Not everyone is cut out to be in PR

ONCE upon a time, I worked in public relations.

And while I was doing mostly editorial work, helping create publicity campaigns for a prestigious PR firm’s high-profile clients and writing press releases, I still had to help out and “entertain” our targeted media practitioners quite regularly.

Sure, it’s easy to just sit around and talk shop with the media during functions, but the role of a PR practitioner takes a different turn especially when a client is in a crisis.

I remember one time there was a big issue involving a telecommunications company our PR firm was handling, and we had to deal with an impatient lot of reporters who needed answers to their probing questions. And I don’t know why I ended up answering the inquiries of one especially irate reporter, most probably because the actual spokesman—one of my bosses—was still in heavy discussions with the CEO of the company on how to handle the crisis.

That incident took a lot out of me. As a PR practitioner/communicator, one needs to have a lot of patience in dealing with nagging journalists who you know need complete facts for their stories before their deadline. I understood their predicament perfectly because I had been in their shoes before.

To explain to a bitchy reporter what our client was up to required a delicate balancing act. First, I had to try my hardest in my sweetest voice to request her to push back her deadline some more, and explained how I understood the predicament she was in. Second, even if the problem was our client, I couldn’t throw the company’s CEO under the bus and rat out his issues to the media. So that took another round of excuses, virtually lying through my teeth just to buy more time for our client.

That situation really made me uncomfortable. And while it took me a few more months and a few more publicity campaigns later for me to quit my job in that PR firm, that particular crisis with that telco already made it very clear in my head that I was in the wrong job. First of all, I have no patience in babysitting brats. And second, I hate to lie. That’s not to say that all PR practitioners are liars. But sometimes they do need to bend the truth a little to suit their client’s objectives. (It’s a lot like advertising; you say you have the best laundry detergent in the world even if there are other more effective ones out there.)

Being a PR practitioner is a special calling. You need to have a special set of skills to be in the profession. It helps to be friendly and articulate, have a good head on your shoulders to be able to absorb all the necessary information your client needs to put out his company or his product—and, most of all, tons of patience.

Of course, being articulate isn’t enough. To be able to effectively communicate a client’s thoughts, ideas and products, a PR practitioner needs to invest a lot of time and energy in forming the necessary relationships with media first. Networking is a big part of the job. It takes years to form a personal relationship with journalists; we are a naturally suspicious lot who can see beyond the free lunches or the swags handed out at press events.

(And then there are one too many PR practitioners/publicists out there who only remember to call when they need a favor. A media colleague dubs such PR practitioners as “Nokia”. Like the phone brand, these PR practitioners are “user-friendly”—they call you when they need to use you. And since the colleague’s promotion, many of these Nokias have suddenly come out of the woodwork paying her one too many visits.)

So going back, I may have lunch with a PR practitioner, but that doesn’t mean we’re friends and I’m going to write glowingly about his client the next minute. If my questions are answered convincingly and I am able to get the necessary info/data/statistics I need from the PR’s client, only then will I write a story. But even then, it’s still 50-50 that the piece will be in the client’s favor. It all depends on whether I think the story is newsworthy in the positive way President Aquino, for instance, likes all the news about his administration to be.

And even when we in media don’t see things the way a PR’s clients would like, there should be no hard feelings. A PR practitioner cannot take things too personally, and should be able to take a rejection of his client’s point of view or product as a challenge on his part to work harder at his job. Like they say, trabaho lang ’to, walang personalan. (I remember one particular female PR practitioner who would resort to banning journalists from press conferences just because she didn’t like the negative pieces those journalists wrote about her client.)

So I applaud those people who’ve managed to make a go of it in the PR profession, even more so if he used to be a journalist and had somehow successfully been able to shift his frame of mind from that one seeking out the answers, to the one giving them. Truly, I can only count on one hand the very few who are actually excellent at being PRs. (And if you think that it’s you I’m referring to, it’s likely that you’re wrong. Hahaha.)

Seriously, being in the PR/communication business is difficult. The PR practitioner has to please his client by way of increased sales of his products/services. He also has to constantly make sure the media/public is happy with his client’s products/services. These days, most PR practitioners are in the business of creating news about their client even when there is nothing newsworthy to report. And that is what separates the real pros from the rank amateurs who can’t even spell the name of a journalist correctly. These successful PR practitioners will tell you that again, it all goes to the personal relationships they have formed with the media over the years.

