A shout from Tom Spalding

Got a good word for the troops on Saturday? Send your YouTube link to jcs1122@yahoo.com

Public relations as a career choice

This week's discussion about careers, including the possibility that some former newsies might be eyeing a switch to public relations, prompted David Shank to send in these thoughts. - John


By: David L. Shank, APR, Fellow PRSA
President/CEO Shank Public Relations Counselors, Inc.
Indianapolis, IN
www.shankpr.com

To our journalist friends who may have to navigate a new direction:

Don’t fear life on the bright side of public relations!

Because of the changing nature of news, and not just this week’s purge at the Star, many journalists are examining what they want to be when they grow up. One option may be to join us in public relations.

“Eek! Gad! Never!” or in newsroom vernacular that can’t be published I can hear being said, I want to assure you: it’s OK. You won’t instantly turn into a blood-sucker from a bad vampire movie, begin downing three martinis at lunch, or talk like a bad politician from Illinois (not to mention getting the hair.)

What you will find are many of the same ethical and moral standards to which you adhered as a journalist also apply to professional public relations.

The major brain-switch is moving from being an objective and relatively unbiased reporter of events and issues to becoming an advocate for your clients, corporation or organization. Being an advocate doesn’t mean spinning, twisting, obfuscating, ducking and running, being untruthful or ignoring issues.

It means finding all available ethical, honest and moral means to tell your story, and create the understanding that drives your critical public to make an informed decision supporting your position.

Public relations requires the same curiosity, the same ability to ask probing questions, the same ability to dig into stacks of facts and cut through the adjectives, fluffery and puffery and get to the kernel of the story. Like the newsroom, it requires good writing and knowing how to write in a variety of styles and forms.

(Sidebar) I was a radio reporter years ago back when my idol was Walter Cronkite, but I assure you that the rhythm of the police scanner and the early AM beat to the cop-shop are still real in my psyche.

If you work for an ethical organization you will have no problems about how you present your issues and conduct yourself. Just as journalists have the SPJ Code of Ethics, so do public relations professionals in the Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics (http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/). The Code isn’t a slap-your-hand-when-you-screw-up code, but it provides a moral compass when questions arise that may have you wondering: “When do I reveal who I work for?” – just ask the former reporters at Burson who messed up the Facebook/Google issue. “What is a front organization?” “Why can’t I take a reporter a case of Jack Daniels at Christmas?” –hmm.

Not so different from SPJ. And in your new public relations career you will be confronted with questions as these from your clients, corporate management, or your executive director and you have the easy, if not painful reply, “Ethically, I can’t do that.”

Besides thinking as an advocate you need to stretch the brain calendar and think strategically. We all work under deadline pressure, but issues you will confront may require creating ‘what-if’ plans for months and years in advance.

Public relations is more than writing the latest “press release” (which I don’t allow that term to be used in our office) or ‘liking people.’ It is identifying issues, solutions, problems, strategies and tactics that change minds. It is more than ‘getting ink’ (another phrase I hate) or getting on the 11:00 ‘cast.

It is more than news media relations.

It is creating outcomes, not just effort. It is communicating and measuring results. It is counseling a client through a crisis situation. It is righting wrongs and protecting reputations – and note I didn’t say ‘image.’

Public relations is knowing how to use every communications tool available from community meetings to Twitter, Yelp and YouTube. It’s knowing when to tell your client to be quiet and when to sometimes painfully face the gaggle.

It’s putting your arm around a distraught client or fellow professional to console; it’s high-fiving when you meet a tough objective!

We are crisis counselors and sometimes we prevent a crisis from happening. I have been in meetings when an idea that could have been disastrous was suggested and I counseled others to think about the long term ramifications. As a former reporter, as I do, you can counsel, “From my years of experience as a reporter here’s how this is going to play. Here’s a better way without the risks.”

Besides being the communicator, you may be the social and moral conscience for the organization, adding your broader worldview and perspective to the discussion.
It is an honorable profession and when you go home at night, just as you did as a journalist, you can be proud of the work you’ve done with no more nightly 11:00 deadlines.

Join Us: Coverage team needed for careers workshop

We’re looking for two or three people to help write blog updates on Saturday’s conference.
We’ll have three panels, and for the benefit of those who can’t be there it would be good to have photos, text updates and video snippets from each section.

The work will be posted here on our conference blog, http://indycomms.blogspot.com/, with the links shared via Twitter and Facebook. This will be a big help for people not able to join us Saturday.

Sound like fun? You bet – and there’s pizza to boot, not to mention the admiration and esteem of your friends and colleagues.

Workshop details are below (http://www.scribd.com/doc/58927805/Celebrating-Service-Agenda)

If interested in volunteering, please drop me a note via FB or at jcs1122@yahoo.com/.

Thanks,

John Strauss

Jobs we've been hearing about

Agenda: Celebrating Service, Looking to the Future

Celebrating Service, Looking to the Future
Saturday, July 2, 2011
10 a.m. to 2 p.m., lunch provided
IUPUI, Information Technology Building, Room 160 (SW corner of the building)
535 W. Michigan St., corner of Michigan and West streets
Parking: IUPUI Gateway Garage, 1 block west of the workshop site
Information: John Strauss, jcs1122@yahoo.com, 317-292-3828

A networking event with former Star journalists and friends sponsored by The Newspaper Guild.

10 a.m. – Gathering and reunion

10:30 – Welcome from Bobby King, president of The Newspaper Guild.

10:35 – Keynote: Lou Gerig (Sease, Gerig and Associates)

10:50 – Public Relations: Your Next Career? The Pluses and Minuses
Mark Land (Indiana University)
George McLaren (Rolls-Royce)
Janet Williams (Cummins Engine)
Erik Johnson (Borshoff)

11:30 - Life After The Star – The Next Steps
Scott McGregor (Eli Lilly)
Dr. James Brown (Indiana University)
Kevin Corcoran (Lumina Foundation)
Terry Burns (Lawrence Township)

12:15 – Lunch – Courtesy of The Newspaper Guild.

1:15 - Staying in News or Public Affairs: Working as a stringer, a blogger or on your own
Tom Spalding (Rolls-Royce)
Jen Wagner (Darvel Communications)
Terry Horne (Horne Law LLC)
Daniel Lee (IU Health)

1:50 – Final remarks, Kevin Corcoran.

2:00 – Adjourn

(Note: Presenters represent themselves and not their respective corporations and universities.)

Dear IndyStar Friends

Please consider joining us for “Celebrating Service, Looking to the Future,” our networking event for former and current Star staffers and friends sponsored by The Newspaper Guild.

It’s this Saturday, July 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at IUPUI’s Information Technology Building, Room 160, at the corner of Michigan and West streets.

If you have not seen the invitation on Facebook, please drop me a note. If you have seen the invitation, click on the link to let us know you will attend.

The lineup includes Tom Spalding, Kevin Corcoran, George McLaren, Janet Williams, Mark Land, Jen Wagner, Terry Burns, IU’s Jim Brown, and longtime PR experts Lou Gerig and Erik Johnson – all there to help you network and think about your next steps.

This is a fantastic opportunity to hear from and meet a great bunch of professional communicators. Programs like it often cost hundreds of dollars to attend, but this one is free.

Please join your friends at this important gathering, and message me if you have any questions.

John