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Yeah, the pic’s twisted. But you expect that here, right? PR people make mistakes all the time. This is a story of a PR person doing it on the record in full-view of at least several hundred people, including me.
Steve Rubel dismissed PC Magazine as circular file material on Twitter.
PC Magazine’s Editor in Chief caught wind of it and considered boycotting any pitch coming from Edelman — Rubel’s employer.
This was PR blog catnip of course. Drama ensued. Rubel acknowledged his mistake. And now all appears to be well.
I’m bringing it up to remind everyone of a simple, important lesson in media relations.
If something’s gone wrong, and a reporter calls you on it, the door to that relationship has not closed. Yet.
A few months into my current job, I’d connected with a business reporter at our local daily. He came to me a few times with interview requests and I had to pass on every single one. He sent me a note saying he didn’t think it was going to work out based on this history.
I could have disagreed with him and, without suggesting a course change, moved blindly in the same direction until he started ignoring me completely. Or I could have taken his email literally and moved on to a different editor.
Instead I told him there was a window of opportunity, but I hadn’t defined it correctly. I asked for a lunch briefing to do just that. We broke bread with my CEO and we’ve done at least four stories with him since.
My story is not the same as suggesting you fart in a publication’s general direction. But as it relates to the above drama, if you screw up, admit it. Don’t fall on your sword, but be honest and focus on what’s next.
Foot in mouth uploaded by bunda3tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | good pitch | bad pitch | bad pitch blog | Steve Rubel | Twitter | PC Magazine | Edelman
2 comments:
Kevin, I couldn't agree any more. For most of us in PR, character is still King!
Kevin, I completely agree that tragedy is not a "publicity opportunity" and you certainly don't want to be an ambulance chaser. That said, in some cases I think it is completely responsible to respond to incidents like this. If you represent or work in-house someone who can provide useful, relevant information and/or context without being self-promoting or resorting to advocacy, I think it is valid to make those resources available. For instance, if you represent/work for a nonprofit that specializes in the subject matter, offering some of your experts is not a bad thing as long as they aren't selling something or trying to spin the events.
A few years ago, I was working in-house at a nonprofit that specialized in helping people protect themselves against crime and there was a high-profile story about a mugging which resulted in the death of the victim. There was an AP story about the incident and while there was a lot of talk about the "drama" around the story, there was nothing being said about how common the events in question were or how it could be prevented. We did not try to claim we knew what was going through the attacker or victim's minds, predict how it could have happened differently, or sell a product. I contacted the writer and we talked about the statistics behind what happened and how people could prevent the same situation happening to them and he ran a follow up story with that information, which I think is a good thing for people to learn from.
Take something like Katrina. I'd say that a pitch on how if people had flood insurance they'd be protected or the merits of buying a gun to protect yourself from looters would have been inappropriate. A pitch on how best to send donations, provide assistance, where to get assistance, the historical context of major storms in the Gulf Coast, etc. on the other hand is completely different in my mind as it is providing information/context. As long as the pitch is truly genuine in its purpose, which should be to help people understand, cope with or fix the crisis and not about a product or the person being pitched, keeping it focused on benefiting the target audience and not the messenger, I think it's legitimate.
Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
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