4 enduring reasons why journalists make the best PR people

Clients should value the brashness and professional skills of ex-reporters.

“I have a better idea,” I fired back. “Let’s ask him. He’s the leader of this outfit and ought to know.”

I’m fairly certain that no member in good standing of a professional PR organization or advocate of the Stockholm Accords—you know, people with finely tuned sensitivities—would ever talk to a client like that, certainly not in response to a request from the CEO.

Only an ex-journalist would be so brash. Having spent much of our careers wading through the guff churned out by government agencies, corporate PR departments, marketing dweebs, and the leaders of both the free and less-than-free worlds, journalists have a low BS threshold and get down to business quickly.

There are any number of reasons why clients should value this quality.

Here are four:

1. Knowing firsthand what motivates media and “key influencers.” Unless you’ve gone head to head with other reporters/editors/bloggers to be first to get your mitts on a great story, you have no idea the competitive nature of this business.

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