ThE NEXT BEST IS NO GOOD AT ALL
Freelance ANNE WOLLENBERG is driven to fury by PRs who try to push subjects she doesn’t want
MEDIA REQUEST services are great in theory: journalists say what they want, PRs reply if they can help and everyone’s happy. Or at least they would be if PRs didn’t insist on offering other random things “as a back-up”.
No matter how clearly I explain that I am only looking for information about one specific product or topic, I still receive a deluge of irrelevant responses.
When I said I absolutely could not use bereavement-related case studies for a health feature, I was immediately offered an expert “who can talk about bereavement, like you mention in your request”.
One journalist I know was asked to plug designer glasses when she asked for experts on school phobia. Another was offered hairdryers for a feature about skiing.
Maybe we’re writing our requests in gobbledegook, or do PRs actually think we can go back to our editors and say: “I know you commissioned a piece about skiing, but here’s one on hairdryers as a back-up”?
PRs may think that offering irrelevant information is an enterprising way to seize potential opportunities for exposure. It’s not. It’s a waste of their time, and ours.
“I almost always get an inbox full of extraneous, diverting and ultimately pointless PR pitches,” says fellow freelance Sarah Drew Jones, who was offered cheap yoga clothing when she asked for details of luxury spas, and extreme sports holidays when she wanted gardening experts.
“Why don’t PRs realise they have a better chance of success if they give us what we need?” she asks. “What makes them think they can shoehorn a mention for Red Meat Week into a feature on veganism?”
It’s fine for PRs to ask about working together in future, but sending those “I know you said you wanted ... but how about ...?” responses just makes them, and therefore their clients, look stupid, and drives us bonkers because we have to wade through so many of them.
The end result is that journalists are discouraged from using these services in the first place, and we don’t pay for them — the PRs and their clients do.