Why ex-journos (maybe) can make good PR bosses

Brilliant post. I was tempted into PR from trade journalism on the strength of my writing ability and the fact that I had at least some social skills. The rest, I had to learn on the job.

Over the past 12 years several others have joined the agency from the same route. Only two of us have stuck it out to become halfway decent senior PRs. So it can be done, but it takes determination, commitment and a commercial nous that doesn’t always come easily to your average hack.

Oh Ben, you are not going to win any journo friends with those comments – welcome to my club! You will find many ex-journos that disagree with you, but obviously you have an ally in me. Thanks for checking out the post.

This is an excellent post. Craig, I really liked the way the points have been spread out… And it has cleared all the doubts that I had in my mind. When I was working with a PR agency, I used to hear about journos moving to PR agencies and I could never fathom why they did that.. Now I know… Thanks for all this great info…

Ah, I fear I may soon lose the offer to discuss this over suds, surf, and snow.

However let’s make sure we are comparing the same apples and oranges. And yes I probably have a wee bias because within 6 months of voluntarily bowing out of the journalism game I was head of Marketing and Communications for Canada’s largest not-for-profit ranching association and now I’m the Corporate Communications guy for a not-for-profit genetics funding organziation. (a job which includes the PR, gov’t relations, media relations, social media and whatever else is on the list of the day)
A PR trained person with 5 years in a junior corporate communications officer role is not likely to become top dog at an agency. The agency copywriter is not going to walk into a multinational as head of government relations. And so too even an experienced beat reporter is not really the best choice to head a PR department. Those are some equal comparisons I can buy.
BUT …..
Let’s take a senior journalist with experience in all facits of the business who has led a major market media outlet and who has hit the managerial level.
We do have the strategic training.
We do have the leadership skills.
We do have a broad range of writing skills.
We do have empathy and understand people skills.
We have been interacting with audiences long before social media.

Or is there an assumption that if you put an infinite numer of journalists in a room with an infinite number of resources that magically a successful media outlet will appear?

A PR grad who has only a few years tucked away in their toolbelt or a few more years specializing in say, media relations, doesn’t overnight become top PR wonk either.
That is apple to apples.
Climb higher up the tree and shake loose the senior media people and you’ll find we can can make a pretty good quality PR cider as well.

Great posts btw.

Mike

Good to see the follow-up to the journalist-baiting of your previous post. I would like to see some high-profile examples of where journo as PR manager works and where it doesn’t, otherwise it’s all a bit vague for my taste (but then on the other hand, applicable to various industries so think I get your basic aims).

I still think ex-journos can make good PR bosses but the problem can be that many reporters who have no management experience are being slotted into these top PR roles. As

I mentioned in commenting on the previous post, a former PR boss of mine (who was an ex-TV journalist) was a terrible people manager who was great at crisis comms but taught his staff basically nothing about the real processes of good PR. Latest update is that he has found a government job shortly before a certain redundancy: new senior managers having stepped in after complaints.

I don’t mention this out of bitterness but out of interest to hear other examples of where it works and where it doesn’t. Would be great for some testimonials to roll in!

Craig, I like the balanced approach you took to this post.
But since it’s not my blog, I don’t have be balanced in comments, right?

I’ll make the statement – going out on a limb -I don’t like reporting to former journalists.

I’m in a middle management agency role and without fail, each time I have had the pleasure of having a boss that is a former journalist – they are HORRIBLE people managers, extremely disorganized, EXCELLENT at crisis communications and MEDIOCRE at best in strategy.

I like working with them, because they keep me on my toes, but when it is crunch time their shortcomings hurt in an agency. They just do. There is more to public relations/corp comm than creating a story. In my experience, all of the former journalists I have ever worked with haven’t proven me wrong yet.

I can’t wait to meet one that can show me a different experience because that would be the holy grail for me.

Craig, I’m impressed. You have all of the makings of a terrific scholarly paper on this subject.

