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Tuesday, December 26, 2006
How to piss off a journalist
Over at CrunchGear, Seth Porges offers a laundry list of things PR people do to piss him—and other technology writers—off.
Porges is a New York-based freelancer who writes for publications like PC Magazine and BusinessWeek.
The fact that there are enough PR professionals (and I use the term loosely) engaged in such behavior makes me wonder what they’re teaching in communication classes. Do the heads of agencies actually teach these practices to new hires? I can’t imagine Terry Fallis instructing Chris Clarke to do any of this—in fact, I would be surprised if Chris weren’t learning the opposite.
But it happens often enough, according to Porges, that he could fill a tell-all book. Which means it happens often enough to color perceptions of the PR profession in general among people like Porges upon whom we must rely for coverage. If product placement PR were done well univerally, Porges would be grateful for our contributions.
Instead, he offers his Christmas list with some real gems, including requests for placement confirmation: “If I had a dollar for every PR person who asked me to ‘confirm placement’ or questioned why a product they thought was “confirmed” wasn’t in the final issue, I’d be able to start my own PR company.”
I was particularly blown away by Porges’ assertion that he is frequently asked to pay the shipping costs to return a product he’s been sent for review.
Porges also includes a list of three companies that handle their PR well. But I’d be willing to bet Porges isn’t planning a tell-all book about the good PR he’s experienced.
