What is the appeal of jobs in media relations?

I'm hoping to make the switchover at some point so that I can pay a greatly-reduced rate, get my Master's and go into teaching.

That's a plus.

 

You're fucking kidding, right? The pay is about the same, but have you ever covered an event where the SID showed up after you? Or went home before you did? Someone's got to make sure the pregame notes are written and copied, and someone's got to make sure the lights get turned off in the press box. Among other duties.

In fact, my hours were worse in media relations because we were expected to work a normal university schedule of 9-5 in addition to the nights and weekends. Rarely did we get to roll in at noon after a night game, the way reporters can.

A very large part of why I left was hours and pay. But I loooooved the job.

I will admit that I have a control freak element that needs to be fed. But I didn't get off on withholding information. I got off on making sure I had control over every element of my job: game day, notes, stats, media guides, pitching stories, etc. If the media who covered my teams lacked anything, it was a failure on my part.

I also don't understand media relations staffers who have no concept of how to relate to people. There is such a large hospitality component to the job. I also think the best media relations staffers have a background in media (Hi, Moddy!) so they understand what's required to do the job and why sometimes negative (gasp!) things have to be reported.

 

If you're asking about sports media relations, then I can't give you any answers. I've been working in media relations for a university department for about a year. The hours, pay, and benefits are definitely better than in journalism. The people I work with and the people I deal with as part of my job actually appreciate my efforts and show it too. I still do a lot of writing and some occasional design.

In the year I've been on the job, I've never had to lie to the media once, and neither, I believe, has my boss, who handles most of the external media requests. Basically all of our dealings with the media involve a reporter coming to us in search of an expert from our department to comment on a story about some science news story, and we try to find him someone who is knowledgeable on the subject and is a good interview. Now imagine if you were writing such a story and you had to figure out by yourself which one of the 100 scientists on our faculty list is the expert you should talk to (and believe me, the stuff they list in their web profiles tell you nothing unless you hold a science PhD). And also, a lot of scientist types don't like to talk to the media b/c they are in the "don't want to draw attention to myself and appear arrogant" mindset, and because they are often very busy between research, teaching, meetings, and administrative stuff, so we have to do some coaxing sometimes.

We do "coach" some of our faculty on how to be better interviewees, but we aren't telling them to lie. What we tell them is that the reporter isn't an adversary (b/c that's just not the case in our situation, since there isn't much dirt to be dug compared to, say, an athletics program). We tell them that if they are doing a pre-recorded interview that they can stop and start over on an answer if they feel like they screwed up. If they are a bad interview, the reporter might not use their quotes, and we don't get any exposure, so it helps both sides to have the faculty prepared. We do also teach them how to slip in some plugs for their own research in the course of the conversation, since that is our job -- to highlight the work the department is doing. But I haven't run across any ethical dilemmas.

 

honestly, how often do reporters use your "plugs"?

i hear one, and i ignore the hell out of it.

 

Or run a brief.

 

Dickhead media relations people aren't dickheads because they're media relations people. They're dickheads because they're dickheads. Period. There are a lot more good ones than bad, but the bad ones are the ones you tend to remember.

Same goes for dickhead sports writers.

 

dickhead.

 

OK, here's an example from a while back: A reporter calls up to talk about recent safety problems with Drug A. We set him up with an expert who does research on Drug A and other similar drugs. He discusses the problem about Drug A with the reporter, and in the course of the conversation, he's asked about possible solutions to the problem. We teach him that when he discusses the solutions (e.g.: tighter regulations), make sure to also mention the drugs he's researching because they can be substitutes for Drug A and don't have the same safety problems. Reporter takes the info, writes the story, mentions the solutions, including our researcher's work. As the story about Drug A continues to grow, other media outlets begin exploring secondary angles to the story and pick up on the substitute drugs that are in the works, leading to more press for our researcher. Some well-to-do individual reads the stories, calls up the researcher, and tells him that he would like to work with him on forming a startup company to develop the drugs he's working on.

A "plug" doesn't have to be gregarious self-promotion. Sometimes it's just part of answering a reporter's questions and making them aware of information related to the topic.

 

Well, I admit it fits. Sometimes.

 

Having worked in newspapers, magazines and for a couple of sports associations, I can honestly say I enjoy the media relations side the most. One thing I hate as a reporter is having to come into an event at the last minute. It wasn't unusual for me to be sent in to cover just the finals of week-long events. Because of this, I always felt a step or two behind.

As a media relations guy, I was there all week. I knew everyone from the security guard to the guys gunning for championships. I felt more in control of the situation because of this.

As for hours, let's put it this way. You'll never hear a media relations guy complaining about the traffic before or after an event. When you get there first thing in the morning and leave close to midnight, traffic isn't usually an issue! In my two stints as a media guy, I worked for associations that put on week-long, season-ending events. Many on our staff dreaded those championships because of the hours. But I lived for those weeks. After all, that's what we worked all year for. That's what those contestants worked all year for.

And although my employers didn't always like it, I was definitely a tell-it-like-it-is media guy. I'd worked in newspapers, so I understood that the truth always comes out eventually. Getting in front of it from the start was almost always the better way to go.