That’s a real question.
If you have the answer, please post it in the comment area. I’m sure reporters and editors (and, actually some read this blog, too) will be interested to know.
I’m currently completing my research for my next article. As regular readers know, I write the Internet Technologies column for University Business.
For my previous columns, I interviewed sources working mainly in higher ed Web offices. And, I’m proud to report that up until this specific article my email queries had always been considered, my questions answered and the deadlines given to my sources met.
However, since I’ve started to work on this column, most contacted sources haven’t been really cooperative. They ignore my emails, don’t bother to send a “thanks, but no thanks” note, or don’t reply to my questions even when they say they will.
And, the funny thing is the topic of this column isn’t what you could call a controversial issue (actually, I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t — in a very strange way) It doesn’t have anything to do with high tuition costs, low graduation rates, annoying pending lawsuits or wacky faculty members.
No, this column deals with… media relations and how the Web can help.
I didn’t have any problems getting answers from a few reporters and editors I interviewed about this topic. But, it has proven to be very difficult to get my higher ed PR contacts to cooperate.
Wait a minute.
Isn’t it supposed to be tough to get a few minutes of an editor or a reporter’s time?
And, aren’t PR practitioners supposed to answer questions from media folks… for a living?
I won’t name the names of the 3 institutions, but I can tell they include a state university, an institution highly-ranked by the US News Report and a technology institute.
I know that I’m no NYT columnist. But, in this age of the Long Tail, this column or even this blog post might be read by reporters working for the NYT. That’s why I fail to understand why PR people wouldn’t take a few minutes to reply to a short email.
They might belong to the phone-only cast, which would explain the fate of my emails.
Anybody out there can offer another suggestion?
Especes d’idiots!
I’m at an NJ university (not in PR) and find that the people there to be the most UN-Web 2.0 people on campus. They are stuck in a paper world that has turned yellow with age, but they continue to write “press releases” & contact The Star-Ledger newspaper and ignore any attempts to try new outlets for news and new ways to get to old outlets.
Try RSS feeds? “People (read: “we”) don’t even know what those are – we’ll stick to calling the same people we’ve been calling for the past 10 years who are tired of hearing from us. Maybe if we buy ad space every week in their education section they’ll throw us a few column inches next month.”
Your site may not be The NYT, but the Times isn’t probably calling them – and University Business is PRINT, so shouldn’t they be comfy with that?
What fools these [PR] mortals be…
Interesting situation and questions, Karine. Unfortunately, this scenario too often arises. I’ll offer my anecdotal experiences.
Your final observation may be the most likely. Call them. If anything, it will show them that your are serious. Sometimes email inquiries are not regarded as urgent (see below).
Other reasons for your lack of returns may be:
1. Email requests for information saturate all of us, and that is especially true for media relations specialists.
2. My experience is that most higher ed PR departments are understaffed. They often rely on one full-time media relations specialist and she/he relies on student employees / interns. Yes, this is even true for some / many large universities.
3. Unfamiliarity with the topic is a likely reason. Seriously, their answer to “media relations and how the Web can help” may be – “I don’t know.” Most are likely ignorant of the platforms, tactics and strategies. We need to remember that all of this is really new for most people. I still get a deer-in-headlights look from some of them when mentioning RSS, blogs and social media releases, for example.
Those are just three of the myriad of possible reasons, to be sure.
Now, all of this does not forgive the lack of responses. Good media relations practitioners will respond within 24 hours. The great ones will respond the same day, perhaps within an hour, or hours. The key is to respond – no matter what your answer will be – even if it is “I have have nothing to say” or “I don’t know”.
Since this is not a controversial topic, I doubt they are stonewalling. It probably hasn’t touched them as being an urgent matter, regardless of your deadlines.
I’m sorry they haven’t responded, though. They’ll be sorry they weren’t included (if they’re smart, that is).
Hi Karine,
Another interesting post. While I’m just a recent graduate from PR, I still apologize for my collegues in this regard.
