PR

It’s many years ago in Oxford Circus. I’m probably wearing a cheesecloth shirt and flared denim jeans. I’ve just hefted a typewriter from the cupboard to the desk, ready for the next lesson. I’m at journalism college, where – among other things – I’m about to be taught that “PR is rubbish”.

I remember it well. We were trained to expect press releases that would either be useless and irrelevant or that would need substantial rewriting. The tutor told us firmly that journalists make the best PR professionals, because only journalists know what other journalists want.

I ended up working as a copywriter rather than a journalist, but, all these years later, I’m wondering whether what I learned back then is fair.

So I did a quick Google search just now, for ‘do journalists respect PR’. The first page of results contained the following: (more…)

My best friend has a talented daughter who wrote her first song at the age of eight. Her uncle added a musical accompaniment and recorded it as a surprise present for them both. When I heard about this, I wrote them a press release under the headline ‘Brighton girl wins Read more…