Not everyone is cut out for this job. And if all PR practitioner and his client can do is just blame the media for not publishing the client’s projects or efforts at reform, then perhaps it’s time to quit the job.

(My column, Something Like Life, is published every Friday in the Life section of the BusinessMirror. This piece was originally published on April 8, 2011.)

How to make PR work for you

RECEIVED this announcement from Edd Fuentes, president and CEO of FuentesManila. He also chairs IPRA Phils., the local chapter of public relations specialists and publicists, affiliated with the International Public Relations Association.


(For registration details, contact Ms. Sheena Ramos of IPRA/FuentesManila at 893-9355 or Ms. Sonia Tejada at 638-0010. Students will get discounted rates.)

Hmm, maybe we should send this to HP Phils. and Stratworks. Who knows, their people could actually learn a thing or two about professional PR practices. haha.

More on HP Phils. and the Stratworks issue

WE are re-posting a press statement from CyberPress:

April 4, 2010

CyberPress Official Statement

The IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress) is issuing this statement to clear the issues regarding an incident involving our board officer Melvin Calimag and co-founder and former member Red Samar.

On March 1, 2010, Mr. Calimag wrote a story on the resignation of Ms. Bernadette Nacario, HP Philippines country manager for Personal Systems Group (PSG). The company branded the story as false although it did confirm on the following day that Ms. Nacario has indeed resigned. The CyberPress firmly believes that the story is true and correct in its totality.

Calimag, a long-time IT contributor of the InfoTech section of the Manila Bulletin, was told to stop writing for the paper. Samar, on the other hand, was the editor of the same section for 14 years, was stripped of his editorial responsibilities.

We don’t question the management prerogative of Manila Bulletin. However, the drastic turn of events was a direct result of a questionable action done by HP Philippines and its local PR agency, STRATWORKS, which communicated directly with Manila Bulletin Executive Vice President – Advertising Department Emil Yap in clear violation of journalism and PR protocol and ethics.

HP Philippines executive Bernadette Nacario and STRATWORKS PR manager Harold Geronimo said Mr. Yap asked them that a “letter of clarification” be sent to him immediately. But, even if it was Mr. Yap who initiated the communication, it was patently inappropriate for them to directly engage with Mr. Yap without involving the people on the ground – the editor and the reporter.

They sent the letter to Mr. Yap, who also serves as the paper’s executive vice president for advertising, when the matter was clearly editorial in nature. They did not contact the reporter and editor until two weeks later when Mr. Samar was asked by Mr. Yap to reply to the letter.

However, Mr. Calimag, as the writer of the story and the one directly involved in the issue, has not received any communication from either HP or STRATWORKS.

In any dispute regarding factual errors, the accepted proper course of action would have been a letter to the editor or a libel suit. What HP Philippines and STRATWORKS did set a very dangerous precedent in the journalism profession. There was obviously an attempt to influence the newspaper owner, suppress editorial integrity, and press freedom.

It is very unfortunate that this controversy has marred the good relationship of HP Philippines with CyberPress, which has been covering the company ever since its establishment in 1996.

Information Technology Journalists Association of the Philippines
(ITJAP/CyberPress)

How to choose the right PR firm

THE recall of Toyota cars in the US is probably one of the best case studies in PR crisis management today. When a crisis in confidence develops in a company’s product, officials cannot just keep quiet and hope that the problem goes away.

Companies, especially if they produce well-known brands, always need to be on their toes when it comes to public relations (PR). With the onset of new media such as blogging and social networking, the need for effective PR and communication is even more imperative as even one negative review on a product by just one blogger, when passed on from one web site to another, can break a company’s back if customers start believing the review and passing up on the product.

Having the right PR counselor and a correct publicity plan in place can often help a company deal with a crisis or even before trouble occurs, and help a company portray its products and services in a favorable light. (Click Something Like Life for the rest.)

(For my earlier column on the PR-Media relationship, click How to be an annoying publicist, Jan. 25, 2008.)

