WSJ Makes PR Topic of the Month

by admin ~ December 17, 2007

In today’s Wall Street Journal, the Small Business Link section (B4) had two very interesting stories about public relations, both by Simona Covel:

The lead story is about pay-for-play PR, meaning that clients only pay for published stories, Paying for PR - But Only When it Works. I have never worked in a pay for coverage arrangement, as most of my clients see the benefit in being on monthly retainer. I think it *could work for certain very small business that have only one item of news they would like placed in a short period of time - for others, it just doesn’t make financial or strategic sense.

An effective pr campaign has two key ingredients that would be missing in a pay-for-coverage arrangement: momentum and relationship-building with reporters. If a publicist cannot help craft the messages and continuously deliver news to the correct reporters (which they cannot do without being on retainer, as that kind of work requires many hours per month), the client would never be satisfied with results in a long term relationship.

The other article, Company Stands Out by Winning Awards, was interesting since my client The Stevie Awards is a perfect example of the type of award that ePrize likely pursues. Business awards are not only good for morale - they are good for business too.