I am a secret agent. No, really.
I spent my formative years learning the ways of journalism from student run-media in college, to a major Chicago daily newspaper, to three Central Illinois-based NPR affiliate stations. I learned the ways of the reporter–from headline writing to the nut graph and from source selection to interviewing. I spent years understanding and falling in love with the world of journalism, growing into the ideal dark side convert.
That’s the ongoing joke, at least: That reporters who move to public relations have made the switch to the dark side–from news telling to news shaping. As a young journalist with college experience running a PR team, I always found it a charming analogy. A mostly baseless, cutesy point of competition between two sides. Two sides that ironically have more in common than we often admit.
Now working as the media relations manager for a targeted technology public relations agency, I am the exact counterpart of my past life. Instead of reading PR pitches, I write them using my undercover years as bait to help give reporters the stories they want to tell.
Yes, the stories they want to tell. I think that’s what’s missing in the “dark side” joke, and that’s something I’ve come to learn in my new role. My job in media relations is finding unique stories to share that people actually want to write and read about. My goal now is very similar to my old goal: getting stories out that matter. And now that I can see both sides, there are a lot of comparable attributes between the two paths:
Newsworthiness and Attention to Detail
My time as a reporter was filled with reading press releases that had no business in my inbox. Pitches for product reviews and storylines that were not relevant in my area–all things that just never quite fit the bill. As a reporter, it was almost second nature to be clicking through press releases knowing that I’d report on maybe 1 in 10. Now on the other side of the conversation, I have learned how to use pitch time more efficiently. PR professionals know just as well as reporters that when a story pitch is crafted carefully, there should be time for reporter research. That way, when you send the pitch out you know your chances of getting a bite are higher than aimlessly casting into dark waters.
Relationship Building
The world of media feels smaller and smaller each day. As a new reporter, I often shocked myself with how quickly I got to know big-name colleagues across the state of Illinois–reporters I looked up to for years. While in competition, the media world felt like family. Broadcast, print, or web, everyone had each other’s back. Now looking through the lens of PR, I find myself in a unique position. Relationship building with reporters is more important to my role now than ever. When I get to know a reporter, I can better pitch that reporter by knowing their needs. I spend time each week reaching out to and getting to know reporters that work on the tech and telecom beat, not to pitch them a story, but to get to know them on a more personal level. It’s all about relationships.
A Love and Appreciation for News
There’s a reason we’re all here. Reporters: to tell the news. PR pros: to help inform it. I used to attribute my love of news to the once dream I had of being a career journalist. Then when I decided to make the switch to MR, I thought I would be a standout in public relations as someone who carried on her love of news from her former life. The reality is, we as communications professionals have a love and respect for the world of media. It’s why in PR we work so hard on crafting that story pitch or press release and why reporters work long hours for mostly unbalanced pay.
So “dark side” or “good side,” I’d say we all find ways to coexist within the ways of the Force.
About the Author
After a few years spent reporting at a central Illinois NPR affiliate, within the statehouse NPR bureau, and a summer interning with the Chicago Sun Times, Mary decided to shake it up by moving across the country and jumping into the world of Public Relations. Now working as the Media Relations Manager at Connect2 Communications in Raleigh, Mary sees the full circle of media crafting by bringing her expert news sense to the workplace every day.
