PR JOBS

It's what they know... 

As mainstream newsrooms shrink and technology expands, more companies are gaining the opportunity to take more control over their own messages, and they're going to need help, insiders said.

"While PR is affected by the economy, there seems to be a lot of companies looking at PR to get more bang for their buck," said Joan M. Vander Valk, group vice president at Stern + Associates in Cranford, N.J.

"Over the past couple of years, we've been working with clients on less-traditional types of media and getting ready for new things no one's talking about yet. There are more opportunities to help shape their online content, more outlets for messages. It's definitely changing; people need to understand that."

It's what you know...

"Some of the best PR people have been reporters and editors at one time in their lives," said Dave Cieslak, a former Arizona Republic reporter who teamed with another former reporter, Chip Scutari, to launch Scutari and Cieslak Public Relations (now S+C Communications) in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Both first spent several years at Moses Anshell in Phoenix.

"We have a perspective very few PR people have. We know both sides of the game. That gives our clients an advantage over working with someone who may not have had working newsroom experience."

Other insiders agreed.

"It's not a seamless transition, but any journalist has a leg up," said John Yocca, 31, a media specialist at Stern + Associates in Cranford, N.J.

Yocca previously was a reporter at three New Jersey newspapers.

"What we bring to Stern is a respect for journalists," Yocca said. "Communications majors who focus on PR never really understand both sides of the coin. We're bound to the client but we have to respect the journalists just as much. Without respect, we won't get clients into the media."

Former reporters know what journalists need, said Laura Moss, a Stern + Associates account executive who spent two years as a reporter for the West Orange Chronicle in New Jersey. "We understand how deadlines work ... and the challenges they face," Moss said.

 ... what you don't know... 

The biggest learning curve, Yocca said, was client relations. He said he got a crash course on balancing clients' needs with media needs and learned not to give more than the client wants to give.

There's a business strategy behind it, Yocca said. Learning the consultative role is the toughest transition, Shaw said.

"As a reporter you don't answer to the guy you're interviewing," he said. "You've got to be smart about the relationship, you can't always be the antagonist.

"Client counsel is the part of the job newcomers struggle with most," Vander Valk said. Someone might have a perfect pitch, target a perfect reporter and share the value of the approach with clients.

"At the end of the day, after you make recommendations to clients ... it's their decision, she said.
Cieslak said ethical guidelines are pretty much the same in reporting and PR."We are honest and forthright," he said. "We try do provide clients with honest feedback. If they have a story idea, we're honest with them; if it won't work, we tell them."

...and whom you know
Relationships are key to the business, Shaw said. "One hard thing is pitching a former colleague on stories they would have rolled their eyes at five years ago," he said.

Citing a journalism background also helps in forging new relationships, Moss said. "It seems to disarm journalists," she said.

Many journalists bring an industry expertise, such as bank coverage, to a PR firm, Shaw said. So if the PR firm has a bank client, the former journalist will already know the jargon and understand the client, he said.

"There are many generalists, there will always be a place for them, but people with deep knowledge on a particular subject put themselves at an advantage," he said.

What to expect

Agencies are structured differently and can range from one-person shows to full-service operations employing 2000 people, Shaw said.

Or someone may work PR in house. 

Durazo described her job as being a writer and more. 

"I do all press-release writing and anything PR."

That includes being the company's face at  trade shows where she pitches potential asphalt customers such as property and facilities managers, building owners and real estate brokers.   She writes articles for trade magazines and arranges special events.

At Moses Anshell, Cieslak worked with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International in 2007 to launch C3, a stun gun for consumers.

He credited agency connections and newsroom knowledge for getting Taser not only into The New York Times and on Fox News Channel but also getting Kathy Hanrahan, then Taser president, and a stun gun sample onto the Today show during a New York media tour.

"We got them interviews and secured stories in part because we knew how a newsroom works and we were able to work directly with journalism colleagues," Cieslak said.

And Cieslak and colleague Scutari prepped Hanrahan on how to deliver fast answers to questions that would come from hosts Ann Curry and Matt Lauer.

"TV doesn't like 60- to -90-second answers, he said.

Vander Valk said many firms, like Stern + Associates, offer more than just media relations so journalists have to learn how to adapt their skills.

"If you can't get into the overall integrated marketing and well-rounded PR program, you will be at a loss," she said.

Besides media relations, the firm seeks speaking opportunities clients, counsels them on where to advertise and what events to throw for customers and may even employ webinars to reach audiences.

"Understanding how a product gets to market can be very helpful for people to understand," Vander Valk said, noting clients include manufacturers as well as professors distributing ideas, concepts and theories.

While Moss and Yocca focus on media relations and mostly have normal workdays, Vander Valk said others in the firm may see more travel to trade shows and media briefings and even work at an event until 2 a.m. some nights.

Cieslak said his newspaper experience prepared him for the variety.

That includes the nonstop interviewing of people, all the communication that goes into putting a story together and the fast pace.

The need to work 12-to 16-hour days and working at a weekend event: "I was used to that already."