The Shoemaker’s Children
RF Israel had the distinct honor of hosting an editor from a major Israeli daily newspaper this morning. Of course, anytime someone in our industry has an opportunity to interact with a member of the media in a "non-pitching" situation, there is significant benefit. After all, relationships-building is always good. But this was particularly interesting for us because this editor was willing to share an editor’s candid view of what the Israeli PR world is all about.
And it wasn’t pretty …
In a nutshell, this editor described us as being in the business of shooting as many arrows as we can and hoping a few of them hit their mark. There was mention of our clear lack of understanding about what is required for a story we are pitching to make it into the newspaper. There was discussion of the "did you get the release I sent" phenomenon, which has somehow become the #1 key message point of Israeli media relations professionals.
But there was another overall theme that was most scary to me. It is clear to this editor that Israeli PR folks aren’t interested in building relationships with the media. Now, I assure you that this is not what Edward L. Bernays had in mind when founded this industry. He was a big believer in psychology (By the way, I believe that a psychology degree is just as useful – or maybe moreso – than a degree in journalism for a career in public relations) as the driver for people’s decision-making. And I think we need to remember that when we work with journalists.
This editor made it clear that the most effective way to get a story about a client in his/her newspaper is to earn credibility, and added that unfortunately, such credibility isn’t earned very often by PR practitioners here in Israel.
So I ask you … How can we be considered experts on enhancing/maintaining the reputations of our clients when we are struggling with our own reputation among our most important audience?
I will tell you that for Ruder Finn Israel, we made significant strides toward answering that question today …
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