One thing that I’ve been looking at during my research in terms of media relations is the social media press release.
I wrote a bit about this new method of press releases in my blog .
I think that if the media you are looking to contact is comfortable with receiving these releases, they are a great way to go. They provide the journalist with the information to tell a story rather than the college/university’s already prepared angle on it.
Here are some thoughts from my interactions with PR colleagues from other colleges.
1) Many PR officers in higher ed are former journalists, not media relations specialists. Journalists are typically focused on getting the story they are cyrrently interested in. MR specialists are focused on building strong relationships and servicing journalists. No offense, but many of the journalists I know are really flaky.
2) There’s often little or no accountability for PR offices in higher ed. I’ve noticed that many of my colleagues set their own agendas and are disconnected from the other more results-oriented departments like marketing, admissions and development.
3) PR offices are often filled with older employees who run “news services.” Many of these folks are new to higher ed, unaware of industry pubs like UB, and completely unaware of Web 2.0.
4) Many PR offices are focused on helping the university gain government grants and funding and, therefore, focus alll their energy on landing research stories in newspapers. They look at something like UB as a waste of time.
5) There’s a lot of lazy people in higher ed PR, even at the big schools. Many PR offices get a lot of publicity simply because they are big and there are reporters assigned to cover their schools. These people specialize in hiring media tracking companies to put their clippings book together so at the end of the year they can justify their jobs.
6) Finally, there are some schools that have one person doing everything for their PR departments and they simply don’t have the time or energy to return every phone call. In addition to media relations, these people also are involved in community relations, events and crisis communication.
I don’t think this phenomenon is limited to PR folks at all – or to the world of higher ed for that matter.
I’ve gotten used to trying people I _really_ want to contact two or three times (email, then phone), and I don’t think anything of it any more.
Furthermore – some of the most important emails I’ve ever received have been tripped by our corporate spam filters.
For these reasons, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that 1) they’re on extended vacation; 2) their spam filters are overly aggressive; or 3) I’ve written an uninteresting headline as a subject line.
Once I’ve run myself through this quick routine, then I find someone who _will_ reply to my emails. :)
P.S. I’m quite sure that our PR director at Peterson’s reads your blog. :)
Hi Karine, and fellow readers:
I think Robert hit on the three main issues in his comment. Point 3 was what came to my mind first of all — many of us in higher ed PR still don’t know how to actually use the web to promote our work to the media. I agree, too, that most media relations offices are understaffed and overwhelmed by information requests, from both outside and within the institution.
But the crux of the matter is that we’re still struggling with our new role. Media relations is still important, but it is no longer THE most important aspect of a PR practitioner’s job in the realm of higher ed. Many of us, as Rob W. mentions, are former journalists, and as such we are accustomed to focusing on writing the stories that we like and pitching to fellow journalists.
We need to understand that the worm has turned. Most of us are marketing specialists for our institutions, not just media relations specialists. We have bosses who come from the ranks of corporate marketing, and our institutions are relying more on marketing and messaging to target specific audiences with specific messages. Conversely, our institutions are relying less on conventional news media.
This means we need to learn new skills. It’s not enough to be able to craft the perfect lead (or lede, as the old-schoolers put it) for our news release or media advisories. It’s critical that we learn customer relations skills, that we understand the key messages (dare I say “unique selling proposition”?) of our institutions and our strategic plans and connect our work to those, and that we learn how to engage people in the new media. That includes reporters who use the new media as part of their daily routines (like you) as well as “citizen journalists,” our students posting on YouTube and Facebook, etc.
BUT — media relations will remain an important component of the job. As I’ve told the folks with marketing backgrounds many times, it only takes one big news story to render all of our marketing efforts fruitless.
We’re in an amazing time of transition as human beings, on many levels. The way the enriched media is changing our roles in higher education is amazing, and some of us haven’t quite figured out that a new day has dawned.
