Press Access in Times of Recessions


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Comics : Spotlight

Last Updated: Jan 1, 2009 - 6:19:39 PM

Press Access in Times of Recessions
By Hervé St-Louis
Nov 24, 2008 - 8:14:35 PM

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It’s official, we’re in a recession. However, that doesn’t mean that business stops. Quite the opposite, businesses must work harder to get consumers and other companies to spend on their products and services. It’s interesting to be a Web-based media in such times. More than before, the Internet is where many commercial exchanges are taking place, and how much of the media scoop up their stories.

There’s a shift happening in the news industry also. News is moving to the Web. Blogs and amateur news outlets are no longer frowned upon. The best have earned a reputation for being as thorough and effective at news gathering and diffusion as the guys in the old boys’ network. But Web-based media has always offered something more interesting to news makers (or detrimental, depending on how the news affects you). News can be tracked easily. If you are a public relations company, today, you can effectively track how far your message went on Web-based media for your clients.

I have a degree in public relations myself and understand the attraction of Web-media to Web metrics professionals. However, as I have jumped the fence one year after getting my public relations’ degree, and joined the rank of news reporters, I’m feeling every day the disdain and love hate relationship I was trained to manage and in school!

For example, there is this public relations company found out about The Comic Book Bin one day, dug up our contact info and have been selling my address to various clients and other public relations firms ever since. It’s not unusual for me to get emails about leather bags and ski trips to Vermont. I’d like the emails to stop – I consider them spam, as they are not targeted at all to what The Comic Book Bin does. We’re about comic books, movies, action figures and video games. Pink leather bags are, we assume, of no interest to our readers, and I wouldn't spend one minute of my time writing a story on that while there is so much more that needs to be done in the industries we are supposed to cover.

Mostly, I find that 99% of publicists totally fail to engage us, the media, in a meaningful way when they are trying to make us write a story about their clients. Emails are not answered, we still don’t get Christmas cards or greetings, they don’t understand the difference between a sales pitch and news and oh, so much more. It boggles the mind.

When I was in school, I learned that the one goals of the publicist was to influence and manage how the public and the media perceived its clients. Instead, I receive tons of emails asking me to post sales plug for the latest comic book, Vermont ski trip or that movie about those vampire teens everyone is raving about right now. For example, a few weeks ago comic book publisher through their hired public relations’ agency, asked us to run a plug about a sale they were having. I was pissed off and I told the publicist that I was, but she never bothered to respond to my email.

The problem is that the publisher think it’s worthwhile for them to buy an ad at The Comic Book Bin. However, they sure think it’s worthwhile to get a free press release published by us. So are we valued or not?

I learned in school that the gist of public relations is also to get the news about your client, for as cheap as possible. However, public relations are but a piece of the promotional strategy of a company. Advertising helps too. And when companies think it’s okay to always request the cooperation of the media in return for nothing, there is a problem and the system is not sustainable.

I’m not asking vendors to pay every time they seek access to our readers. I’m asking them to remember that we cannot make a living if we are expected to just cooperate blindly and be used as their personal sales force.

Now some of you will say, it’s a dog eat world. Sure it is. Nothing wrong with that. But that’s not how you make friends and making friends is the first job requirement of a publicist. There’s no better ways of positively influencing how people think of your clients as being nice to the media outlets you need to make your client successful and to keep your own job with them.

In times of recessions, publicists need to be even nicer than usual. People have less disposable income, or perceive that they have less and more efforts are needed to get them spending. I have a theory that a Web-based media outlet like The Comic Book Bin, should thrive even more when the economy is not sound, because people rely more on us to make up their minds on the products vendors are trying to sell them.

Access to the press is precious, but many vendors seem to think the opposite. I’ve requested a year-end interview with a large comic book publisher's group editor way back early in October 2008 through the proper channels. I’m still waiting for the publicist to respond properly. Yet, every day, I get at least three emails from him trying to get me to post something about some Marvel comic book.

That’s just an example of what seems to be the norm in the public relations industry when it comes to working with the press. Use them only when you need them. Dismiss them when you don’t.

When I was in school, learning about the tricks of public relations, it was a bright time. Students were actually challenged to come up with the best ways to create relationships. I actually sought to do so and cajole local reporters who appeared to have been fearful of my approaches! I was the enemy, but I was nice to them! I wanted to influence them, and get a story I was working on for a client in their newspaper, and they feared me for this. I was proud of this and the fact that they considered me, a mere student a threat to the integrity of the news they delivered to their readers.

I feel very little of this pride from the thousands of publicists that knock at The Comic Book Bin’s door every year. Their job is to write a stupid press release and mail it to their email list. It’s not even conceivable for them to think that they could call me once in a while, just to chat with me and get to know me without trying to push a story. It’s inconceivable for them to think that they could make me their “friend” and try to build a relationship. Some of them have me in their LinkedIn and Facebook account. They don't even glance at the profile of a media guy where they could try to understand how to influence him and get him on their side? It doesn’t seem like they have enough brain power to grasp the opportunity.

When I open one of the many mindless sales pitches, I rarely get a feeling of excitement from the person sending it. I can’t feel how they want to get me on board preaching about their products. What I feel most of the time, is how they want to do as little with me as possible and how they only want me to copy and paste their pitches on the Web site. There is no passion in these publicists. There is no passion for engaging the press. There is no passion for influencing possible customers. There is no passion for representing their clients as best as they can.

All they care about is pushing the Send button and get on with their miserable lives. Maybe I should respond in kind. Maybe I should publicly out any publicist that doesn’t do its job properly, that fails to respond to our requests, that fails to have passion for the press, consumers and their clients/employer. Perhaps they would understand that if they can’t do their job properly, that there are lots of people looking for just such an opportunities to do something they are proud off, especially during a recession.

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Comments

I could not agree more

Coming from someone that also runs a comic book related news site I can relate to what your saying 100%. I too get tons of press releases daily yet interview request go unanswered or any other request for that matter. Unless your CBR or Newsarama the larger publishers do not know who you are.

#1 - Gary - 11/25/2008 - 21:34

I guess all we can do is continue to do our job to the best of our abilities.

#2 - Herve St-Louis - 11/26/2008 - 01:46

I also tend to think that geography plays a role, so that if one is actually based in NYC, then one might be cultivated by various PR people. Part of it is laziness, and part of it is a very poor understanding of the power that has shifted to the Internet. Also, I'll just speculate that perhaps the pay scale is such that many comics publishers don't get the best people for the job. And I'd like to point out a major exception to the trend described here. First Second is an exceptional publisher with great leadership and superb PR. The entire organization projects a friendly yet professional personality. I'm deeply impressed with them.

#3 - Beth - 11/26/2008 - 11:54

Sorry, I should clarify: I meant the PR people's laziness, and the publisher's poor understanding of the Internet's power, not the press! Obviously the press understands the Internet, and clearly is not lazy.

#4 - Beth - 11/26/2008 - 11:55

Great points

Great points and great stock photos! That dude with the megaphone really reminds me of an overzealous publicist.

#5 - Avi - 11/27/2008 - 23:27

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