All the senior comms execs I’ve worked with are former journalists, most of them print-based. They, to a person, think of media relations first in any discussion of strategy. This is not necessarily a criticism, as most business execs have little understanding of the corporate communication role beyond media relations, in particular, crisis. It’s often said that successful crisis comms are where the PR folks finally gain respect from senior leadership.

Journalists know what a story is, and how to look at media with a jaundiced eye – it takes one to know one. My own radio journalism background has helped me immeasurably in my career, and my PR knowledge is entirely on-the-job.

It seems to me that it is the Excellence Theory definition of organizational PR that you’re adhering to here — a management function that is led by a manager who is a member of the dominant coalition. Journalists won’t often fit that bill — but as with many specialties, they’ve advanced to management because of technical expertise. They’re not the first and won’t be the last.

I would offer that organizations can function well with media relations-oriented comms leadership, but are nearly bereft if they don’t have that skill set. A savvy ex-journo who knows how to staff her team with strategists and specialists who fill gaps in her experience is an Excellent choice.

Mike, goodness, great points. Thanks for that. One point: 2-way symmetrical communication. Unless you learn it, you probably won’t know to apply it. Result? Opportunity missed. Potential wasted. PR best practice not realised.

Carmen, my thoughts are with you. Yes, what a number of commentators on this discussion – here and in numerous other digital locations – miss is that journos are a bit aggro and condescending in general. Supercilious too. Not an attitude that washes in PR, where we are about placating, accomodation and seeking to soothe. Totally different headspaces. PR cannot afford to have too big an ego. Journos seem to thrive on it.

Sean: scholarly paper? You damn me with faint praise! (LOL) An ex-journo can of course make a great PR boss. I am an ex-journo, like you. Not that I am necessarily a grat PR boss, but points from para 1 apply here too.

(And yes, I get the capitalisation of ‘Excellent choice’….)

Steve: Journalist – baiting. Love it. But then PR-tease has always been a favourite pastime for me.

Craig: What makes you think that a good media manager isn’t experienced in 2-way communication models? A specific news item or print story is certainly 1-way. But once we got past the the early part of the last century successful audiences got to know the value of 2-way communication. By the time we hit the 80’s and 90’s 2-way was vital to figuring out what worked and what didn’t. I produced a late night phone-in show and it was SO all about community and 2-way conversation. In fact my host started each hour off with a “we’re hear to talk” type of introduction and that attitude carried on through e-mails, online, and phone calls. The station did public meetings either about specific community issues to give us a ‘news’ reading on the audience, or believe it or not, about how we were doing as broadcaster.

And to all:
If your boss doesn’t communicate well, is not well organized and doesn’t have a plan that is an HR or maybe even a governance issue. That is not a PR training vs Journalist training issue.
Or is everyone really and truly telling me that every bad experience or boss they have ever had is a journalist. If so, then I bow to you all and am humbled by the wit and wisdom of a profession blessed by having no bad ‘uns.

Mike

Your post here and the month long discussion on LinkedIn are becoming required reading for my journalism students- and for my PR students, too! Based on twenty five years of practitioner experience, the journo-PR tug of war/love is one that has left scars on me, so I won’t deny that a lot of your points about the weaknesses of journalists score with me. But, I do agree with a lot of the positives you note here. Even at an undergraduate level, journalists write better than PR people. That’s a useful skill, so no PR & Comms team (in-house or agency) can really afford to be without their skills. But, it’s a bit like a plumber working for an architect firm; you need them, but they aren’t the reason why you win the business. Writing can be thought of as a bought-in skill.

Do journalists make good managers? In my own experience…no, they don’t. Their professional experience is not one that lends itself to team work, or coaching good performance out of the people you’ve got or negotiating the best outcome when faced with opposition. They rarely understand change management and organisational cultures; their own culture is too ingrained to be left at the door. Do all PR people make great managers? No way! My worst managers were at one of the world’s largest PR agency.