An assault on editorial independence

CyberPress Official Statement concerning HP Phils. and Stratworks

The IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress) denounces in the strongest terms, what the group sees as an unfair and arbitrary treatment of CyberPress members Melvin Calimag and Red Samar* who were penalized for doing their work -- reporting IT industry news.

Calimag was a long-time IT correspondent of the InfoTech section of the Manila Bulletin and was told to stop writing for the paper. Samar, on the other hand, was the editor of the same section and was stripped of his editorial responsibilities.

On March 1, 2010, Calimag reported the resignation of a country manager of HP Philippines – a development actually confirmed by the company. The report also stated that the executive, Bernadette Nacario, had thrice been bypassed for promotion to the top post, an issue denied by the company.

HP Philippines vehemently branded the report as “wrong,” though it announced Nacario’s resignation later on. We believe, however, that the report, in its totality, is true and correct.

We believe that the proper course of action that HP and/or its PR agency, Stratworks, could have taken was to raise the concern/issue directly with the publication’s section editor responsible for the page and/or the reporter who wrote the story.

Instead, HP Philippines, allegedly upon the persistent counsel of StratWorks, HP’s PR agency, ignored this course of action and chose to address the issue in a dubious manner. In other words, there was a breakdown in basic business ethics and public relations practice.

In the eyes of the CyberPress, the manner of how this “issue” was handled is categorically unacceptable. The IT journalists involved have always kept an open line of communication to both IT company and PR agency but were never approached.

We believe that our members, if they did violate any protocol in the pursuit of their story, due process should have been followed. They deserve to be treated like any professional with respect and fairness.

Information Technology Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress) March 12, 2010

*Samar, co-founder of CyberPress, retired from the organization on March 15, 2010.

Congen tries, but fails, in defending GMA

SORRY to interrupt your weekend, folks, but this story caught my eye today...

(RP Consul General to New York Cecilia Rebong. Photo from The Filipino Express.)

Apparently, New York Consul General Cecilia Rebong says the Le Cirque banquet story of the presidentita and her loyal band of sipsips, is false and cites a news report of the Filipino Reporter, just one of the dozens of newspapers/tabloids catering to Filipino-American communities in the United States.

According to the scanned report posted online here (thank you to whoever posted this upon the prompting of Manolo Quezon), the "contact manager" of Le Cirque, one Mario Wainer, was quoted saying: "President Arroyo had dinner here just like everyone else." (Now, what exactly does that mean? That she and her gang of thieves ate there as lavishly as its other patrons usually do?)

When asked if reports were true that the tab of the presidentita's party reached $20,000, "Wainer became furious and said it was not true." Of course, the reporter could not exact the real amount of said dinner from the manager, w/c begs the question, was he furious because the bill was too high, or too low from what was actually paid? And btw, was he referring to the first or the second dinner, bec. apparently, there were two held at said restaurant?

The story doesn't really say much and in fact, may be considered a dud, by journalism standards. It really isn't a credible defense for the presidentita either. How laughable and amateurish as usual, for GMA's minions to even quote a newspaper to protect her honor!

(Now, what's up with ANC and its North American bureau? Or the U.S. correspondents of the major Philippine broadsheets? Shouldn't they be snooping into this? Why so slow in getting to the bottom of this Le Cirque story?)

* * * *
Btw, if Rebong's name sounds familiar, it's because she was the Filipino diplomat who was exposed in 2005 for leasing a two-bedroom flat in Trump World Tower for $10,000 a month. Of course, NY apartment rentals are not the cheapest in the world. But I'm pretty sure, w/ more patience and a lot more looking, Rebong could've gotten a better deal for us Filipino taxpayers who are paying her salary and that lease. (At the present conversion rate, that is P500,000 a month.) Besides, the bulk of Fil-Ams in NY do not live in Manhattan, but in Queens!

With this kind of decadent lifestyle led by Rebong, I wonder if she was in the dinner party of the presidentita at Le Cirque. Hmmm...question is was it dinner 1 or dinner 2?

Huling hirit

SINCE this issue has already been beaten to death, no thanks to Lorelei Fajardo and Sen. Loren Legarda in today's Philippine Stary, this will be my last say on it:

1. There's nothing wrong with getting a boob job. If the presidentita had a boob job, I don't care. It doesn't make a difference in my life but hopefully, it made a difference in hers. (wink!) Besides if she had this done in 1985-'86, it was before she joined the government, so no taxpayers funds spent there.

