PR and media spread the good news

There was a time when some journalists considered PR publicists a nuisance. These journalists used to complain: "PR practitioners don’t know how to write a news story, much less explain what they are writing about. They call you to confirm if you have received their news release. And they have the impudence to ask when the news release will come out."

Certainly, desk editors did not, and do not, enjoy working with young PR upstarts who have no in-depth background information on the topic they are writing about and who don’t know the basics of news writing. It’s no wonder journalists were quite furious when they were flooded with a tsunami of press releases that had no news value.

Today, the relationship between PR practitioners and the media has changed. It has become one of cooperation and interdependence rather than common distrust. More and more editors realize they need professional PR men to assist in delivering good news to the public.

Even the biggest-circulated publications and highly-rated broadcast networks, with their large staff, cannot cover all the bases all the time. The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Asian Wall Street Journal, GMA 7, ABS-CBN and other "information factories" welcome editorial contributions from publicists.

Majority of reporters prefer to write about controversial subjects and only a few write about the good news: the free Pinoy Health Pass medicine insurance which GlaxoSmithKline and PhilHealth are giving away to indigents; the world-class Filipino car racers who are making us proud in the Asian Formula 3; the upcoming mother-daughter refilling station of Shell Malampaya to bring cleaner, cheaper Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to vehicle owners, and the appointment of the first Filipino country manager of DHL Worldwide Express.

These positive stories, more often than not, are written and filed by writers of PR agencies who become in effect the extension of the editorial staff of newspapers and broadcast stations.

Of course, editors continue to receive a deluge of press releases which are clear attempts to get free ads that should have been bought and paid for. But this is getting fewer and far between.

The fact is, lifestyle editors appreciate receiving feature stories especially those with attractive photos that tell a story. Some of the stories come in the form of fashion shows, bar hopping, shopping guides and the like.

Stories filed by professional PR writers have a good chance of getting published because they are written in accordance with the style and editorial policy of the newspaper. Otherwise, stories by PR newcomers may be thrown into the wastebasket, just as the editor sometimes does to his regular reporters’ works.

There is an evaluation test which PR writers usually follow before they submit a press release:

Is the news of interest to at least 10 percent of the publication’s readers? (If the news item is about past events, that is not news. That is history.) Does it include names of people? (Better still, names of well-known people. Readers like to read what prominent people are doing.)

Does the story have a local, human interest angle? (Human interest appeals to the emotions, the part of the consciousness that involves sensibility, such as love, fear, sadness and laughter.) Is the story a press release or an ad? (Critically scrutinize the news item and see whether you should send it to the editor or to the ad department.)

PR agency writers are normally trained to write hard news that conform with the inverted pyramid. Their lead paragraphs follow the five Ws: Who did What? When? Where? Why? And How? They know that the first two or three paragraphs must tell the principal facts, or the meat of he story, so that even though the editor cuts the story due to limited space, it will still tell the readers what happened essentially.

Even before they begin their jobs, editors have to go through a pile of press releases in addition to the news items filed by their reporters. If they can run only eight stories in their page, you can imagine their difficulty in sorting out the mountain of stories on their desk and quickly deciding which of the stories should be published. That’s the situation the editors face everyday.

It should come as a relief, therefore, that professional PR practitioners contribute well-written stories to newspapers and magazines, as well as arrange special features and interesting radio and TV guestings.

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The author is president of Agatep Associates Inc., the only PR agency that has won three Grand Anvil Awards. He is a two-time president of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) and one of only eight APR’s (accredited PR professionals) in the country. He is a former professor of journalism at the University of Sto. Tomas.

For comments, e-mail to charlie.agatep@agatep.com.