The press office is dead: Consumers, not the media, come first now
Providing a press office team to generate media coverage and respond to journalist inquiries was once a lucrative part of the PR agency model. But the fracturing of the traditional media means those days are now gone, argues Poem’s Rob Lowe.
Over the past decade, I’ve come to terms with the fact that the ‘always on’ press office retainer has finally died.
It was a good earner for PR agencies whilst it lasted – it used up a lot of head hours – but 12 months worth of pitch angles, fancy breakfast events, bland research stories, stunts, baskets of expensive presents and media mailers, just don’t work any more. Truthfully, I’m not confident they ever did.
The always-on press office was a nice earner for agencies
Monthly KPIs based mostly on articles achieved with little business purpose, is a PR legacy from a previous media age that has limited to no value.
Insightful ideas and ground breaking strategies.
Well written and well said. Thanks!
Rob’s article is well worth reading from both an historical and current perspective in communication activities, initiatives etc. of a so-called press or publicity office. However, the PRIA and its fellow global associations have long argued against the measurement of column inches as to the ‘value’ of the work or efforts of PR or press office activities. There are far more relevant measurement techniques than column inches. Secondly, ‘earned media ideas’ also undervalued of PR practitioners, especially if the media releases is written for journalists’ attention. The release should be a factual document for specific target audiences outside the journalist. The focus and structure of the release should be such that a journalist sees the ‘value’ of the content – and the timeliness – of the release to the target audiences of the media outlet. Therefore, as Rob says, ‘consumer or stakeholder first’ should always be the focus. This approach paves the way for the utilisation of various channels to reach consumers or stakeholders. The massive advance of technology provides PR and Press officers with the channels that were never available in the past, but the relevancy of the content should still be the foundation for the information to the consumer or stakeholder.
I think the important thing to consider here, regardless of where the fruits of a press office appear, is that the audience of 2017 is wise to PR-generated stories. There needs to be far more substance to a brand’s PR endeavours than simply churning out timely, “newsworthy” content, whatever the platform.
This piece is on point.
A fantastic article Rob.
It takes bravery to step away of the comfort of a retainer, but agency/client relationships and budgets will benefit from what you recommend.
Anyone who uses the word “impactful” is not worth listening to.
I agree and I can only state from experience, but most of the B2C PR campaigns I’ve worked on over the past 15 years have focused on holistic campaign ideas through various PR channels, of which media relations is only one element.
You also need to be careful to mention that this is only for consumer PR; media relations is still a key driver for B2B communications and I don’t see this vastly changing in the future…
Measurement on the other hand – and proving ‘value’ to the client – is another kettle of fish…!
Thanks Rob, this reinforces the messages coming out of CommsCon yesterday and empowers me to push harder with traditional clients to look at the consumers first and go from there.