Advice for journalists: two pieces for you, and for PR people, too
How to get around a PR blockade -- click here or scroll a lot
Why PR people block stories --scroll an inch or so

Why PR people block stories 
Here's a question I saw a good journalist (I know her work) ask some other journalists in a web forum. I thought the journalists were, perhaps, only some of the people to ask. Why not ask a PR person? Bingo! That's me when I'm not writing BAK's Report. So here's what I said, with some editing added here.

QUESTION
RE: Am I missing a simple, effective way to convey to these %$@!# people 1) this is urgent 2) I have a dozen other stories to focus on as well as theirs 3) a missed interview can cost me the story, significant anticipated revenue, not to mention an unhappy assigning editor?

ANSWER
First, I noted that we don't care about her points two and three. But, in regard to her point one...

1/ Call anyone you like. If you know the CEO's telephone number, use it.

In lots of companies, he may even answer the telephone. Have your questions ready.

In lots of companies, if you leave a message, he'll have someone in the PR department will call you back. You may also peeve the PR person; be willing to suffer the consequences, although there may not be any.

2/ It is not necessarily the job of PR people to help journalists, although lots of unthinking journalists think it is. Lots of journalists do not deserve help. Lots of publications stink, and smart PR people would rather not be in any story in a lousy publication. There are many other reasons a CEO or a PR person does not want to do an interview, and some of these reasons involve law suits and SEC investigations and stock prices, and... (There's another story about this, down near the bottom of the page.)

3/ The argument to use is that the company would benefit from being in the story, or, related, would suffer from not being in the story. Lots of PR people do not care at all that a freelance writer does not get paid for a story.

4/ Some CEOs actually read e-mail and faxes. Send the questions to them these ways, and see if they get back to you in time.

5/ Lots of PR people can get answers to questions; send them the questions and see what happens.

6/ Send the PR people to your personal web site, so they can get a feel for your credibility, honesty, level of quality. (Remember, the question came from a freelancer, not a staff writer) When time is tight and lots of journalists are trying to get to the front of the line, use the web to sell yourself.

6A / If the publication is obscure (and even industry publications are obscure to the twinkies in far too many PR departments --see below) send the PR person to the publication's web site, to reassure the PR person that the publication is deserving of a response. What? You say the publication's web site stinks? OK, skip this idea.

7/ Does the PR person know the publication? Does the publication matter? Did a copy of the publication go to the PR person by courier, to smooth the path to the CEO? Did even a few pages go by fax?

8/ How many times earlier did you or anyone else from the publication contact the PR person, paving the way for this story or any other story? How did you react (how did the publication react) when the PR person (or his company) approached the publication in the past? Was there any attempt by the publication to build a relationship?

9/ My original message to her doesn't really apply: apparently she got through to some big shot and the PR guy got bawled out. But she never got her interview, either.

10/ Have you looked at the web sites of the International Association of Business Communicators, and the Public Relations Society of America, located chapters near you, and called up the president or the program chairman, and offered to do a lunchtime presentation on how to work with freelance journalists? You would get no pay, but the lunch might be free and pretty good, and there might be a commercial freelance job or two coming out of it.

11/ Has your publication ever invited the PR person in question to any seminar, forum, or advertisers / sources cocktail party, to build a relationship?

12/ Would the PR person have been right in thinking that anything appearing in your story about his company would likely have cast the company in a poor light?

13/ What's the story line? Even I would be curious about the story line, the publication, etc., before I set up an interview, so part of the answer to "... effective way to convey..." is to put together some sort of credibility kit that can be e-mailed to a PR person, to help him get the request to the CEO. What package can the PR guy ask the CEOs secretary to put on the CEOs chair, to ensure he looks at it rather than anything else in his in-basket?

14/ Contrary to what lots of journalists think, in most companies the PR person responsible for media relations is the second most junior person in the department, ahead only of the kid doing the employee paper. And lots of them are not only young and inexperienced, but they are lousy at their jobs and will never get good. The good ones are few and far between.

Even I think this low-level staffing is stupid strategy in PR departments, but that's the way it is.

