advance announcements. So are the editors and journalists
doing their own PR for themselves? "Yes and no", answers Matthias
Onken from the Hamburger Morgenpost. "One of the essential criteria
for a preliminary announcement is, firstly that the item is really new
and that there is a high probability that other media will pick it up.
If they, in all fairness, name their source, this is advertising, to a
certain extent. However, experience shows that readers generally don't
even register this. The PR aspect tends to be fairly secondary",
says the senior editor. The attention that press releases attract depends
on many factors: subjective feelings, editorial focus or what's happening
in the news that day. Press spokespersons fight to take all eventualities
into account when they send out press releases. And so it is important
for journalists to organise an effective flow of information.
When an agency does its homework
PR is a matter of trust between an agency and a business. "With new
clients, the first thing we do is make a two-day visit to the company,"
Schaal explains the working principles of his agency. "We want to recognize
interrelations and backgrounds. We want to find out what has been done previously
in the way of press work. Only after this kind of study can we offer the
company sound advice and develop a PR concept."
Once the "homework" has been done and the concept is in place,
it is conducted under the continuous supervision of the responsible consultant
from the Trostner agency. Each team consists of two to three graduate
editors and a secretary from a consultancy team. At the start of 1999,
the "New Media" team was formed
to utilize the Internet in clients' interest. In 1998 Schaal.Trostner
Kommunikation developed the specialized editorial service bau-pr.de
for journalists.
How to measure PR work
With Schaal.Trostner Kommunikation, a company sees every month in black
and white what the agency has done - in overviews of when, where and what
contribution about which topic was published, as well as the complete documentation
of all published articles - for the company to read for themselves, so to
speak. At the end of the year comes a thick dossier with detailed analyses
of reaction achieved with the media.
Tips on finding "your" agency:
The editorship of the specialist magazines that you read regularly can tell
you with which agencies they have had good experience. The editorial staff
knows very well from their daily work which agency does a respectable job.
You may most certainly request work samples in advance from the agency
of your choice. These show pretty quickly whether the agency is oriented
toward target groups and maintains regular contact with magazines and
newspapers.
One sign of the quality of the work could also be whether the agency
is a member of the GPRA, the association of PR agencies. This economic
alliance, small but elite, checks an agency very thoroughly before granting
membership.
Last but not least: this industry has its black sheep, too. The title
"PR Agency" is not protected legally and is therefore no guarantee
of the professionalism of the service provider.
|
