Charity Public Relations Officers don’t know some of the most basic rules for engagement with the media.
That’s according to Mark Flannagan, Director of Policy and Communications at the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Flannagan was presenting, with Ian MacQuillin, an Account Director at TurnerPR, at a recent CharityComms seminar. He argued that sector professionals have lost core skills. Together, the duo listed some of the most common crimes committed by today’s charity PROs.
Crimes included: not reading the newspapers daily, not understanding how news agencies work, not getting to grips with the research behind the stories in their own press releases, and disregarding publications like the Daily Mail. Indeed, according to Flannagan, charity PRs that disregard the Daily Mail are missing a trick because it’s “one of the best places to get a social concern story in.”
They are also failing to form proper relationships with journalists, the pair argued. Flannagan claimed that Public Relations Officers should develop relationships which allow them to have normal, natural conversations with journalists without having to give them the ‘hard sell.’ Charities should make an effort to get to know correspondents in their area, he argued. “How many of you [the audience] have a journalist as a friend? And how many of you know when your journalist’s, and not their newspaper’s, deadlines are?” asked Flannagan.
Ex journalist turned PR professional, Ian MacQuillin, argued that journalists are driven by exclusives, an easy life and by news values. “Journalists want to do a good job, and they are driven by job satisfaction just like you and me,” he said. “You’ve got to understand their medium – to work out their news values, to understand how they’re operating. Then you can be one step ahead of them.”
One audience member wanted to know what Flannagan looks for when recruiting a PR officer, he replied: “We should be asking questions, in interviews, like: ‘When was the last time you were in a newsroom? When did you last read a newspaper? Do you know any journalists?’ I look for an ability to develop excellent relationships with journalists. ”
Another member of the audience wanted to know how to get into a newsroom. MacQuillin recommend becoming friendly with a journalist, then asking to visit their newsroom. Flannagan suggested taking one of the BBC’s Six O'Clock News tours.
“Relax, it’s not that hard. This is the best job ever,” concluded Flannagan. “I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard people in the sector say how hard this job is – but I think that in the sector we sometimes sweat it too much.”
If you’d like to see their presentation please click here