Many journalists cross over to the ‘dark side’ of PR. As with any other career transformation, some succeed and some don’t. As someone who considers two years in the IT trade pressroom as my most valuable grounding for a further 17 years in PR, I want to discuss what a journalist can bring to the PR table. Clue: it not just about copywriting…
You may have already read PR consultant Ella Minty’s post Never hire a journalist to do public relations. If you haven’t, take a look. In this post, I’m going to explore what journalists can contribute to a PR practice and why I believe every agency or department should have someone with at least some pressroom experience.
Let’s get the obvious ones checked off first:
A nose for a story
Ella’s post rightly highlights that there’s a world of difference between public relations – an essential management function – and media relations – how brands tell communicate with press and influencers.
One of the key takeaways for me in the newsroom was that I learn as much about how not to do PR than the other way around. My audience was IT managers, so my interest was in what kept them awake at night – security, patches, hosting etc. – while PRs representing vendors were often focussed on product rather than the issues they solved.
Journalists have to think audience-first, so arguably have an keener sense of what will resonate with audiences and therefore make a story.
A gift for storytelling
Why is it so many press releases fail? Why are so many issued in the first place? Why is corporate jargon so hard to decipher rather so it achieves the opposite (confuse and annoy) to what it’s meant to do (communicate and engage)?
One of the reasons may be a lack of a storyteller, which is where journalist experience comes in handy.
Check out my guide on how to write a press release for more on this topic…
A quick turnaround
Journalists often perfect a formula for their storytelling, so – when armed with the right information – can put together a story fairly quickly. Speed combined with accuracy is essential in the ‘marketing in the moment’ era.
A grasp of SEO
Writing for the web is completely different art to traditional storytelling. It involves shorter sentences, regular subheads, bullet points and other ways to enable audiences to read – or, more likely, scan – copy from a mobile device.
Readability is a key component in how Google ranks web pages when people search online, and many journalists are trained in search engine optimisation (SEO), so understand how to help content rank. How many PRs have had SEO training?
A wide network
Journalists have a huge range of trusted contacts accrued over their career. These aren’t just other media contacts but also analysts, influencers, agents, celebrities – these can all be useful sounding boards for campaign ideas and new business.
They have also been exposed to hundreds of creative campaigns, so probably have some great inspiration for how to bolster a brand’s marketing.
An understanding of how influencers work
Their career may differ, but there are many similarities between how journalists and influencers work. For example, how they take the pulse of their audience to formulate their content plans. How many PRs have influencer relations training from those with pressroom experience?
An objective view
Could a journalist make the move to PR and advise on communications strategy at board level? Absolutely, because they bring a much-needed objective view and can advise on how any actions will be perceived by the public. The challenge is often whether or not that journalist has the people management skills to communicate their advice in a diplomatic way.
Some of the best PRs I’ve ever worked with have been journalists, while some of the least impressive have had PR degrees. Everyone’s different, but I definitely believe that every agency or in-house team would benefit from having a former hack on board. Plus, they can offer internal training, so communications professionals at all levels can learn from them.
What do you think? Can journalists succeed in modern PR?