BUT, I do think that the difference is actually philosophical.

Looking at the same set of facts, journalists will tend to take one view and PR people another. It’s the “glass is half full” PR attitude, and the journalists’ “the glass is half empty”. Good PR’s determination to get two way symmetric communication means that they realise the other side has to win, too. That doesn’t sit well with most of the journalists that I know. Maybe that’s why journalists and PR tend to define their mutual dependency as a cat and dog fight; two different species!

Addendum-
Hey, Mike
I’m playing in a different time zone, so missed your post while putting mine up in response to Craig. We are all indulging a bit in stereotyping here, so inevitably we are going to ahve to admit that there are great journalists who have become great PR people. What I do find interesting, however, is that about 50% of all journalism graduates (in the UK anyway) will end up working in PR at some point in their career, but the transfer market is MUCH smaller in the other direction. So PR people have to deal with more journalists as colleagues in their home territory than vice-versa. Therefore, it is an issue for us more than it is for media. I concede that there are plenty of media people out there who are interested in creating communities of interest and genuine engagement; your own media example is a good one. But, most media are still one way broadcast oriented. Alas, the Twitter scene is jsut perpetuating the trend now, and the conversation which creates understanding is being replaced by voyeurism and status updates.

I’ll fire off one more volley in the Commonwealth Games here, with a note to Catherine because everyone makes some good points.
“Their professional experience is not one that lends itself to team work, or coaching good performance out of the people you’ve got or negotiating the best outcome when faced with opposition. ”

Ouch. I’m wounded.

Newspapers and newscasts are put together by a team ranging from writers to hosts to producers to technicians. It is all about the teamwork. A good editor or producer is always coaching their presenters to get the best possible performances and in some cases the bigger egos need to be treated with an even greater level of people skills to get the best performance,the best camera shot or get the print piece to tell the best story.
We don’t take them out of J-School and hope they are already the best to be let loose on the world with no care and maintenance.

In a highly creative environment full of stars, wanna be stars, and behind the glass or editorial desk talent, you better be able to coach performance and get a team moving to produce a product that is the best your group can do.
Then there are the freelancers and stringers which such a loose connection to the media outlet that it is all about coaching.
I’ll even give a little ground up on the organizational culture point, but not on coaching and teamwork.
Which brings us back to hiring policies. If HR dep’ts or CEOs hire an editor or producer without checking first to see if they had a smoothly running newsroom or production team that is a hiring issue, not a journalist vs PR issue.

(Time zones can be so valuable to slip in a final word, waiting to greet you much later.)

Cheers from Canada where we are preparing our barbs for London in 2012.

Mike

Well, Mike and Catherine, I might just step aside here as you two are covering any bases I might not have flagged in this discussion admirably.

Just a couple of points, inevitably for Mike…when you talk 2-way communication I don’t think you are doing so in the spirit of two-way symmetrical communication as espoused by Grunig et al. A discussion where views are heard is not enough. At the end of the day we are talking organisational as well as stakeholder/target audience/public etc change. There is no way known that journalists operate at a strategic level in that space.

And secondly, whilst I hear the odd murmuring about journalists these days really getting the conversational nature of social media and being less broadcast-oriented, you know what, I think this view is primarily bollocks. Sure, it is changing, but ever so slowly. The media has a long way to go before it really figures this out. And maybe when it does figure it out, it will decide it can’t compete on any Murdoch-type level and will focus on other more commercially viable business opportunities.

But hey, Mike and Catherine, keep going. Love your work!

Yep, media does need to figure it out, can’t defend my colleagues on that one.

You’re right, a journalist doesn’t operate in the space you are talking about, but they aren’t the ones suited to become a top PR person.