2. The public has every right to know about the medical condition of the President. So if the implants were leaking, it put her life at risk. So no, Lorelei and Loren (isa ka pang ja-fake!), this is not a private matter just because the presidentita is a woman and cannot be cloaked under the term "sensitive details."

3. If there was nothing to hide about the presidentita's condition, why did Malacañang's spokespersons trip all over themselves, even denying that she had a breast augmentation done in the past?

4. As long as the recent breast implant replacement and other gynecological procedures were not done on taxpayers' expense, then we're square with it, right? But as journalists, we have a right to ask these things on behalf of the public, who again, have the right to know about the health condition of the presidentita.

Now, here's something from Newsbreak about the boob job: Click here

Da who?!?!

1. DA who is this senatoriable who eagerly accepted P2 million just to switch parties? Oh, that, plus all expenses to be paid by his new presidentiable bet said to be teeming w/ cash, courtesy of his ah, relative. Detractors of the senatoriable of course chide him for being "cheap" for accepting the P2M check, which is seen as a rather minimal amount. E kung kelangan ng tao noh?!

2. Da word is this sleepy vice presidentiable is now eagerly negotiating with the dark horse presidentiable bec. the former's backer in his party has now supposedly chosen to support a relative in the presidential race. Earlier the backer was said to be against his relative bec. of the rather offensive behavior of the relative's spouse. Well, blood is thicker than water, ika nga.


3. The real story behind the reported pullout by T.I.M. from its consortium w/ Smartmatic, the shady company awarded the contract to automate the 2010 polls, is that despite Smartmatic's 40-percent stake in the project, its executives wanted total control of management and the finances, including the signing of checks. Of course, considering that the background of Smartmatic isn't really credible, T.I.M. officials thought they could be liable for any issues and problems that arise from the project, especially if the gang from Barbados just disappears.

Of course, my own conspiracy theory is that this is all is in an elaborate setup to allow Smartmatic to implement its project in joint venture with the Comelec. There's a lot of moolah to be had in that project and someone is going to get mightily rich from allowing it to continue under that kind of partnership agreement. And no, I'm not talking about the gentleman from Malacañang. The person who will benefit from the Comelec-Smartmatic partnership has had questionable and profitable dealings in the past as well. Da who? Guess mo.

4. More on the poll automation project: one of the bidders disqualified from the bidding by Comelec, was said to have not complied w/ the terms of reference of the bid. But da word is, the company took a look at the list of equipment the Comelec wanted and ticked off a few off the list the company felt was not needed in the first place. Entonces, the company was going to save Comelec/we taxpayers a lot more money if the poll body just entertained the company's bid.

5. Da who is this well-known PR guy who has been hired by the embattled Doktora to handle the crisis PR needs of her erstwhile boytoy, who last we heard, now wants to study to be a lawyer? Truly love knows no bounds for the Doktora considering that the PR guy, famous for publishing a book on his former client, has an acceptance fee of not less than P1 million. Acceptance fee palang yan ha?

With the tri-media effort the PR guy is implementing to help portray Doktora's boytoy as a poor confused fella who was abused as a child, the tag price for the campaign has been estimated at no less than P5 million by other PR men in the industry. Ang saya naman!

Don't.Call.Me.Liz!!!

"But like many in my generation who were born in the age of longhand and who wrote letters, used postage stamps, and mailed their letters (now called snail mail) in their youth, we have noticed how e-mail messaging has virtually reduced official business communication to informality." (Click Something Like Life for the rest.)

Cebu Pacific causes airport bedlam

UPDATE (11 am): I got a text message from my friend Miggy who's supposed to fly to Cebu today w/ her hubby for the weekend. But guess what? All Cebu Pacific flights are delayed today because their computers melted down! The domestic terminal is just in total chaos!

I RECEIVED a text message close to 2 a.m. today from my fab ex-editor who's now based in Singapore. James was mightily pissed that he got stuck at the airport on the way home to Manila because Cebu Pacific had apparently overbooked its flight. He and 49 others. What's more, the ground crew seemed to have all disappeared with no promise of even a light snack or anything to make the unlucky passengers feel comfortable while waiting for the next flight.

