Deciding Whos in Charge

Whether publicity and public relations are assigned to the advertising department or to a separate public relations department depends on both the workload and the experience and PR expertise the departments have. Advertising involves compara

2There are many columnists and feature writers whose coverage is as important as news is to companies and organizations. These writers and electronic commentators live on a constant supply of publicity-type information. It takes a long while to build this type of relationship, but once established, it becomes a very nice bonus for both sides.

tively little direct contact with reporters, on-air personnel, or editorial staffs. As an advertiser, your contact is more likely to be with a sales representative. Your advertising concern is where and when the advertisement is placed—in which section and on what page of the newspaper or magazine it appears and at what time and in which segment of a series of commercials it runs. You're paying, and your fiddle calls the tune. The ad will appear exactly as agreed on.

Publicity and public relations operate under quite different rules. Unlike paid-for advertising, their goal is favorable coverage by media without payment for space or time. The PR/publicity purpose is threefold. Deciding who will be in charge must be based on who can accomplish all three purposes:

1. Favorable public notice for what you do want publicized.

2. The opportunity to present your point of view on what would otherwise be presented only in a negative fashion. Your hope is to neutralize, in whole or in part, the approach to a story, not the story itself.

3. The ability to get instant public notice for certain kinds of news, no matter what the negative consequences to your organization. Tampering with products in a way that may endanger the lives of buyers is a familiar example for which you would want such instant public notice.

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