PR


it nigh on impossible to find a number so I can follow up with a phone call, let alone a name. As a freelance, there’s only so much time I can spend


chasing a story before it starts costing me because I’m not spending time on another article. This means I’ve had to spike a lot of good ideas for want of background information and interviewees – and had fewer commissions than I’d like, too.


I am not the only one who’s encountered the problem.


Fellow journalists have had similar experiences. Kelly Rose Bradford is a freelance journalist who has also held staff roles on magazines and digital platforms. “I think it has become far more difficult to get hold of press officers since people began working from home,” she says. “I find that it often takes several emails to elicit any sort of


reply, which I put down to people not being able to just call over to a colleague to get an answer for something they are not sure of themselves, so things they can’t immediately deal with end up getting overlooked.” She adds: “I also note there is a new-found reluctance to


put phone numbers or direct email addresses on company websites so you are often doing battle with a ‘press@’ email address with no clue where it is landing.” Frustratingly, it is not only messages to generic press


accounts that might as well have gone into a black hole. Even when I have a name and, worse, sometimes when I actually know the person, multiple emails get no reply. By which time, I admit, I sometimes don’t call as I don’t


want to know why they haven’t replied. (Have I offended them? Are they dead?!) Whatever the reason, it seems that even though businesses and organisations are clearly seeking publicity, they don’t understand that they need to be contactable and respond to journalist enquiries – even if only to say they can’t help.


Stranded motorists, jaded hacks However, some larger, longer-established organisations not only understand but seem to follow ‘old school’ press office standards. I can confirm that the AA doesn’t only rescue stranded motorists -– it also restores the faith of jaded hacks. I asked its head of roads policy, Jack


Cousens (who is based in the press office), if journalist enquiries are still considered valuable in the social media age. “Yes! Absolutely,” he says. “We put


a very high value on press articles and, blowing our own trumpet a little, we have a good reputation for being quick at replying because we know journalists are pressured and on deadline. “Also, if we help, then journalists are more likely to carry what we’ve said and come back for further comment.” I have sometimes wondered if my press office requests get ignored because I’m only at pitch stage rather than already having a commission. Cousens raises a similar scenario, but with a positive outcome.


theJournalist | 11 “


“The other thing we do – and I don’t know if others do it – is


I suppose answering a journalist is a lower priority than populating a minute-by- minute social media feed


we respond to [journalism] student enquiries, partly because it’s good manners to respond if someone’s bothered to think of us, but also because you never know where that person will end up – maybe they’ll be a big transport correspondent.” As Cousens talks me through how the AA press office


operates, it sounds reassuringly like the old days. Public affairs and public relations leads are supported by press officers. The generic press office email account is looked after by the team as a whole, with enquiries passed on to the person best placed to answer them. Calls to the press office phone are managed the same way. It’s comforting to find at least one big organisation


maintaining high standards in its press office. Perhaps it is no surprise to discover its social media team is a separate operation. The two teams collaborate when appropriate but, for Cousens, social media is ‘a tool’ and a source of information rather than a target publication. I cannot help thinking that the way social media has been promoted in importance far beyond what it warrants is behind the difficulties many journalists have when trying to reach a press office. If organisations and businesses believe likes and shares are more important than being written about by journalists, then it’s no wonder the press office is, if not dead, then on its last legs. That’s bad news for journalists in more ways than one. It


makes producing news and features more difficult if we can’t get support from the organisations and businesses we’re writing about, but it’s also a journalism job – the role of press officer – that’s disappearing.


PETER DAZELEY


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