UPDATE: According to James, they were just given another round-trip voucher and promised seats in tonight's flight to Manila. I guess that means another 50 booked passengers in tonight's flight will get bumped off again. Common airline practice is when a carrier overbooks or for some reason, can't make its scheduled flight, it should book its passengers on the next available flight in another airline. Why didn't Cebu Pac do this? Sobrang pagtitipid naman 'yan Papa Lance! Shouldn't customer service come first?

What's more, Cebu Pac's external PR Gatchie Reyes told James that they were told by Cebu Pac that the 50 bumped off passengers last night were booked in a hotel. O da va, nag-creative writing course pa ang mga lokah?!

This is probably the Nth time I have heard this complaint about Cebu Pac. Last year, galpal Francine also got stuck for more than five hours at the Mactan International Airport after her flight to Manila was super-delayed for undisclosed reasons. She was at airport by 5 pm but flew past 10 pm. Buti nalang pinakain sila ng isang hita ng Jollibee chickenjoy. (We learned later that one plane had engine trouble thus necessitating a scramble for aircraft plying other routes and trying to catch up with scheduled departures elsewhere. But like, this is also the Nth time I've heard this reason.)

So what's up with Cebu Pac really? It boasts of new planes and yet can't keep a simple promise of flying out all their booked passengers on time? I've been covering the business beat for the longest time, especially the travel/aviation beat, I still don't understand why airlines have to overbook their flights. Surely Cebu Pac's reservations people can see in their computers if they've reached the seating limit already for their flights? And at this time of the year, the peak of the summer season, there are just too many travelers going on vacation so it really is imperative for them to make their flights. I would understand overbooking during the lean season when flights are no longer that much in demand.

And these cases of overbooking and delayed departures are happening everywhere Cebu Pac flies. Over in Caticlan, the joke is Cebu Pac is virtually using Asian Spirit as its GSA (general service agent) because they always pass on passengers to the latter (well, so much the better for AS I suppose. This is extra income for them.) But duh, why boast about now flying to the gateway of Boracay when it can't even deliver the minimum service required of a carrier?

Sure Cebu Pac can say that passengers choose the carrier because they want to fly cheap, sans any frills. So magtiis kayo! But I think no matter how cheap or pricey a passenger's ticket is, he is supposed to be accorded some amount of courtesy and respect as a paying consumer. Porke't cheap fare, cheap service din? Ang cheap mo naman Papa Lance! Kya nga ba I don't crush you anymore e.

(Disclosure: The last time I rode a Cebu Pac flight was three years ago. Nothing untoward happened then. It's plane was old, but I left and arrived on time. No incident. Which is why it behooves me that despite its massive refleeting, the airline's service has just deteriorated instead of improved. Or shouldn't there be any correlation at all between the two?)

Black Widow on the prowl

WE'VE been told the our favorite Black Widow is at it again, preying on hapless old gents with a couple of them doddily escorting her in several recent social events. After a generous "inheritance" from her old banker beau who had passed away just last year (and supposedly where she asked for yet more goodies while he lay at his deathbed in a posh hospital south of Manila), she certainly looks as if she has moved on. (Not a few friends of this gentleman banker have remarked that he must have sadly realized, so close to his death, that the woman he loved was indeed, just after his money. Tsk, tsk.)

The latest gents seen leading Black Widow by the arm is a former court judge and a publicist with a column in a major daily. Uh-oh. How's your health, Lolo?

* * *
IT's confirmed. A company which had wanted this wanna-be socialite/event manager/publicist to be its celebrity endorser has held off its plans after the said "celebrity" (and yes we have to put that in quotes) got caught up in a scandal involving his client as well as allegations of substance abuse and drug pushing.

We don't care much for what endorsements he will soon lose. We just want him arrested for his bad hair days and hideous fashion sense.

* * *
OOF! Not only is the wife of this still-in-the-closet gay banker a lush and a fan of blue magic, we hear their son has picked up the nasty snorting habit as well. Can anyone fix this family please? Hoy lola, magpakatotoo ka na kasi!

