The idea that anyone, let alone a public relations professional, would speak with a journalist while chewing food is mind-boggling.
But that’s what award-winning, Salt Lake Tribune Reporter Paul Beebe says that at least one PR “pro” did last week while visiting with Paul at last week’s Speed-Pitching Event produced by the Utah Valley Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America at Utah Valley State College.
The first-time activity was a fun and helpful PRSA get-together designed to allow PR reps to spend four minutes pitching a story idea to one of six different journalists, of which Beebe was one.
This was obviously a worthwhile chance to meet one-on-one with local journalists, so we had one team each from SOAR Communications and Politis Communications on hand (with clients in tow) to take advantage of the opportunity. And in my opinion, it went quite well; then again, the proof will be in the pudding (are stories written/produced about our clients or not by these journalists).
But back to Beebe’s 11/18/07 article, entitled “Let a hack pitch ideas to a flack.”
First off, for the uninitiated, “hack” is an unflattering nickname for what Beebe terms “a mediocre writer.” Conversely, Beebe writes that “flack” refers to someone who “nag(s) reporters on deadline with bad ideas for lousy stories.” OUCH (on both parts)!
If you have a moment (assuming the link above to the story is still “live,”) check out Beebe’s full article. As I would expect, it’s well-written, direct and pulls no punches.
However, since I’ve noticed in the past that Tribune stories often become unavailable after a week or two without a subscription, I’m going to republish below Beebe’s complete list of advice to PR practitioners everywhere.
So (with Beebe’s permission), here is Paul’s list:
I STRONGLY recommend any person preparing to speak to a journalist read (or re-read) Beebe’s list and adhere to his advice.
For although most of Beebe suggestions should be second nature to PR professionals, the fact that he wrote the story/column at all proves that some PR practitioners and spokespeople have some basic improving to do.