Of hacks and flacks…

Sanya Weathers has tossed down a bit of a rant on her Eating Bees blog, regarding the relationship between media and public relations (albeit from her role as a Community Manager for MMORPGs which is much the same thing). As someone who has worked as a journalist and a PR manager (but mostly journalist) for over a decade, including covering the video game market, I found her comments interesting because I can relate to them firsthand from either side of the fence. But do I agree with her? On the whole, no, not really.

Let’s start with one of her comments:

There are only two ways for a reporter to get on my shit list when I’m wearing my CM hat – one, lie. Two, drink my booze and wear my t-shirt without giving me so much as a paragraph on your blog.

Ouch. While I can see where Sanya is heading with that second thought, I could never apply it like a blanket to all journalists. Yes, there are some inverate liggers out there in journalism who go to events just to drink booze and catch up with their mates. They usually have no interest in the product being marketed. Indeed, one wonders how such people ended up journalists in the first place. And I’m not just talking guys and gals with blogs – I mean serious journalists. As such, it’s VERY easy to get a bit cranky with their attitude and consider them for your “shit list”, or however else one describes that area of their Excel spreadsheet of contacts where names are relegated for minimal – or no – contact. But, I must add, it really goes on a case by case basis, too.

You see, as a journalist, I would happily attend an event, drink the booze and/or eat a meal… and then evaluate what was on offer. Sometimes what was on offer was so pathetic, I couldn’t conceive writing about it. But how do you know before you get there? We used to joke in the editor’s pit, actually, that the more secretive an invitation was, leading up to an event, the less newsworthy an event was probably going to turn out when we arrived. And we were usually right! It is a journalist’s right to evaluate what’s on offer and, whether they’ve had a few beers, a three course meal, or even been flown business-class to the far side of the world, have every right not to write a story. That’s just the way it is. What does this mean for PR people?

I believe it’s basically a challenge to make events (especially those that include hospitality or travel and are basically taking someone’s writing time and, in some cases, their personal after-hours time), to be as newsworthy as possible. Because, unless you’re just inviting those inveterate liggers, chances are that a newsworthy event will be covered. Magazines and websites like news. Give them news and, chances are, they will write it up – whether you fed them, whether you flew them around the world… or whether you just sent them a press release by email. It’s all about the news!

Next, Sanya offers:

For better or for worse, few studios recognize the power of the small website, the fansite, the struggling comic, or the ranter. If I had to cash in chips to get you invited to the press event, you need to do more than a half-assed paragraph underneath your machima porn expose. I’m in the trenches arguing that you have more value than PC Gamer, so don’t make me look like a schmuck by “forgetting” to post anything substantial.

Wow. My only response to that is to turn this back on Sanya. If a writer/blogger is so niche, why bother with them in the first place if it’s going to be a hard sell to your bosses to allow them to attend an event? Sure, there’s that warm fuzzy feeling you can sometimes get as a PR person when you can put a small-fry writer into a room with “the big boys” and see the joy on their face as they get to “play journalist” for the day and live the dream. That’s nice and, you know, I understand how it can also foster some nice relations among people who might read that person’s blog or listen to their podcast, or whatever, but I would seriously draw the line at going overboard trying to fight for someone’s right to party if they’re niche and not likely to return much copy.

Of course there are sometimes big events where it doesn’t really matter if you sneak a dozen people – and their mates – in through the back door… but Sanya is clearly indicating more formal times, perhaps with limited seats, where she might have to argue for their presence. In such situations, with my PR hat on, I’d simply ask myself, “Is this a hill worth dying for?” If not… if it’s some blog that has 8 readers via Feedburner, or something… I just wouldn’t go to the trouble in the first place. The easiest way to not let someone make you look like a monkey is to not give them the ability to do so in the first place. Simple, eh? Sanya’s next point, meanwhile, I actually agree with:

DON’T REPRINT THE HANDOUT. Some professionals may disagree with me here, and their logic is sound enough. If twenty fansites just reprint the handout, well, that’s a pretty sweet job of saturating everyone with our talking points, right? If everyone says it, the intended playerbase will believe it.

All you bloggers and writers, listen to me. A successful blog, or site, will always add value to its copy. People need a REASON to be coming back to your site. Reprinting a press release isn’t adding value. None, nada, zippo. People can access the same copy in 101 other places, so why not consider tossing up a couple of pars of original thought instead? It doesn’t hurt and, you know, if the answer is, “Because I don’t have time…” or some variation of that, consider whether you should be trying to inform and entertain people via a blog, anyway. If you don’t have 15 minutes to throw down a few words, you’re not taking your site too seriously in the first place. No excuses!

Sanya retreads an earlier theme towards the end:

Marketing’s budget paid for everything from your pleather dice bag to the steak you had for dinner. The purpose of the event was therefore to market a product. If your precious ethics prevent you from giving the studio publicity as a result of the event, you had no business eating the steak.

I can go two ways here. One one hand, if a writer genuinely believes they cannot write on a product if they’ve been “wined and dined”, then I agree they shouldn’t be going to events. The only problem with that is, I’ve never met such a writer. Sure, the old “ethics” chestnut will get trotted out when they attend an event and simply don’t want to write anything at all (truth be told, I might have even done it myself, just to get a PR off my back at times), but I’ve never seen a journalist, in over a decade of being in the game, who was able to apply that at all times, and to all situations. Thus, on the other hand, I think Sanya’s talking about a very rare beast indeed: if not impossible to find in the wild. I think the more likely scenario, in most cases, is that a journalist will attend and event and, if you’re newsworthy enough – and not just marketing fluff – will write something up, whether s/he had booze and gifts shower down, or whether they drank a quick glass of water during the Q&A. I keep repeating the following theme because it’s true: if the story’s good, it will get covered one way or another. Guaranteed!

To come back to another theme I mentioned earlier, before I sign off on this piece, it’s hard to throw a blanket over an industry when there are so many variables. Especially in this day and age where some blogs and podcasts are gaining significant followings, yet the people producing them don’t feel in any way indebted to companies or their PR people, or indeed even feel like they are a capital-j Journalist in the first place, the industry really needs to be taken on a careful, case by case basis by PR people.