Public relations is in a sorry state in South Africa

What a cheek. Public relations (PR) professionals, if you could call them that, seem to think that journalists owe them coverage.

Worse still, some PRs have the guile to expect media to cut and paste ChatGPT-generated press releases on receipt.

And when a journalist ignores them, they get upset.

The PR ‘spray and pray’

The state of PR in this country has hit an all-time low.

They just don’t make them like they used to.

Every reporter receives a mountain of media releases and requests for coverage every day; these days PRs spray and pray it everywhere.

It’s the norm to receive blind-copied “Good Day” or “Hello There” e-mails; these professionals seem to think that media are too stupid to notice that they have sent a pitch to a legion, not an individual.

I’m pretty sure clients pay top dollar for these nonexistent relationships.

PRs have no idea what specific journalists or even publications cover.

In fact, beyond an e-mail address and a sense of expectant entitlement, public relations people have no clue as to whom they are speaking to or the difference between news and paid for over-branded codswallop.

Yet they get upset when told that buying an advert would be a client’s budget better spent than a generic, often incorrectly spelt, spray and pray pitch.

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Only four or five excellent PRs

Ag no man, it’s a shame. And it’s sad that this has become the rule, excellent PRs the exception.

I think I know four or five of them. The balance, deer in the headlights of a profession that’s in dire need of an overhaul.

The past couple of weeks I have wasted time responding to senior public relations practitioners with a few hints on how to be more successful with pitching.

The first basic rule is to address the mail to the actual person.

The second, is to earn your keep and write a personalised pitch that matches the journalist, that matches the publication and that’s not generated by ChatGPT.

It’s easy to tell when PRs rely on AI to draft a press release or an e-mail. Structural patterns and vocabulary limitations makes it easy to spot a mile away.

Don’t underestimate my intelligence and furthermore, don’t insult your client by producing and spewing utter nonsense that’s been about as thought through as your daily sock selection. It stinks.

But wait, there’s more.

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Entitled, too lazy to look for themselves or support media

Because PR people have taken flaccid professionalism to a new low. Happenstance a journalist does show interest in a story, writes it and it gets published.

The PR keeps nagging for a publication date and then, get this, a link to the online article or a PDF of the print story.

They seem unable to look for it themselves or, for that matter, to support the publication and physically subscribe or buy a copy.

If only this was just a rant and not a reality.

Despite what PRs think, the media does not owe them coverage.

And, dear PR, get off your derriere and buy your own copy of the paper.

Journalists are way too busy to report back to you, the pro who earns a keep based on the coverage that media affords you.

Don’t lose sight of that. Pity it seems that you have. Earned media means exactly that.

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