So Bill, tell us what you really think about PR people!

Rather than just link to his caustic take on PR professionals, I thought Chief Executive editor Bill Holstein’s jaded observations (March 28 issue) merited a full re-post…and perhaps a little soul searching on our part. (Thanks to Kathleen Hatfield for the lead and belatedly to Phil Gomes and to Flackette’s Marie Williams for jumping on this early):

Bill Holstein

The six things CEOs don’t understand about PR people

There’s a huge gulf between chief executive officers and their public relations people, whether on staff or at an outside agency. The vast majority of CEOs don’t understand what PR people actually do. As a business journalist, I’m now going to spill the beans.

No. 1: PR people don’t like to talk to the media. When we call them, we usually get the runaround. The worst one is the voice mail message that goes like this: Hi, it’s John Q. Flack. I’m not here right now, but your call is very important to me. For immediate assistance, dial 456 to reach Michele. Only when you dial Michele, she’s not there, either. The reporter leaves a message. No one calls back. That can go on for days.

No. 2: Top PR people hire children, the little Jasons and Jennifers, as we call them, to do most of the talking with reporters. They don’t know anything, which usually irritates the reporter. But if something goes wrong in how a reporter covers your organization and you get angry, the children can be sacrificed. The SVPs and EVPs for Corporate Communications evade all responsibility. It’s called job security.

No. 3: PR people go on so many offsite training sessions because they want to hide from both senior management and the media at the same time. It’s their only escape from the crossfire. They feel safe when they’re together.

No. 4: PR people don’t really understand your business. If they did, they wouldn’t be PR people.

No. 5: PR people waste a lot of time and money. One of their favorite pastimes is calling up reporters and asking them a bunch of questions so that they can “update our database” or “update our mailing list.” We journalists don’t want to be in those databases or on those mailing lists. We’re already so overwhelmed with junk emails that many journalists have dummy email accounts where they direct all communications from PR people. And they never check those accounts.

No. 6: When you tell your PR people to put out a press release, they'’ll do it, of course. But the vast majority of press releases are awful. Editors and journalists don’t want to see them. It may actually hurt you more than help you. Here’s the lead of the worst one we at Chief Executive have received lately:

[MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Feb. 27, 2006] — ASURYSTM and RFID4UTM have recently partnered to offer CompTIA RFID certification training. There is an increasing need for education and certification around RFID technology, but most training companies have put their certification training on-hold until CompTIA’s new RFID certification exam is released this spring. ASURYS and RFID4U are offering this certification training in spite of the exam closure

Got that? I rest my case.

What are your thoughts?

Email him at bholstein@chiefexecutive.net or post your comments here. I will forward them, as appropriate, en masse. (Maybe we can wipe that smile off his face? He certainly has wiped the one off mine.)

PR chief executive public relations William Holstein

This little item appears in today’s New York Daily News:

Snark Attack 

I’m quite sure that Kevin Goldman, vice president of CNBC public relations, outranks an ink-stained gossip columnist. So who can blame him for hanging up on Lowdown - twice - when asked why CNBC superstar Michael Eisner, the deposed CEO of Disney who gets astronomical ratings of almost 100,000 viewers, was a no-show on yesterday’s “Live With Regis and Kelly” - which, after all, gets only a measly 5 million viewers. “I’m not talking to you guys!” Goldman barked. Excellent promotional work, Mr. G!

Those of us who have worked with Mr. Goldman, as a PR executive, author, and reporter for Newsday, Variety and the Wall Street Journal, would be hard-pressed to find anything negative to say about him. He’s smart, charming, chatty, funny and a real “mensch.”

Still, one would have to wonder (admire?) what he was thinking when he totally dissed the reporter for Lloyd Grove’s column in The New York Daily News. (I’m sure many of you have fantasized about telling a reporter to “take a flying…”) But we usually don’t. We PR types tend to be obsessive about preserving these “bread and butter” editorial relationships, with nominal regard to where they fall on the media pecking order.

Of course, if one represents a hot story or personality, the requirement to be suppliant to a member of the fourth estate may not be as apparent, i.e., “they need me more than I need them.” For now, that is. But when your next client (or job) is of the B-list newsmaking variety, you may very well regret burning that bridge.

Anyway, I had to chuckle after seeing the item today since I have vivid memories of Mr. Goldman (aka Wall Street Journal Advertising columnist) giving me the proverbial heave-ho as my best pitch fell flat. Click! (He denies it to this day.) I chalked it up to the pitfalls of the job. The net affect of using this tactic from the other side of the dance floor remains to be seen.

PR media public relations CNBC Lloyd Grove

“Page Six” reports that the namesake of Wenner Media personally interceded in pulling a bait & switch on Jessica Simpson’s ex Nick Lachey. The reality TV star wound up on the cover of US when he allegedly was promised a cover of Rolling Stone.

Mr. Lachey recently swapped his Hollywood PR firm, Baker Winokur Ryder (the fun side of Ogilvy PR, which is part of WPP Group), for Ken Sunshine , a former NYC political PR operative who has toiled for the likes of Streisand, Pitt/Jolie, and other sometimes A-listers.

According to the confusing item, Mr. Sunshine’s minions inherited negotiations for a Rolling Stone cover, but were angered when Jann Wenner allegedly decided to migrate the piece to the cover of his less esteemed sibling US Magazine. (Some media types would call this brand synergy.) The reason: the hunky star didn’t dish deep enough on his ex-wife.

There’s something fishy here. It’s hard to believe that this switch would have been made without some cognizance on the part of the PR firm orchestrating the interview. It’s like if you arranged an interview with TIME, and it ended up in People. (Indulge me on the Wenner Media - Time Inc. analogy.)

Free-lance journalists often recycle celebrity interviews, travel pieces, etc. for sale to smaller or foreign publications, but rare is the day when a hot celebrity’s handlers lose sight (or get snookered) like this. Perhaps Mr. Lachey should re-think his switch of agencies? I bet there’s more to this story than met Page Six’s eye.

PR public relations media Nick Lachey Jann Wenner US Magazine Rolling Stone