Traditional PR is dead. Finally! / BeSpoken

I thrive on frustration. You must know: I’ve been active in the world of – mostly business – journalism for some twenty years by now. I’ve always loved every penny of the job. But to keep the kids feeded, I sometimes had to rely on content offered by companies themselves. Often they do so with the help of a PR-agency. They ‘approach’ journalists. Or put simply: ‘we want to have our message in the newspaper. Go and find a journalist who wants to write it.’ So you get a phone call or a mail with a ‘press release’.

That’s where my frustrations get their origin: only very seldom do these PR-messages get my attention. Hardly ever do I read about them in the newspaper. I got really tired of all these self-acclaimed communication specialists who believe they have the ultimate story for me (and my newspaper, that is). Well kids: it does not work that way.

And you know what? Not only journalists get frustrated by this ill-working PR-approach. Companies do as well. They pay huge amounts of euros, hoping that their messages, values, brands will make it all the way to the newspaper or the radio station. But hey don’t get me wrong: classical PR does a perfect job when it comes to real ‘hot news’. But what about ‘less hot’ news that you would like to get exposure in the media? That is where traditional PR is no longer working.