Sometimes Media Relationships Aren’t Enough

Building relationships with journalists is said to be the key to successful media relations. Yet sometimes, the relationship isn’t enough.

I heard from a prominent media relations professional who has an ongoing relationship with Chris Anderson, the Wired editor who posted a list of PR email addresses that he had added to his blocked senders list as punishment for spamming him with unwanted PR pitches. Two of her people were on the list. She reported an almost immediate and substantial increase in the spam she was now receiving, as spammers copied the addresses off Anderson’s list and added them to their databases.

Yet she’s had a relationship with Anderson for years. He’s received email from her on her specialty, security software, without complaint. They’ve had an ongoing relationship and even had an email conversation after the fact about this incident. She helped him promote his book, The Long Tail.

Her question: what more could I have done to build a trusting relationship? The answer, I’m sorry to say, is nothing. We in PR have little choice but to keep working to build trust, but sometimes our efforts are not rewarded.

PS — I’ve heard from many former journalists over the years who have had an “ah-ha” moment after they left the media, when they saw from the outside how poorly many journalists treat PR people and others promoting stories. They always say that they didn’t get it before, but now they can’t believe how hard it is to get a phone call returned, to get enough time to pitch a story, to get a journalist to follow through on a commitment to cover a story.