Every media relations specialist in every institution of higher education should read a couple of books to get up to speed. For starters, I would suggest The Cluetrain Manifesto (now free online), Small Pieces Loosely Joined and Naked Conversations.
OK, that’s the longest I’ve posted in a long time. Sorry to be so long winded. I could go on for another 500 words. I hope there are no word count restrictions here. :)
Wow… thanks for all your comments type de technologie, Robert, Robin, Rob (is there a pattern here? just kidding), Dan and Andy.
I didn’t imagine I would get so many thoughtful answers. Maybe, I should start to use the blog to collect the material necessary for my columns. Maybe, I’ll get more replies from potential sources if the whole process is transparent ;-)
Anyway, just wanted to add a few points:
In 2 cases, the PR folks actually got back to me after the follow up emails I sent AND agreed to reply to my 3 very short questions. But, that’s was it.
In 2 cases (one the same and the other different), I got introduced to the PR folks by other contacts of mine. So, that’s not as if I wasn’t for real.
Obvisouly, I did some research before contacting these institutions and their Web media section was quite interesting (actually, I wasn’t going for Web 2.0 features – just plain Web was on my agenda).
At the end of the day, I’m done with my research. Fortunately, 2 other higher ed sources got back to me within my deadlines. And, I don’t actually have to talk to people to find best practices — available on the Web.
I just can’t understand why anybody would skip the opportunity to talk about the good things they implemented — but maybe that’s just me ;-)
POSSIBLE REASONS WHY:
Media relations professionals in higher education typically are focused on their core work, gaining attention to the ideas and work of their faculty members and their institution’s leadership. A query from a perhaps unknown blogger for their own views on a topic or little or no interest to them could easily have gone into “trash.” Of course a thanks but no thanks reply would have been highly appropriate.
Let’s look at strategies.
STRATEGY SUGGESTIONS:
1 – Send an email of introduction to one or two dozen media relations individuals asking if they would be interested in participating in an interview on the topic. You likely would have obtained a number of interested sources who in fact had ideas to share. “Cold emailing” three people seems to be a very limited approach.
2 – Include people in different parts of the country, or even US and Canada. I have observed differences in technology savvy in part depending on regions of the county.
3 – Take steps needed to be able to post to the CASE Communication-L. The list is used to seeing queries from a small number of writers and editors seeking sources for articles. You gain credibility within the higher ed PR and communication community that way.
Every reporter knows they need to develop their beat and build relationships with their sources. I have a hunch that you moved into a new beat area [media relations professionals] and jumped right in without taking time to cultivate the people you hoped would be sources for you.
I would hope that these are just rare cases (i.e. a broader survey might reveal that most PR folks in higher ed do get right back to you). Being rude or unresponsive is never good behavior.
But, I can also say, that increasingly, many of us focus so much on creating our own internal content (i.e. our own websites, blogs, stories, etc.) that jumping at the “media” isn’t as critical as it used to be.
All of us are publishers these days — and often we are aiming at very narrow audiences. NYT is great, of course! Always, great. But every time something has been picked up, I doubt it was because of my awesome efforts to convince some journalist. They simply liked the press release, etc. We often scratch our heads here and say, huh, why the heck did they pick that up when I had a great piece on x a few weeks back that received absolute silence?
Meaning, you can often generate more PR via a web story that you produced, unmediated, than you can by trying to place it in a major publication (the success rate is quite low).
Or, as many have said, limited time (do I please the dean by finishing his speech or do I spend time talking to the media about something that might not make much of a difference — meaning, I’ve been quoted in several pubs. concerning my job, but that doesn’t really do much for development, research, our overall vision, or agenda).
That I get quoted isn’t all that valuable … I am a mid-wife … not the star of the show. My goal is to get my dean, faculty, students, etc. in the news (not myself).
Similarly, I wish I had the sort of time those people do who enter every last publication, document, website competition.
Perhaps I am just a cynic, but I have to invest my time in what I think will give us the best ROI.