Yikes! Your PR relationship with a key writer is doomed — do this one thing to save it right now
It's free and easy.
Last summer, I was badly burned by a PR firm. (In the name of discretion, I’ll only give enough specifics here to sketch out the story as a springboard to offer my advice for saving the relationship with a journalist when it's gone south badly.)
The general gist is that I was invited on a press trip by a publicist at a well-known, formidable agency representing brands squarely in my beat. I am very selective about the press trips I accept, in large part because I am raising two young kids and being gone for any length of time is a major strain on my family. But this one was exactly at the intersection of my passions and coverage area. I said yes and blocked out a full week on my professional and family calendars.
I started pitching immediately and sold one story tied to the trip. As well, I had other pre-trip coverage opportunities already in the works, so I was regularly in contact with the publicist who'd invited me as I volleyed reporting questions in her direction.
About a week before the trip, I realized I did not yet have confirmation of my international air. I sent an email to the publicist inquiring about this. She responded — using purposefully vague and obtuse language — that she had “forgotten” to tell me that the trip had "gone in another direction" (?), which I first took to mean the group trip was off.
Then, because I was to be traveling with another journalist I was still in touch with from traveling together abroad on another recent trip (yes, our world is small and insular), I realized she was still going. The trip was on, but I was not on it. No explanation.
Now. I was in a real pickle. Beyond just being deeply inconvenienced and miffed (and confused), I also had professional responsibilities tied to this trip. Again, without specifics, I can say that I found myself in some extremely uncomfortable in-person and digital situations related to this unexplained change of plans — and it all made for a major professional embarrassment.
If I were some of my other writer friends, I would have raised hell on the spot. I think I was justified. But I let it simmer. In this case, the offending publicist left the agency soon after, but I still felt a cloud hanging over every single email I received from anyone else there. I felt I couldn't trust the professionalism of the agency, and I was not inclined to work with them again.
The relationship seemed irreparable — not good for an agency with clients all over my beat.
But it turns out, the agency was able to turn the bad situation around and win me as an ally again.
It wasn't hard. It only required ONE step. And it’s literally something anyone can do — regardless of bandwidth or budget — to save any type of foundering journalist relationship.
Save your own doomed writer relationship right now by doing this one (free, easy) thing above all else:
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