A Publicity Primer

As we accelerate our contacts with the industries we serve, and get to know the variety of individuals who are responsible for the publicity function at their respective concerns, we find a lot of misconceptions. Some are quite pervasive, and may even exist inside your organization. Just in case that's the case chez vous, we thought we'd offer this pass-along primer on publicity.

Not "free ads".

The most common phrase we hear from folks first trying to grasp publicity as a concept is "free advertising". That's a dangerous description. Advertising always allows you fairly direct control over content, timing and placement; publicity never does. This means that the editors (journalists) at the magazine or other publication or medium have absolutely no say-so on whether or not an ad will run. Advertising is strictly a commercial, contractual matter - you order and pay for the space (or commercial time), provide the materials, and that's what will run, and when, and where. Editors have full say-so on whether a news or feature or new products story will run, and when, and how it will be worded, and everything else. In most cases, no money changes hands (a very few publications do charge, which technically makes this an advertising alternative using publicity messages; we refuse to deal with such publications and they are seldom held in high regard by their readers).

Editors.

Advertising is never an editorial concern; publicity must be exclusively an editorial concern. Which is to say, all the things which give a publication its identity - everything that is not ads - are the responsibility of its editors. Editors, reporters, columnists and other journalists write about what they know and what they can learn to know, what they perceive and what they feel. They monitor the world around them, especially sensitive to items within their own particular beats or topics of coverage or assignments. It is publicity's job to make sure that information about what you do reaches these legions of writers, so when it's time to do the job, what you have and do is part of what they know and report.

Ethics.

Professional journalism ethics dictate that editors must take no notice of who does or does not advertise, accept no gifts or quid pro quo, nor conduct themselves in a manner that would raise any suspicion of tainted impartiality. In dynamic markets, successful publications abide very much by this ethic. A few smaller, less successful publications may stoop to favoring stories or new product announcements only from advertisers, but this practice is definitely on a decline. The more professional and prestigious the journalist, the more you should be careful to avoid any mention or suggestion of your advertising plans, or any other "pressure play", whether by carrot or by stick.

The nugget.

In sum, publicity is about getting your products and activities covered in the news and features sections of appropriate media by providing information, and never by paying money for an agreement to allow the news to appear. While you lose control over the wording and appearance of any mentions, you gain the credibility of an objective third party, the journalist, and perhaps a stated or implied endorsement. Empirically, on the bottom line, publicity costs less and gains more exposure, more broadly than advertising.