OK, I’ll admit it. Sometimes journalists are quite justified in their annoyance with PR people. Here’s an example — although in this instance, the villain is actually a PR vendor.

In his blog post titled “Do we need qualifications to read press releases now?”, freelance journalist Chris Edwards writes:

I received two emails from a media researcher at PRNewswire today wanting some supplementary information about me as a journalist … apparently, it is all in the aim of achieving a “better targeting of press releases.”

Edwards was asked for his educational background, story-gathering preferences, time in his current role and other data that seemed irrelevant to him. As he put it, “Don’t you worry your little heads …just keep updating the RSS channels and I’ll decide how to deal with the stuff that gets plonked in them.”

Obviously, PR Newswire was building or updating a database, but didn’t do a great job of explaining to Chris why he should care.

Here’s what Chris should have been told:

1. By providing the background info, you will be able to avoid some chatty “get to know you” calls from agencies down the road.

2. By describing the types of stories you cover and how you prefer to receive releases, you will get “plonked” with less junk.

Always lead with the benefit, folks.

(Via PR Studies.)

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