“Journalists are bastards … and twats!”
That was pretty much the opening line tonight at a talk I went to organised by Sheffield Technology Parks and held at the Millennium Galleries. The talk called “How to get yourself in the papers” had two speakers – Ciaran Brennan of PR agency Bastion, and Jules Stenson who is Assistant Editor of The News of the World.
It was a very interesting talk with Ciaran Brennan giving an irreverant but fascinating insight in to how people in public relations get stories in to the press, what sorts of things journalists want and how to know that your PR is working. Oh, and how journalists are bastards because there aren’t enough hours in the day for them to be helpful and civil.
Jules Stenson gave what started off like a defence of why The News of the World was a great paper inspite what you liberal intellectual types in the audience might think. But it turned in to a fascinating presentation on why the press print what they do and how to get your story printed it needs to be engaging, be human and stand out from the huge amount of dross that he not only receives but also never reads.
The big lesson seemed to be, the press release is dead, long live personal contact. It seems slightly counter-intuitive in this day of electronic and quick communication that the best way of getting stuff in the press is to spend the time building up a relationship with a journalist and speaking to them directly. But for the very reason that electronic communication is easy, that is why it is so less effective.
A fascinating evening that reaffirmed some of the things I’d been told about how press works, but also an interesting insight in to the mindset of those in PR and journalism.
3 responses so far ↓
Peter McGrath // 6 June 2007 at 10:02 am |
Knock it off with the bastard as an insult. There are a lot of us around and not all of us are journalists. Would you use a person’s skin colour or disability as the basis for an insult?
a radical writes // 6 June 2007 at 6:14 pm |
fascinating, I knew the press in the UK was rather useless, strange how PR takes such an important role in our political lives.
Rob F // 7 June 2007 at 1:18 pm |
Peter – you need to take your head out of your a*se really. The Oxford English Dictionary has three definitions of ‘bastard’, and the one you’re referring to is classed in that dictionary as an “archaic” word for describing illegitimacy.
The other two, widely accepted (and not archaic) definitions include using Bastard as a derogatory term now. There’s no point getting upset about archaic language.
Oh, and all journalists are bastards. It’s completely true.