PR – Objective or Subjective?

I got quite a shock recently researching PR blogs. There were quite a few, which is understandable, but what I didn’t expect was just how poor they were. If you’re going to blog there is surely an obligation to at least be interesting and entertaining, isn’t there? I’ve had a more intellectual stimulation watching pigeons peck bread on my lawn than I gained from some of the sites I visited.

One thread that did catch my eye was the old chestnut about subjectivity and objectivity. Do you write what a client wants to hear, or what will make a good story in the eyes and ears of the likely recipient? A lot of course depends on the announcement to be made. Haven’t we all gritted our teeth and waved through stories we know simply are not up to the mark? Equally, haven’t we also argued the case for a different twist or slant which we feel might be more news worthy only to be met by a wall of silence and an eventual agreement that we’ll do what’s required?

More troubling is the story you are convinced won’t fly which does, or the alternative, the one you are convinced will fly which doesn’t. The longer I am in this business the more I am personally convinced that nobody really knows the difference. Because, subjective or objective, pr is an art not a science; you can do what you like, spin how you like, write brilliant words, or write trite little sentences, in the end it’s the story which is all, and some have that magic ingredient but most don’t, however hard you try.

This isn’t to say we shouldn’t argue our corner and avoid blatant puffery, but it does argue that we shouldn’t get too heated about what we as ‘communications professionals’ put forward as ‘sound advice’. What catches the eye of one journalist won’t interest another (one of my own laws is that a journalist’s enthusiasm for a story will always be the direct inverse of the client’s).

And that’s the trouble: whose subjectivity is it anyway? If you can answer that I’d love to hear from you. The fact is nobody can. And that, dear reader, is just what makes working in this business a lot more interesting than watching pigeons at work on a mound of bread.

Nigel Lawrence