Inkblot

I PICKED up the Philippine Star for the first time in weeks today (I usually read it online) and glanced through the news rather quickly, then the opinion pages, business, and lifestyle. The banner on the front page was especially gripping...it was about the $100-million health insurance scam allegedly participated in by some local hospitals and doctors. As is my usual habit, I saved the Sunday funnies for the last, with Calvin and Hobbes and Hagar the Horrible leaving me in stitches.

But what really caught my eye was this huge inkblot on the face of one of the paper's columnists, who's been getting a lot of ahem, unsavory press lately. I looked through all the pages and all the columnists' pieces again, and truly, it was only her column photo which had been besmirched by a black blob. As most advertisers know, the Philippine Star takes great care in printing its paper, especially its color pages. So the conspiracy theorist in me is thinking some people within the media organization itself are not liking this columnist very much either. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

* * *
BTW, you might want to check out a really moving profile story of Australian blogger Brian Gorrell in the BusinessMirror.

Basta wala ako d'on!

HOW amusing that some politicians are expending a lot of effort just to make sure the public knows they were not in the Presidentita's bday party last week. Are they just not busy enough that they have enough time to call the media and make their denials or they just really want to distance themselves from her? Obvious ba ang sagot? After the poor showing of administration candidates in the last local elections, they know very well that being associated with GMA is the kiss of death.

Read Zubiri denies presence at Arroyo bday party.

How honest should you be with your friends?*

I’VE always been a picky person when it comes to friends.

Right now, I can count on my 10 fingers just who I consider as real friends…people who I can see spending my twilight years with while we continue gabbing about ugly people we know, having regular pot luck dinners with, traveling to really fabulous places, or still lusting after the young men. (You know who you are bitches!)

A number of these close friendships have been built up through the years. For some people, they meet someone new, they click at once. Well that’s not me. I find that these quick friendships are the ones that peter out soon enough.

Some of my closest friendships have undergone the most trying of circumstances, peppered by shouting matches, with a few silent treatments thrown in, but thankfully, no hair-pulling incidents…yet. I mean what’s a friendship without a bit of high drama right?

Friends are part of one’s extended family and most often, they can be closer to you than even your own siblings or parents. You can tell your friends anything without getting the third degree unlike family members who can be very judgemental. Friends are very accepting of each of our faults and frailties, so even if you do joke about each other’s quirky habits (even behind each other’s backs), they often do so out of love and understanding.

So it can be really depressing when someone you’ve trusted for the longest time, does something to hurt you, knowingly and without remorse. You are stunned and unable to believe that here was this person you’ve probably shared your innermost fears and secrets with, just stabs you in the back. Et tu, Brutus?

In the last few months, I’ve known some people who’ve been virtually kicked from behind by people they considered their friends.

Like I know one lady who was unceremoniously given her walking papers and the next thing she knew, someone who thought she was her friend was already taking over. Incredulous, I asked her over an accidental lunch one day, “But Tita, I thought she was your friend?!” All she could manage was, “I thought so too.”

Despite how disappointed she must have been feeling, kudos to her, she didn’t sound bitter at all. Perhaps all the years she’s spent in her crazy business, she was no longer surprised by the turn of events. Power can just be too attractive (and addicting) that one can be drunk enough with it to sacrifice a friendship.



Pangs and I had a running discussion about this since we’ve heard the gossip about these two ladies in the business who were so-called friends. Pangs is my food and travel buddy whom I’ve known for close to 20 years. We’ve had our differences but I guess we’re already quite used to each other’s weirdness that any misunderstanding between us doesn’t last very long. So yes, we can call each other family.

According to him, he would be happy to have a friend take over his job since he isn’t the type who’d hang on when he’s not wanted. Dispassionately he said his friend doesn’t have any obligation at all to tell him about both of their fates. Geez, was this just a guy thing?

Because to me, more than the generosity, kindness, or esprit de corps friendships bring, what I value above all, is honesty. I told Pangs that if I were being asked to take over his job, I would tell him so. In fact, I would even think twice about replacing him because it just feels weird and treacherous. It just leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth, you know? My conscience would bother me if I don’t say anything. (But then I’m the type whose insides get torn up when I don’t call my mother.)

