Last year has been a susprisingly bad year when it comes to… well, many things. The ripple effects from the pandemic reached the startup world, right after the peak of its artificial high. Like with big tech, layoffs seem to be abundant.
It’s a critical moment for many working in PR. Sales and other departments are the priority when it comes to staff budget, not PR. And, in terms of external agencies, PR agencies are often axed before performance marketing, for instance.
PR professionals and agencies that want to make the cut, and avoid getting cut, have to absolutely get their game on point and prove they are an asset for their company or client. We like to be joke-y and inject humour into these pet peeves blog posts, but it’s also an opportunity to discover the preferences of journalists and examples of where PRs have gone wrong.
The more you can delight journalists and add value for them, the more you will add value for your company. And the more you annoy them, the more you will help us with content for this blog series.
October
“Take a hint” dude. Six followup emails without getting a response is just asking for trouble (a.k.a. a PR pet peeve tweet).
You nail the first step, but you also need to make sure you plan the second, third and other steps. Prepare to go through with the opportunity in its entirety (or prepare to fail).
If you pitch a newsletter editor… make sure you are subscribed to that newsletter to check it. I mean, it’s pretty simple.
When you want to make it seem as if you have done your homework, but it’s such an incredibly bad effort that it just destroys your reputation with a contact.
Here is the perfect storm of what Haje (and most tech journalists) don’t care about. Now you can go and do the complete opposite.
Mind your grammar, said every journalist ever. Especially when it comes to the most important sentence in your pitch. P.S. we’d love to know what the last word was here.
This is a massive issue in our industry, and we don’t even feel like joking about this one. We are supposed to strengthen relations with the media, and somehow many end up turning into spammy email marketing machines. Don’t be one of those.
Cate breaks it down for us: an interview is a conversation. Conversations will inevitably include spontaneous questions based on the progress of the conversation. Startup founders need to be OK with that.
Ryan Browne hit the tech PR absurdity jackpot with this one. There are countless sayings for this: walk the talk, practice what you preach, etc… when you do the complete opposite with a sensitive issue and hand it to a journalist on a silver platter, then maybe you should abandon all hope. We’re crying and laughing simultaneously as we type this.
Asking for links is becoming a true source of spam for journalists who are just trying to do their jobs. Imagine someone constantly bugging you with something that is not important for your job role. Rob and others might block you, so think twice like Phil Collins!
Lots of clown emojis for another PR that didn’t want to let the journalist have a real conversation. It might have been an issue on the client’s side, but PRs need to educate their clients & bosses.
Read OOO auto-replies and check when the contacts are back. Then, remind yourself on your calendar, diary or somewhere of that contact returning to work. There, solved it for you!
Newsflash, Sherlock! Not all journalists cover funding announcements!
November
Guys, we’re supposed to connect our clients/bosses with the media, not replace them! The result is journalists increasingly becoming more proactive about bypassing or ignoring PRs, like Natasha Mascarenhas outlines here. Be an asset for the journalist, by being helpful in terms of what the journalist wants.
Do you use Google Docs or Word collaboratively? If so, make sure what you share with the media does not have any tracked changes or viewable history of changes. Ideally make a clean copy with view-only rights.
The “questions in advance” issue seems to have been in vogue in Q4 2022. As if PRs were wishing media relations would turn into some questionnaire-filling exercise. While written interview types of media opportunities exist, this is by far not the norm. So don’t expect it!
If you want Zoe Kleinman to drink, send her a bad pitch (was that a PR pitch?).
Some journalists will be looking at sustainability more closely when it comes to covering startups. So do look out for that, especially those covering startups.
Is this a PR-specific pet peeve or just common sense? We must be at a historical low if this has to be tweeted. Berber Jin, we’re trying hard with these blog posts!
Shortcuts make long delays. Getting on TechCrunch is delayed permanently for this PR.
No one is safe from misspelled names, but journalists are more likely to get frustrated. Why? Because they don’t owe you anything, so you might as well take two seconds to spell their name right!
Another one.
Jim Pavia had a pretty bad experience with an exclusive that wasn’t an exclusive. As a result, a pet peeve condemning PR firms in general. How can the PR industry solve this PR problem? Pretty easy. If you are a PR and you are pitching an exclusive, make sure those working in your team are not simultaneously pitching exclusives. Or don’t offer it as such.
Pet peeve plus meme. Something went very wrong. So wrong, the PR actually knew they were doing the wrong thing. If it’s not what the journalist wants, don’t force it!
We’re humble, and know when to learn a lesson. But we’re not masochists. We recognise the PR industry has a lot of flaws, but we categorically oppose such generalisations. Having said that (rant over), there’s a reason for these outbursts, and it’s that dodgy PR firms are disguising email marketing as PR. Don’t do email marketing disguised as PR!
December
Not sure if a prank or a bizarre pitch. Maybe both?
Iris loves PRs (thank you) and therefore gives us a useful tip: follow up less than you would, as journalists do read emails and will respond if interested.
Responding to Iris with her own take, Johanna Read highlights the eternal PR-journalist conundrum. How to balance doing your job with reading emails from PRs. Why journalists don’t reply to every email. Why for some, even one followup is too much.
Dan Taylor shows us what most journalists appreciate – knowing things in advance. If you send something that is unfolding today, it has to be extremely interesting. Journalists love to get to the news, before they happen, so they can write about it, publish and spread it at the right exact moment.
Hayley from The Sun mentions the magic term that should be every PR’s God: newsworthiness.
If you take the first step, make sure you are prepared to go all the way.
Low effort usually lead to low (or no) reward (or worse).
What she says! Or, in other words, PRs, please equip your clients and founders to have a conversation with a journalist, and prepare them for a range of questions that journalists might have.
Want to learn even more? Check out some of our previous journalist pet peeves blog posts:
Journalist pet peeves on Twitter: Q3 2022
Journalist pet peeves on Twitter: Q2 2022
Journalist pet peeves on Twitter: Q1 2022
Journalist pet peeves on Twitter: Q2 2021
Journalist pet peeves on Twitter: March 2021
Journalist pet peeves on Twitter: February 2021
Journalist pet peeves on Twitter: January 2021
