Switching sides – moving from media to PR

PR and media relations are critical to both parties doing a good job, but like any long-term relationship it can have its conflicts. With several members of the Fusion team arriving in PR through the pathway of journalism we thought it was a relationship worth examining.

You cannot be a PR and a journalist

“I started my media career in the Cycling Weekly office way back in 2000,” writes Hannah Reynolds, content and PR manager at Fusion,  “I was there until 2016 gradually working my way up to Editor of another title which was then abruptly closed leaving me redundant. After a couple of years freelancing in various roles I landed with Fusion.”

“I was all too aware of the complicated relationship that PR’s and journos can have, but also the positive benefits to both parties. At their best, journos and PR’s work as a team, feeding each other ideas, drawing on each other’s contacts and creativity but the line, and there is very definitely a line, is known by both.” 

“Before establishing Fusion Adam Tranter wrote for various cycling publications, I commissioned one of his very first stories. Leaning on his ability to connect with people and an eye for opportunities it wasn’t long before he started contacting us about clients whose products he was promoting. I have a very distinct memory of the now editor, then deputy editor,  Simon Richardson declaring ‘Adam Tranter needs to pick a side. You cannot be a PR and a journalist.’ ”

So what is the line between PR and Media and why does it matter?

PR agencies and publishers have very different, although overlapping goals. Our responsibility in PR is to our client; we want to land coverage that shows their product in the best possible light to their target audience. A publisher’s responsibility is to their audience, keeping them engaged, informed and providing honest up-to-date information. There is of course a third strand to this, advertising, but let’s not muddy the waters with that discussion just yet.

In a great relationship a PR agent will know the audience, their preferred content and what creates engagement as well as the editor does. When they pitch to a journalist the content is always bang on so it is easy for an editor to say ‘yes’. This is a golden rule of PR work - always make a journalist’s life easier. When a new product is about to land, an exclusive interview is on the horizon or a unique press-trip on the cards a good PR will know not just who that opportunity will excite but who will make the most of it, for their title and for the PR’s client. In return a journalist will remember which PR makes their life easy, who will get the quotes or the product fast and help them meet their deadlines. Win, win and everyone is happy. 

But that dividing line is always there. Sometimes a product might be in line for a bad review, or a feature gets bumped. Sometimes both sides can’t win and difficult conversations have to happen. But conversations only happen if you have put in the ground work. If you don’t have a good relationship it just gets done without your knowledge and you are left with egg on your face explaining to a client.

The benefits of moving from media to PR 

One of the best ways of serving up what journalists need is to have walked the walk yourself. You know what subject lines get your email sent straight to trash and what hooks will actually get a bite.  Miles Baker-Clarke, former commercial marketing manager at Rouleur now special projects manager  at Fusion, captures it saying, “ I used to get bombarded with stuff at Rouleur that I just wasn’t interested in. At Fusion we don’t annoy journos with irrelevant stuff.”  

A belief in the symbiotic relationship between media and PR pervades the way that Fusion works. With a mix of ex-journalists, media managers and people who have entered through traditional PR routes everyone’s experience goes into the mix to help refine how Fusion behaves, “we are endeavouring to understand better what the relationship between PR and Media is to the benefit of everyone” Miles explains. 

Better together

Adam Tranter picked a side when he established Fusion Media, “I don’t like the quote that we are enemies but it is fair to say that you can not do both”, Tranter agrees. “There is a belief on both sides  that PR’s and journalists should almost not talk to each other but  I think there are benefits in an exchange of values and information.” 

With thinly stretched resources and increasing financial pressure the success of PR and journalism is inextricably, if often uncomfortably interlinked. Media and PR needs to be a symbiotic relationship, with both sides contributing and benefiting. 

Creating good relationships and finding the common ground is at the core of what we do at Fusion. We do it through our belief in sport, our joy of running and cycling and being outside and our cycle advocacy work. We can be on different sides but our sense of purpose in promoting and supporting active lifestyles unites us all.