by Leo Wiles
11 April 2014
PRs and journalists have long been bedfellows, telling the same story through their individualistic lens. And, despite frequent lovers’ tiffs and jokes of a journo-cum-PR going to the ‘dark side’, I think there’s always been a healthy regard for the symbiotic nature of their partnership. And, for the shared skill sets which can deliver sometimes complex information in a way that engages, educates and entertains the widest audience possible.
However, it seems the gloves are off with journalist Joe Hildebrand recently blogging, “Journalists try to make the world digestible and PR people try to make it palatable. We photograph the turd and they polish it.”
It seems Daily Telegraph writer Joe certainly has a lot of experience in faecal matters, given that he has some of the highest complaint-to-viewer ratios in Australian television history. Never having met the man, I can only reiterate that he is dead wrong.
I’ve spent my entire 20+ year career dovetailing my roles as an editor, journalist and producer with PR and marketing. A) I do not spin and B) working as a PR is NOT my retirement plan (Joe seems to think that old journos ‘put out to pasture’ end up in PR). On the contrary, it was a fulfilling road I embarked on.
The skills I’ve honed as a cadet furiously punching copy into my Brother typewriter are still the foundations for the way I write on my Mac now. It’s all about storytelling, no matter if it’s for a newspaper, magazine or client who has a fabulous product or service they want others to know about.
Sure, spin-doctors exist and there may be some, like the Mythbuster duo, who can polish poo but not me. Or dare I say the hundreds of PRs Rachel’s List works with as job-posters or job-seekers, who I’m sure make the same decisions I do about which clients to work with.
As a journo, I worked as much as possible on titles that aligned with my beliefs. And as a PR, I choose clients the same way, turning down potential accounts such as fracking and mobile phone masts that make me feel distinctly uncomfortable.
Over the years several journo pals have asked me, with their toe in the water, about PR. The reality is there is something thrilling about strategising a campaign. It’s the same head rush as being an editor planning to create and deliver something wonderful.
It also means I no longer need to work a 14-hour day as a news editor, when I woke to breakfast TV, periodically skimmed e-news and Twitter to see who was hooking up, and felt constantly that I never knew everything I had to know.
Working in-house in media is not for the faint-hearted. You have to be hungry. By the time I stepped away, due to a brush with adrenal burnout and the arrival of a small family, my move towards PR was not only logical – it was practical too.
Sure, I still miss the banter of a newsroom, and those electric editorial meetings when a big story’s breaking. But I’m better off financially and mentally as I work less hours, for a larger hourly rate – and in a job better suited to family life. A job that also pays on time!
Best of all, I’m still surrounded by highly energised and enthusiastic people able to communicate via my favourite mediums: writing and photography. Ultimately, isn’t that what all creative communicators want – to wake up and do something they’re passionate about no matter what side of the line?
Which is why I’m sure that I’m not the only journo or PR to regularly work both sides of the line, as both can be rewarding and in their own ways more tolerant of our different life stages.
What do you think? Do you have a foot in both camps already? Would you consider it?
I tried PR for a brief stint earlier in my career, but I hadn’t finished learning everything I wanted to on the editorial side of the fence and it lured me back. I think I will diversify when the time’s right – it will be interesting to find out how much cross-over there really is.
If you took up communicating as a career then chances are Erin you’ll never want to stop learning. Who wants to be stagnant and stale? Who can afford to be in when the world as long toothed journos like me know has moved on at a frightening pace.
When I began my cadetship I was typing green words onto a black screen – no wonder I have my optometrist on speed dial! Now you file audio, video, copy and images from the field straight to the online portal – I didn’t see that coming but I certainly went back to Uni to learn how to do it!
It’s the same with PR when I started out publicising C4’s celeb chef Ainsley Harriot social media was an after work Friday night or long lunch FB, Twitter, LinkedIn and e-newsletters simply didn’t exist.
To return to your point about still having a lot to learn about PR because of my passion to communicate even though I had a babe in arms despite my 20+ years in PR I enrolled and completed three business PR and marketing diplomas before shoring up my Journo skills with a diploma in digital media such as radio, TV, photography.
Because if you’re a mag journo, at ACP like I was, whose field of reference is flanked by Speed Café or the luscious Bambini Trust café then chances are you’re limiting your editorial point of references to internet feeds and the incestuous elevator chit chat that makes you feel like you’re creating the news but haven’t actually met any of your readers.
Striking out as a PR allows for a bigger picture of the corporate landscape and to understand that a media release or phonecall is the spearhead of something monolithic coming up behind – if only you’ll peer past your monitor.
I guess for me the wonderful thing about working in both PR and journalism is that:
Working as an Editor helps me as a PR to know what, how and when to pitch to different media outlets and how not to p**s them off on deadline.
Wearing my PR hat has polished my understanding of where everything fits globally for a brand and to see the big corporate picture which can be hard as an editor if the only landscape you know is Park St.
I have recently begun working in marketing, communications and PR after working in publishing. I still write freelance too.
I think I can do both because I have quite a niche focus.
I too only work with clients I believe in and I really enjoy delivering quality content to people. I think it is entirely possibly to have a foot in both camps as long as you know what kind of stories you enjoy and are excited to share them, whether that’s as the writer or as a facilitator.
Hi Madeleine,
Do you have any tips on how you keep your skills fresh, or perhaps how working in one field helps you in the other?
We have a lot of queries from freelance writers and PRs about what it would be like to straddle the line – it would be great if you could help let them know some of the awesome benefits.