Never has so much PR been had by so few

A PR man saying something vaguely controversial to get himself some PR, what a surprise, I would have enjoyed this more if it wasn’t so ill informed though. Read his article .

We do live in a free market and although property journalists probably won’t take too kindly to being described as lazy bastards the papers they work for are under pressure like never before to make profits and that means selling newspapers, and if they don’t like what they’re saying they won’t use you. Extraordinarily they’ll tend to gravitate toward those who know what they’re on about, not “foppish” types, although quite why being well dressed should affect the quality of advice is lost on me. Once they find such people they’ll tend to stick with them as apart from anything else they give consistency. It’s a tough business and one mistake could easily drop you off their Christmas card list though.

My experience of property journalists is that staffers need accurate information that’ll easily pass across a lawyer’s desk and freelancers need something either exclusive or that at least marks them out, and that assumes the information is accurate in the first place as most freelancers literally will not eat if their reputation is impugned. Research is therefore one of the few ways of doing that and as the article mentions is clearly of interest, but is not everything.

Advertising is mentioned as a way into PR and perhaps for local rags that may be true but it’s never been the case with the nationals so the article is simply wrong in that regard.

Mr Hiatt is supposedly in the PR business and appears to be trying to get his clients coverage but, if I was using him, I might well be asking why he seems intent on biting the hand that feeds him?