The thing is, you get the good and bad wherever you go. It’s human nature to be disappointed if things don’t work the way we want them to.

You can say that there is a lot of laziness in PR, but the same can be said of journalism and media. I’ve known journos pass up on what could be an incredible story because that little bit of mundane research wasn’t worth it, in their opinion.

I’ve also seen media companies take the easy route and just go with what they’re given (much like the situation Giselle attests to in her comment).

The truth is, David, we start out lazy and we have to work at being better. The good ones do that; the bad ones remain lazy. The industry doesn’t matter; the people do.

I know that you like to bash PR where you can, and hey, I agree with you a lot of the time. But as the recipient, have you ever just contacted a bad PR pitcher and advised how you’d like to be pitched?

Perhaps you could have a “Pitch Me” page with details on how to pitch a story to you. It might just weed out the lazy PR types and keep you in touch with the good ones. And while we’re at it, perhaps the lazy journos can stop asking for PR to do their jobs for them, and get back to what THEY’RE great at – the story.

And to Steve Kayser, thank you kindly for the nod, good sir – I’m glad to be able to help, cheers.

LAZY ON A GLOBAL SCALE

And I am lazy. The laziest? I don’t know – but it’s a good bet I’m in the global top 5 (It’s nice being a leader in some global category … besides being a Thought-less Leader).

PR RECONSIDERED

Having said that … the PR folks you are talking about should really reconsider what it means to be in PR.

I’M NOT REALLY IN PR

I do head up PR for my company – we’re global. But PR to me means sharing good ideas, information, insights and inspirations. Finding the heart, the drama, the comedy, of a good story and sharing it. Whenever I say that to someone they look at me like I’m the SWINE in SWINE FLU and say “So you’re not really in PR.” I am … and not.

BORING

But consider the PR job. Sometimes your products and solutions are boring. Can’t get around that. Real snooze-fests. But even if they are …surely there are creative ways to find some differentiating STORY in your people, your product, your process. There is.. but you have to look, and do the work.

PRESS RELEASE

As for press releases – I can’t remember if I have ever mailed or emailed one to a journalist. Not in the last 5 years anyway. Hopefully if your press / news release is well-written it will be found by someone (journalist or prospective client) who is interested in the topic you’re writing about. They’ll find it by web search. Meaning they come to you. Which is a much better way to achieve success in PR .. with mutually beneficial respect, relationship — and value.

NO MAS

I’ve talked to a quite a few reporters over the last couple years and they’re buried with email press releases. Some upwards of 600 a day. How you going to break through that?
They’re e-screaming NO MAS. SO WOULD I. So help a JOURNALIST BROTHER OUT. Don’t email them a press release unless they ask or subscribe.

DO YOU FEEL LUCKY TODAY?

You might be lucky IF you writer a killer subject line that happens to hit the reporter at exactly the right time on a topic/angle/urgent need – but that’d be rare. I’ve had better results just concentrating on the story. But – I’m not in the big leagues like a lot of these folks you write to. We’re a small-to-medium sized business in the Midwest.

PR PROS OF NOTE

I will, however, take issue with you on some of the New Media PR folks. There are some incredibly talented and creative people out there trying to move PR forward. I’ll use their Twitter Screen names (because if you’re in PR you ought to know Twitter.) New Media PR folks like @prsaraevans @tdefren @briansolis @chrisbrogan @marshafriedman @dmscott @ambercadabra @ ConversationAge – Vaeria Maltoni @bethharte (although she is the Harte of Marketing) @rgeller @pitchengine -Jason Kintzler @swhitley @dslunceford @nettiehartsock @jasonfalls @Dannybrown – and I could go on and on. Those people are accessible, friendly, courteous, professional and share their time, ideas and information.

BEST

Steve

A PRs main job is to bring newsworthy items to the attention of journos. Agree that doesn’t have to be done by press release and too widely broadcasting untargeted releases is a waste of everyone’s time. Also, some PRs don’t know what constitutes news (or their bosses don’t).

As a busy PR, I would write to attract the most important identified target and also contact them directly, create a couple of variation releases to send to ‘lesser’ targets but know my story might get picked up by an unlikely source or two. Sometimes a release might go to three people, sometimes to a lot, covering various media types. Have had 100% success with many releases (which always makes me wonder if I could have spread it a bit wider!).

Did you discuss the possibility that maybe BoomerCafe is not the most important media the release has been submitted to and the PRs time is actually being spent wisely …?

On a side note – I’d say media is the worst – not because of their laziness, but because they are too often unwilling to publish anything that isn’t death, terror or sensationalized.