At a recent media forum in New York sponsored by American Business Media, PR NEWS asked the reporters assembled what some of the differences are between corporation
communication executives and agency reps when pitching top-tier publications. We got some disparate replies:
"There's a huge variation among the agencies...Some of the small New York shops that specialize in working for magazines have [reps] who know the different magazines, know
producers in town and can be very useful. Some of the bigger shops, by their own admission, have reps who sit there and punch through 100 journalists with very little passion and
very little understanding of the journalists they're talking to."
--Jonah Bloom, executive editor, Advertising Age
"Calls from the corporate side are very direct. Calls from the agency side are usually from reps who have been assigned the work and are calling on someone's behalf. They've
got their check-off list, and you can almost hear them reading from a script. They'll ask you all the questions about the beat and then check off all the dots. [Although the pitch
doesn't go anywhere] they'll go back to the client and say, 'OK, we did this, this and this.'"
--Brian Steinberg, advertising columnist, The Wall Street Journal
"Agency people are hungrier than corporate folks and will be more helpful to you...PR people should help with introductions with clients and let the client establish a
relationship with a reporter. The best relationships happen that way. Some PR people might say, 'Well, he doesn't feel comfortable discussing...' Well, then send him to media
training, do whatever it takes."
--Melanie Wells, senior editor, Forbes