I mean, there are just certain hard and fast rules in friendship. And foremost of these rules is that you don’t betray those close to you.

Yes, it can be difficult to remain honest in a friendship. Do we tell our friend she looks gawdawful in her new dress? Do we tell her that she looks fat and looks like she’s been locked overnight in the ice cream factory? Do we tell our friend her husband’s sleeping around with another woman? Do we tell her we’re even friends with that woman? Do we tell our friend that she’s losing her job tomorrow?

I heard someone say once that one of the most overrated virtues is honesty. Why unduly hurt someone with the truth? That just doesn’t sit well with me. If I know by keeping my mouth shut my friend will end up looking like a fool, humiliated before the entire world, then I have to speak up. It’s a no brainer. In any relationship, we all have the responsibility to look out for each other. That’s just what being a friend is all about.

* * * *
Since last week, I have been receiving a barrage of text messages and phone calls from numerous public relations practitioners and media relations specialists who read my column on the “Media-PR relationship” (Something Like Life, Jan. 25, 2008).

A few congratulated me for hitting spot on what was wrong in their industry. (Laziness!) One incredulously asked me why I was mad at PRs. A couple of them joked by calling me “Estella.” Then another asked if it was too late at night for her to text me. One thought my column was great for pointing out his colleagues’ foibles, and then proceeded to violate every rule in the PR handbook himself.

One close PR friend, only one of the very, very few allowed to call me on a Sunday even late at night, joshed that he had already suggested that I be invited to their group for a tete-a-tete/lecture, because God knows just how many “idiots” were now polluting their industry.

I didn’t think the column would create such a storm, but I just thought it was about time someone said something. I’ve noticed that over the years, more and more of us in the media have been sharing horror stories about PR practitioners. I remember starting out in the media profession, I had very few, if none at all, complaints about any PRs. (But like one reporter friend recently wrote on my blog, she had encountered a PR guy who demanded that they use his press release as is. Verbatim. Kapal.)

I should point out though that there are still a number of PR practitioners who are really tops in their field. They know how to serve their clients well by coming up with really creative ideas, and treat the media with the utmost respect. It’s just that they are becoming too far and in between. Sad.

* (This should've been column 106 in BusinessMirror. Photo from allposters.com)

How to be an annoying publicist

Something Like Life
Jan. 25, 2008

FOR those of us in the journalism profession, we cannot help but deal with publicists, media-relations officers, public-relations practitioners and the like.

While, theoretically, media practitioners are not supposed to be “friendly” with PR practitioners, in practice that isn’t the case. There is a symbiotic relationship that often exists between these two groups. Both deal in information and its dissemination, and rely on each other to do their jobs.

According to the late publicist and newscaster Tony Zorrilla, whom I had the good fortune of working for in the past, public (or media) relations used to be the purview of lawyers. As their job description often calls for it, lawyers would defend their clients by explaining to the public (or media) the nuances of the issue at hand, and try to portray their clients in a more positive light, especially in times of crisis.

These days, there are publicists who used to be in advertising, former journalists, marketing or salespeople who do double duty dealing with the media, some are event planners, and I know even one who used to be a dentist! Which is not a bad thing actually, as long as they know their job and serve their clients well.

Business has become very competitive that executives are always looking for strategies to make their products and ideas known. Decades ago, they would rely on marketing and advertising. But these have just become too expensive for some companies that they now prefer the more inexpensive but widely placed press releases in media. These press releases may not be as effective as TV ads to sell a product, but to some companies, hiring a publicist will give them more bang for their buck.

Because for as low as P50,000 a month, a company can hire a PR practitioner to write up a press release extolling the virtues of its products/brands with the hope that the press release is picked up in at least five newspapers. For this same amount, a PR practitioner can also put an event together, invite his media contacts to attend, and have a ready audience for his client’s product presentation.

When a company is in crisis, however, the tab goes up. Situations like a bomb blowing up in a shopping mall, for example, or a plane crashing killing all its passengers, warrant an even higher level of PR expertise. Information has to be gathered and collated from every source possible, whittled down to the most essential, and conveyed to the media and public in the most honest and positive manner possible to ensure that the company remains respectable despite the gravity of the disaster. For such a level of expertise, I know publicists who charge at least P500,000 to handle the crisis for just a couple of months.

