Are the days of media relations coming to an end?
As content marketing and owned media initiatives gobble up more of the PR pie, relationships with news outlets and reporters are changing fast. As one veteran journalist says, ‘One, they don’t trust us. And two, they don’t need us.’
A while back, a reporter I had been pitching threw me what I thought was an unexpected softball. “How about some commentary on X topic from X executive,” he asked?
Of course, I jumped to make it happen. I’m an expert, right? In less than 24 hours, I had what I thought was solid insight from a CEO.
I sent it off and waited patiently.
No response.
A day later his story ran without a mention or a quote from the executive. I wrote a diplomatic message to the reporter asking what happened.
Maybe he didn’t see the response amid the email deluge. Maybe he didn’t like the commentary. Maybe his editor chopped the quote.
I don’t know. That reporter never responded. Many do. This one didn’t.
The sorry state of media relations
This is a counterfactual to a recent Washington Post column—’No comment’: The death of business reporting, by Steven Pearlstein.
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