Al Gore eat your heart out

I generally dislike the navel gazing that festers within PR circles, but watching the response to this campaign has been very interesting.  As you might expect, some journalists are at the end of their tethers after years of being spammed with press releases that don’t suit their preferences.  Others seem to accept that it comes with the territory.  The campaign itself is a good piece of PR for the wire agency.  Their service is paid for by PRs, but serves the press community, so the message here is spot on, and the response from all quarters is unequivocal and vociferous support; journalists can air grievances and war stories, while PRs can witch-hunt the ‘other agencies’ that get up to that sort of nonsense.

Have I ever sent press releases to journalists that don’t want them?  Well I dare say I probably have, but then I’ve also helped hundreds of journalists file thousands of stories over the years.  Is mindless PR spam a counterproductive waste that should be mitigated?  You’re damn right it is…

Now this is the bit where I’m supposed to bleat on about the utterly obvious importance of listening to and understanding journalists, and having media relationships to underpin the press release distribution and pitching process…  But PR doesn’t need PR.  Pick up any newspaper or magazine and you’ll find that fact staring back up at you.