Comments on: Mike Butcher, Techcrunch UK: “Only a handful of PR firms are any good”

By: The Red Rocket

The Red Rocket — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:05:27 +0000

It’s funny how with the advent of technology (email, blogs, Twitter etc.), this story never goes away…

I think the thrust of Mike’s post is fine. Basically, there’s an awful lot of people/agencies that are crap at PR. I’ve always hated the job of ‘media sell-in’, especially when you know the story sucks.

It’s hard when you’re starting out though. As you get older (more experienced), you’re in a position to ‘feed back’ to your client/bosses when it’s not worth calling a journalist up…I even feel guilty when I send over a sub-standard corporate press release and that just takes a nano-second to delete.

No wonder many journalists get the hump when called up with the ‘have you got the press release’ call. Mike’s always civil to PRs (many are much, much worse – no names mentioned).

It’s just, as an industry, we need to just think before we pick the phone up, “is this really a story that worth calling on?”

By: Andrew Bruce Smith

Andrew Bruce Smith — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:29:46 +0000

Mike – thanks for the comment – and just to re-iterate, it was a great post and should be required reading for all PRs. I guess I’ve heard the view about good media relations folk “disappearing” into management so many times over the last 20 odd years that it probably irks me more than it ought to. I still can’t quite get my head around the fact that media relations is still, to all intents and purposes, the reason why most PR firms get hired – yet the av. agency apparently only spends around 15pc of its time on it – and the same old bad practices never seem to go away.

By: Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:22:44 +0000

Perhaps I should have made it clearer that I don’t resent a good PR building a career and getting out of handling journos. Hell, good journos often end up becoming editors and not writing news any more (as I have done at various points when I took on that kind of role). The post was not really aimed at you – it was aimed at tech startups who come to the idea of media relations completely green. It was an attempt at advice, however poorly executed. Thanks for the link.

By: Jez Farmer

Jez Farmer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:20:24 +0000

Mike’s points are valid, there are plenty of us in the PR industry who are unimaginative, irritating and generally poor at our job. But then sadly I know a few journalists too that will be your best friend when you have something they want, and if not will be rude, irritating and generally poor at their job. Symbiotic relationships can be hard. And ABS as you rightly point out, if you want to get on in your career you often end up in management, and a good PR pro doesn’t always make a good and happy manager.