Journalists who feel the urge to reproach PR people should do so in private. I doubt it. All journalists should post their personal policies regarding PR contact on their own Web site and as many other places as possible. All editorial operations should post their collective policies regarding PR contact on their own Web site and elsewhere. Many do, but pointers to the appropriate page can be hard to find.
Most sites still don t post their PR-contact policies, and that has to change.
Senior PR executives should develop more realistic new-business pitches which rely less on promises of editorial coverage and more on strategic marketing guidance and close collaboration with clients. Expectation management begins at the beginning. Before pitching, PR pros should be able to pass a beat test encompassing what the journalist has written in the past 60 days. Nothing ticks off a reporter more than a PR pro who hasn t done the homework. Sam Whitmore is editor of Sam Whitmore s Media Survey , a Web-based newsletter that tracks the editorial performance of the computer industry s key publications and Web sites.