Chances that the media relations contact can actually talk to the CEO are slim; the PR guy may not even be allowed to talk to the CEO's secretary.

15/ One of the great screwups in the PR business today is the rapid growth in employment of PR people who have no media experience themselves. If they've never met a deadline, they are often unable to grasp the concept that a publication has a deadline. One way of getting around this is to go to PR schools and give guest lectures. (see the paragraph about IABC/PRSA)

16/ There are a huge number of really bad junior, intermediate and senior PR people. (I call the young bad ones twinkies -- it is meant as an insult, and I use the term far too often than should be necessary.) Sometimes, you just come up against an idiot, working for an idiot. Go around the idiots, the same way you'd go around a smart one trying to block an interview.

17/ Sometimes you hit the wrong PR person, but there's a good one hidden somewhere in the department. Try going to the company's web site, look for news releases, and try to find a media contact name on the release. If this is someone other than the person who's stonewalling you, try him. He at least is supposed to help the media, maybe. Or try asking the stonewaller if there's someone else you should be talking to, either in the PR department or a different executive. See below.

18/ If you can't get the CEO to do an interview, and the PR person offers no help, try some other executive. Web site investor relations sections are often a decent source of executive names; if you leave a message with the executive vice-president sales and marketing, he may not want to call you back either, but at least he can get in to see the CEO and ask what to do, which is more than the junior PR guy managed. Or he may call you himself. Different companies have different rules about who can speak to a reporter. In some cases, the PR person will give you as informative an answer as the CEO, but journalists choose instead to insult the PR person, demanding someone else.

 

Why PR people block stories
There was a response by another journalist to the original question above, and that response led me to write the words below, although they've been edited a bit from the original.

RE>I've never quite figured out exactly how a PR person benefits from blocking access to an executive. Some might -- anything is possible.<

Ten reasons a PR person could benefit from blocking media access to the CEO.

1/ It's a no-win story. Today, for instance, nothing the CEO of Xerox could say about the auditor not approving the books, and thus delaying the annual report filing with the SEC, could benefit the CEO, the company, or the PR guy. But it could harm the already fragile company.
2/ The CEO is the wrong person to answer the question. The reporter should be talking to the director of government relations or the head of marketing, or someone else with direct knowledge of the topic.
3/ Related to 2, the CEO does not know the answer, so would look like an idiot in an interview, which should be done by someone else.
4/ Being quoted would queer a deal, or lead to jail. Acme is talking to Ajax about buying the plant in Akron. If the CEO confirms this, competitors could benefit. The purchase price changes, or lots of other things happen. If he denies it and the deal goes through, the SEC calls him a liar.
5/ The reporter wants him to insult a competitor, and the CEO thinks that not insulting a competitor is a better idea.
6/ The question and answer would possibly affect the stock price, running afoul of US SEC regulations FD, plus assorted rules in other countries where the stock trades.
7/ The publication has a reputation for unfair journalism; lots of CEOs want their PR people to keep them away from Dateline, with its bombs, and, in Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, except, maybe, for Venture.
8/ The journalist, rather than the publication, has the lousy reputation. You want Christopher Hitchens writing about you? Or it could be a photographer; no PR person in his right mind wants a CEO shot by Helmut Newton. See the April Vanity Fair pictures of Mike Ovitz.
9/ The CEO gives lousy interview. There are lots of CEOs who are either so dull the PR person doesn't want to let them out, or they say stupid things (c'mon down Larry Ellison, John Roth, Scott McNealy) and the PR person would rather have no story than one that is going to cause unending grief.

Nortel's John Roth, $100 - million in pay last year -- blamed the media for his company's stock drop last week. The result is a call for his resignation, editorials and columns calling him names, a request by one columnist that Roth take a dollar a year in pay until the company is fixed, etc. All in all, the company would perhaps have preferred Roth not do the interview.
10/ The timing's wrong. The new product will be ready next month. Doing an interview this month means the product can't be mentioned, but if there's an interview this month, chances are there won't be a second interview next month. therefore, PR strategy is to keep the interviewer away until this month's deadline is past.