12 Things I Wish the Media Knew

Last month’s post on 44 things the media wish PR pros knew seemed to strike a chord with readers. One astutely underlined the need to flip the script and let bloggers and jounos know the other side.

Here, then, are 12 things I wish the media knew:

1. That PR is not journalism’s bitch
2. That replying to a carefully crafted pitch, even if to say you don’t want to pursue a story, is VERY important and curries a lot of favour
3. PR pros have a job to do, just like journalists – so don’t spit venom and be civilized
4. How to spell clients’/organizations’/bosses’ names correctly
5. That getting the website URL wrong is tantamount to kicking me in the teeth
6. That PR folks have heard a tonne about how much they suck/are a bother/do things that annoy journalists
7. That YOU, dear media member, sometimes NEED me and others like me (and vice versa)
8. That I cannot always track down a spokesperson in 2 minutes just because you have a deadline
9. That PR is not the enemy of journalism
10. That people who were never journalists are sometimes better at PR than those who were
11. That good PR pros understand the visual and non-visual elements of a solid story and can be a real resource in terms of sketching this stuff out
12. That PR, in 2011, is about FAR more than just media relations

Do you have anything to add?