3 truths why you suck at PR

Matthew Libassi is the public relations and speakers bureau manager for Northwell Health. 

Let’s get something straight: most PR people don’t fail because they’re lazy or untalented (keyword, most). They fail because they’re operating on autopilot — recycling outdated habits, hiding behind buzzwords and confusing activity with impact.

If your definition of success is “we sent the release,” do better.

Here are the three reasons you suck at your job — and probably already know that.

1. You don’t know how to tell a story — you just announce things.

PR is not an announcement service. It’s not a glorified internal memo blasted to journalists who never asked for it. And yet, so much of what passes for PR writing reads like it was approved by seven committees, a nervous lawyer and someone’s uncle who “knows marketing.”

You lead with the company name. You stuff in meaningless adjectives like “innovative,” “cutting-edge” and “best-in-class.” You bury the actual point until paragraph five — if it exists at all.

Here’s the reality: journalists don’t care about your “milestone,” your “exciting new chapter,” or your “strategic pivot.” They care about why this matters now, who it actually affects and what makes it different from the 40 other pitches they got before lunch.

If your story doesn’t have relevance or a genuine human angle, or the old “news you can use” it’s not a story — it’s noise. And you’re not just contributing to inbox clutter; you’re actively training reporters to tune you out. Congratulations. You’ve made your own job harder — and did a disservice to the entire industry.

2. You think silence is a strategy.

Somewhere along the way, PR teams decided that not engaging was safer than saying the wrong thing. So they monitor. They flag. They “take it offline.” And then they do … absolutely nothing.

Meanwhile, conversations happen anyway — just without you at the table.

Ignoring public discourse doesn’t make it disappear. It just guarantees you won’t shape it. Whether it’s social media, comment sections, podcasts or creator-led narratives, your brand and industry is being discussed in real time. Choosing not to show up isn’t neutrality; it’s abdication. It’s leaving your reputation in the hands of people who don’t care about accuracy, context or fairness.

PR isn’t about control anymore — it’s about participation. If you’re not willing to engage with nuance, clarity and an actual point of view, someone else will happily — and often incorrectly — define you for you.

Silence doesn’t protect you. It just makes you look unprepared, indifferent or scared. However, if you have nothing real, tangible, meaningful to add — then shut up. We don’t need noise for noise’s sake.

3. You treat journalists like distribution channels.

Mass pitching isn’t bold. It’s lazy. And everyone knows it.

If you’re still sending the same generic email to dozens (or hundreds) of reporters with a vague subject line and zero personalization, you’re not “doing outreach” — you’re training journalists to ignore you. Worse, you’re proving you don’t actually care who they are, what they cover or whether your story is relevant to their beat.

Here’s what too many PR people still don’t understand: media relations are relationships. Real, human ones. Not transactional drive-bys. Not “just circling back” emails fired off into the void like you’re spam-fishing for replies. But hey, at least you can tell the client you pitched, right? Bill that hour!

Real PR happens over coffee dates. Over quick virtual meet-and-greets with no pitch attached. Over conversations where you ask, “What are you working on?” — and then actually listen instead of waiting for your turn to talk.

And here’s the part that separates the amateurs from the professionals: you help journalists when it benefits them, not just when it benefits you. You send sources that aren’t your client. You flag trends early. You connect them with experts they actually need. You make their job easier before you ever ask for coverage.

That’s how trust is built. That’s how replies actually happen. That’s how your name doesn’t trigger an immediate eye roll when it hits an inbox.

Journalists don’t owe you attention. You have to prove your worth. And if your relationship only exists when you want something, you don’t have a relationship at all — you have a one-sided ask pretending to be PR.

PR doesn’t fail because audiences are distracted or the media landscape is hostile or shrinking. It fails because too many practitioners play it safe, say nothing interesting and call it strategy and did I say lazy?

If you want better results, stop hiding behind templates. Stop avoiding real conversations with your clients. Stop mistaking volume for value. Stop confusing effort with results.

PR isn’t broken — but a lot of people practicing it are long overdue for a reality check.

One Response to “3 truths why you suck at PR”

Jacky Tsang says: March 26, 2026 at 5:53 pm

I agree with your point on PR not being an announcement service. A lot of PR still ends up centered around announcements, though. How do you actually move away from that in practice? What does that shift look like day to day?