I enjoy my job.
Over the years, one of the best parts has been meeting a myriad of talented, thoughtful, professional journalists. The great ones are passionate people with an eye for detail and the ability to learn new things quickly.
That said, in a general sense, there’s a few things I wish the fourth estate would stop doing. Not all of journalists do these things – so let’s begin by saying that I am GENERALIZING here and painting an entire profession with the same brush.
Here are 3 things I wish journalists would stop doing:
- Getting names wrong. I HATE when I set up a story for a journalist, feed it to them on a silver platter and they spell my client’s name wrong, or worse, omit it all together. I have a job to do too…and it involves you getting the name right, dear fourth estater.
- Treating PR people like shit. Sometimes I think they teach classes on this in journalism school. I understand there’s a lot of morons in my business, but acrimony is a not a good default setting for work relationships. There’s a cottage industry (it might even be described as a “burgeoning” one) wherein journalists show up at conferences and bash PR people for all manner of reasons. This in particular needs to die.
- Playing high and mighty games. Journalism, in 2010, is not God’s work. I know all about the need for a free press in a democracy and all of that. However, get over yourselves…it is a business (a bad one actually). Let’s both agree that if and when someone is spending zillions on ads at your outlet they might just have a better chance of getting editorial coverage (maybe just, you know)
What do you think?
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