Actually, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. There were many other negative factors, but the lack of recognition for extra time and effort was too much. The moment I received the “great news” about my raise, I made the decision to create my own company and take control of my own earnings.

I was tired of being valued based on their view of how compensation levels should reflect the org chart template they downloaded from the internet.

You are right about the problem of relying 100% on web-based communication. And, I don’t profess that NEVER sending press releases to journalists or developing a relationship with journalists is the way to go. Many journalists, in my experience are savvy enough and reclusive enough to find their sources on the web, on their terms, without being bothered by account executives and the like.

But, traditional PR will most likely always have a place in the world. And, for the smaller companies who don’t, or can’t, spend a lot of money on PR, I will say that distributing releases via the web is the best ‘first step’ in a campaign. Beyond that, it is important to develop relationships with local media, and yes, PR firms are often the best choice if the money for that is available.

As for mass distributing to a huge list having little more value than posting to Google, I respectfully disagree. Every release I distribute in this way gives me three things:

1. A lovely spike in traffic to my website
2. Qualified leads about my services
3. Better search engine ranking so that when people DO look for a copywriter using Google…they find me.

One last note, a brake pad manufacturer is a B2B…they sell to the distributors and retailers of the world. My clients are (90%) in the B2C arena. Suggesting traditional media for the brake pad manufacturer makes perfect sense because I don’t see some product sourcing specialist at Wal-Mart doing a Google search to find out where they’ll buy brake pads from next quarter. Like you said, they pick up Automotive News.

In college, (I took PR in college) I was always taught to ask “Who is my audience? And, what do they want?”

I’ve changed that over time into “Who is my audience? And, how do they find me?”

Jason

Those articles are still acheived through good old fashioned media relations - building a relationship with the editor at AN, learning what is important to his readers (and, by extension, the industry), and then pitching hard news or feature-style stories that interest those readers.

PR pros that ignore the basics of media pitching in lieue of relying only on Web based communication are not doing their jobs. Those that counsel clients to do so are doing them a disservice.

So, yes, news releases should be sent to journalists. The key is sending to the right journalists, rather than mass distributing to huge lists. That has little more value than posting Google.

It’s quite obvious when one sees or hears a commercial that causes me to laugh out loud, but then, moments later, I can’t remember the product or service that’s being “marketed”, I feel sorry for the company who paid good money for creative and got just that: creative… but got no effective marketing vehicle!

My two cents…

Warren

Thanks,
Kim