David Akin’s four biggest complaints about PR

• February 21, 2008

By Jill Pyle

This morning, I attended CNW Group’s Breakfast and media event, The Changing Landscape of Canadian Media and the Increasing Role of the Web in News Reporting. During the one- hour session, David Akin, Parliamentary correspondent for CTV National News Ottawa, shared four complaints about the way he sees public relations being practiced as means to help the audience avoid making some classic mistakes.

David’s first complaint was that many companies don’t make it easy enough for the media to locate their online media center and get in touch with public relations contacts. He showed us several web sites, both government and corporate, noting the many clicks required to find each media centre, and the varying levels of contact detail they provided.

As a broadcast reporter who often works outside regular business hours and is subject to strict deadlines, he stressed the importance of making detailed contact information available. He recommended providing contact names rather than general numbers, direct phone numbers rather than those that go straight to voicemail, mobile numbers and contacts who also can be reached outside business hours. When multiple public relations contacts are listed, he also advised identifying each person’s responsibilities and areas of expertise.

Like many people working in the media business, David uses a BlackBerry to read many of his emails. He reminded us that on mobile devices and in Microsoft Outlook, email subject lines are often cut short. With only a few characters to catch a journalists’ attention, we have to use them wisely. “Company name news release” doesn’t cut it. To illustrate, he shared an email sent to him by the public relations team representing the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics which used a similar subject line and, in the body of the email, provided nothing more than a note directing media to a URL where they could sign in to view press release. Ouch.

David’s final two complaints were that many public relations professionals don’t use enough links in their press releases and often don’t make photos and videos easily accessible. He suggested using links throughout news releases to point to background information about products or partners that are mentioned but not described in detail. When it came time to discuss the availability of photos and videos, he reminded the audience that making broadcast-quality videos and print-quality photos available online simplifies the work of journalists and can sometimes be the defining factor in a story being covered.

David shared some great advice, much of which coincides with our best practices approach. For anyone who needed reminding, this was a great wake up call. We can’t forget that one of our major roles is to make the media’s job as easy as possible.