Controlling the Press

In the wake of Mastercard's recent PR fiasco at The Brit Awards - I wonder what is to come

OK, first up, I'm delighted to have the excuse to use a picture of a dog reading a newspaper!

But on a more serious note, the PR debacle involving one now red-faced firm called House PR, left a lot of us old-school hacks shuddering in horror.

A journalist from The Telegraph - Tim Walker - released an email to The Press Gazette apparently sent from said PR firm, in relation to his accreditation for The Brit Awards ceremony at the 02.

It started off quite nicely, saying that a car would be picking up him and a colleague to take them to the venue.

But after that it got a bit more worrying, outlining the kind of coverage they were EXPECTING from the event in return for a ticket and even worse than that telling him exactly what he should be tweeting from both his brand and PERSONAL Twitter accounts. Giving helpful templates to cut and paste into Twitter.

Perhaps in the school of PR that the boss of this firm went to, this kind of expectation is the norm.

But where I come from, after nearly 17 years of journalism, this is probably one of the most worrying developments I have seen, and I fear for the future.

I will say before I launch into my rant, that for every handful of terrible PR firms there is at least one decent one that understands how the media works.

Naturally, if you are invited to an event as a journalist, you will find a way to cover the most interesting news/announcements, and in the era of social media, of course you are going to mention where you are and the key points arising. And use some sort of hashtag relating to said event.

IN YOUR OWN OPINION/WORDS AS A MEMBER OF THE FREE PRESS.

For an awards ceremony such as the Brits, there will be guaranteed copy to follow, regardless of the angle, and most journalists would have tweeted the goings on to their followers anyway. But telling a member of the press what to write and how to phrase things on social media? Really, House PR?

This of course resulted in the requested hashtag #PricelessSurprises being put to very good use by a range of Tweeters, but not exactly how the PR firm wanted.

Now to relate this to my own experience in our industry. I am seeing the rise of the controlling PR/marketing agency to a similar degree. What worries me is the amount of titles that are selling out for an easy life, particularly where advertisers are concerned.

I have always had firms come to me expecting coverage in CRN because they bought an advert in 1819, or because they are the sponsor of such and such event.

I tell them the same thing. Regardless of who they are, what they do and what they spend, if their news is worthy of coverage, they will get it.

But we will find our own angle and cover it how we see fit. It is as simple as that.

If it is unadulterated tosh that is of no value to our readers, we will not cover it.

Similarly all those PR agencies trying to crush news and control when something is covered - I am saying now on the record - if we find something out, that is true and has been verified by several trusted sources, we will run the story. We will not wait until a more convenient time for the marketing machine to kick into life.

The idea of a free press is exactly that. Free.

It is a fine line to tread, and I acknowledge we as the modern media are all having to accommodate changes to how publishing works and respect the companies that support us, but there is a way of doing it that keeps independence in tact and respect on both sides. It is certainly not to be dictated to by some PR firm that is after the maximum recharge potential from their clients.

I worry that the next generation of journalists, (and so-called bloggers who think they are journalists) are somehow being conditioned to think this is the norm and that PR firms are the ones holding the reins. Indeed this is happening more and more in the US.

Hopefully there are still enough of us senior journalists out there that can stop this rot before it really gets hold and make sure the younger ones understand how it really works.