Forbes.com posted an interesting article the other day titled, “How NOT to do public relations: An interview with Peter Shankman.” Peter is a former PR practitioner and founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO), an online service connecting journalists with PR people.

In the Q&A, Peter and contributor Jennifer Leggio discuss the relationship between PR practitioners and the media. Notes Peter, “There will always be problems between PR people and journalists, no matter how much we try and repair the rift. Look, fundamentally, the two are simply designed to oppose. On one hand, you have journalists, who have the job of finding actual news – a good story, a trend, something interesting. That’s not easy to do, and they’re being asked every day to do more with less. On the flip side, you have PR people, who are beholden to the request of the clients – A very simple, yet incredibly complex request: ‘Get us press.’”

Managing this balance is exactly what’s so great about being in PR, and at Communiqué PR we pride ourselves on our relationships with both our clients and journalists.

Here’s what we focus on in order to maintain that balance:

• The role of PR is to provide strategic counsel to our clients – first and foremost, our responsibility is to them – even though they might not always want to hear what we have to say. This counsel is based on research and prior experience, and we’re the experts – it’s our job.
• We are also responsible to the journalists whom we are pitching on behalf of our clients.  It is imperative that we do our homework to understand their coverage areas so that when we send them a compelling pitch it’s about something they write about.
• As an independent third party, it is essential for us to offer objectivity and vision. Sometimes our clients are too close to an issue to understand why a strategy will be unsuccessful.
• Both the PR practitioner’s and the client’s credibility are at stake if the pitch isn’t newsworthy. After all, it will be much harder to get the journalist’s attention next time.
• Remember, PR is an ongoing process that requires you to continually evaluate your strategy to address changing needs/environments.  It’s okay to revisit goals and make a mid-course correction in order to allow for the best possible outcome.

 Remember the old saying; it’s a marathon not a sprint. This is true in PR as well, as we work to create new relationships and solidifying existing ones.