So as you can see, public relations has actually become a very profitable profession.

It’s no wonder that every Tom, Dick or Hannah who believes he or she can write one grammatically correct press release, and knows at least one editor or reporter in mainstream media, wants to get a piece of the action.

As one who has been in journalism for close to 20 years, give or take the few years I joined the other side, it has become rather annoying to deal with a newer crop of PR practitioners and media-relations officers. (Okay, to be fair, there are a few veteran PR practitioners who can also be irritating as hell. Like there's this one woman who is notorious for texting editors, wherever she is in the world, and giving them updates every five minutes of her activities there. "I'm walking by the River Seine, enjoying the sunshine, blah, blah, blah." Poor woman doesn't realize she's the laughingstock of the industry.)

First of all, these newbies don’t even bother to spell your name right. I have, at one time or another, received invitations that named me Estela, Estelle, Estella but never S-T-E-L-L-A. In the same manner, I worked with a managing editor before whose first name sounded like a woman’s, so all the press releases sent to him were addressed as Miss or Mrs. (He used his mother’s maiden name as well, so perhaps the PRs aren’t wholly to blame.)

Still, in professions that deal with information such as PR and journalism, accuracy is of utmost concern. So I assume it is just plain laziness on the part of these young PR practitioners that they do not bother to check the actual spelling of a journalist’s name. What’s a few minutes in a day to go through the newspaper or run through the staffbox, huh?

Then there are the publicists who feel too familiar with journalists that they have the gall to text you at midnight or call you even on a Sunday! They just casually assume that you’re still awake even at a late hour (because, hey, all media people are drunken louts who sleep at 5 am and wake up at 12 noon!), or are in the office every single day. Again, this is just plain laziness on the part of these publicists. One media-relations girl I didn’t even know from Eve told me that she assumed I’d be in the office on a Sunday. Now if she actually bothered to do her research, this girl would know that I don’t go to the BusinessMirror office at all, except when I’m off to pester Loida. (Who’s Loida? That’s still your job to find out.)

One hotel PR girl, for example, has this habit of texting reporters at 10 pm just to follow up on her invites, or, like her latest stunt, ask for her contacts’ e-mail addresses and contact numbers at midnight. Gads, ang kapal! (This same girl even emailed about five different invites to the same event – teaser ad style – in a span of one week! Ang kulit ba?!)

Then there are those who constantly needle editors or reporters to come out with their press releases or beg you to come to their events. In my long years in the journalism profession, I’ve noticed that the real PR experts will just keep sending out their press releases. They wouldn’t follow up these with you at all. They trust editors enough to find the space for them when available, because they know editors are inundated with tons of releases every day. And if the media can’t come to their event, they will just make sure the editors or reporters are sent whatever press kit was handed out that day.

Those who I consider “small time,” not because of how much they charge but because of their irritating behavior, will keep calling you, even in the middle of the paper’s deadline hours, to ask you if you got their press release—and, believe it or not, when it would come out. And they will also beg 30 times via text messages or phone calls for you to attend their event.

The real PR experts will often take time to build a friendship with the media. As I said, while journalists and publicists are not supposed to have a cozy relationship, this happens a lot of times. Sometimes you just can’t help it. There are really nice, authentic and sincere publicists out there who are worthy to be called “friends.” (Of course, when the journalist leaves her profession, she will know just how many of these so-called friends will actually stick around.)

But some PR practitioners and journalists I know have all but gotten married to one another. And then there are a few publicists who may have been treated poorly by some editors in the past, but were right beside the latter especially during dire medical circumstances. What can you say about a publicist who will hold an editor’s hand while the latter undergoes chemotherapy?

Journalists are often perceived as unrealistically demanding, especially when it comes to dealing with publicists. For sure, there are some media practitioners who are abusive. We’re not saints. But for most of us, I think we actually demand very little of PR practitioners. We don’t even expect them anymore to send us perfectly written press releases, or creatively captioned photo releases, although it would help us immensely if they do. We just ask that you respect us enough to spell our names correctly, not bother us during deadline, stop pestering us by following up on your press releases, not inundate our e-mail inboxes with media advisories that should have been turned into print ads instead.

And when we say “no,” we mean NO.