A media manager who drives a successful product however does that 2-way conversation more often than you’re giving us credit for.
We did stakeholder consultation with the audience all the time and some of our performance measurement objectives made it a must. It was stakeholder consultation on how we as a broadcaster were performing and serving. (Issue discussions were quite seperate) When was the last time Toyota, Nike, or the International Olympic Committee opened the door, invited people in, and said “how are we doing in fulfilling our promise to you?” And those are organizations full to the rafters with PR professionals.
Does Daily Bath & Body beauty products actually have daily meetings that includes the employees on the street and in the stores who can say “guess what I heard them say about us yesterday “.
Media does that every single day as part of a story meeting. Feedback simply never stops because as you can see from the interest in this and other blogs, everyone feels they own a piece of the media because they watch it, read it, and listen to it.
Some of that conversation is formalized like the stakeholder sessions and the rest is a lot less informal but the feedback is ongoing and in some cases instant.
I’m not lost in wonderland and know full well that media gets it wrong, doesn’t react well at times, and needs a new model to stay afloat.
Lots of industries are in the same boat though and the conversations they are engaging in are still about me,me,me but all dressed up in new ribbons and bows.
Media does get it.
They are just often pretty lousy at getting it done.

Mike

Steve, our agency Fenton Communications has done a lot of work with Sustainability Victoria (www.sustainability.vic.gov.au). From 2006-2008, ex journo Tracey Curro was General Manager of Communications at Sustainability Victoria. While I haven’t worked directly with SV, I think Tracey’s work there was held in pretty high regard.

http://www.saxton.com.au/default.asp?sd8=426
A bit out of date: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracey_Curro

Another example is Indira Naidoo, although I’m not convinced she found her PR feet as well as Curro.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Naidoo

  I am amazed (and disappointed) at the lack of understanding and knowledge about a journalist’s soft and hard skills, especially among those from the past generation (20 years), illustrated through the comments on this blog.

  It’s sad because it shows how little (some) PR folks really know about and understand news organization operations, structure, exposure, employees, etc. Much of the negative comments and stereotypes here are rooted in what I’d call outdated knowledge, limited to no experience/exposure beyond college theory and/or one’s bias. Reading these comments gives me the impression far too many PR folks are stuck in a time warp. They wrongly believe we’re most valuable and greatly pigeon-hold to writing.
 
Marketing/branding/client relationship, etc., are areas with which journalists have varying degrees of experience.  Digital audience-building, online traffic growth, messaging and marketing are areas journos have a plethora of experience. In assessing and evaluating numerous corporate Websites, the latter is one area where PR folks can learn a lot from journos. I’d be rich if I charged the number of times journalists have counseled
PR folks on effective messaging, branding and other challenges. That’s
not to say these PR folks are unqualified. But I point this out to
enlighten those who are clueless to what journalists bring to the table.

If you are encountering mostly base-level reporters with limited experience or journos who did nothing but write, I could excuse some of the comments to an extent. I say that because if you’re going to post comments (huge generalizations) about a group of people, you’d better have more than tangential knowledge about the group. And good Lord, your knowledge should be accurate and current.
The best and strongest journalists have a far more diversified background shaped by choice, overall life experiences and the news organizations that have employed them.

  Misplaced is the concern journalists do not have c-level exposure,
working on teams, leading projects, managing up, negotiating,
relationship-building. Leadership is a verb, and it’s more than a title and the number of cases or stories you’ve written.  To say a top-notch journalist who has extensive amount of strategic and financial planning along with other skills can not be the head of a communications dept. or good managers  is akin to saying CEOs can only come from within a company or one industry. It’s akin to saying PR folks cannot and should not ever head a PR/Marketing department.  That just isn’t reality.

Weaknesses exist among professionals in both disciplines. But I wouldn’t narrowly define one group based upon a myopic perspective.

Thanks for sharing your perspective, Smitty. Good to have a different point of view. I can’t add much more than I have said in this post and its related one in the context of your comments, so I’ll leave it at that. Always nice to have the real name of a commmenter, though – adds more credibility than (relative( anonymity.