| Topic Name: |
Breaking into PR and Advertising |
| Message Name: |
Been there |
| Date Posted: |
03/13/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
I have 3 years of TV experience as a producer and I've been going CRAZY trying to break into PR. I've been on 11 interviews in the past year and gotten no job offers. They tell me that I need an internship or I don't have enough "media relations experience"---I am the media! I have writing samples from free lance work. Who can help me?! |
| Message: |
I worked in broadcasting as a producer/editor (11 years news/talk radio, 3 TV) before getting into the PR side. I'm now a senior VP in Communications making six figures. What helped me make the transition was good old networking. Yep, even with 10 years experience I VOLUNTEERED to do PR for a local non-profit to get more visible as a PR expert. I joined the board of my area press club, which has a TON of PR members. They got to know me. I was sought out for my first job. THEN I went back to school for a master's degree.
Now that I've worked with a lot of PR people, some ex-media types, the best ones make themselves known and get comfortable with the PR community. If you just work in the studio and aren't ever seen anywhere else, BIG MISTAKE. Many of them frankly aren't sure what a producer even DOES.
I also have a bias AGAINST hiring ex-media, particularly reporters. Why? Because of the mindset I sense in your email. I could be wrong, but when you say "I am the media!" I get a sense of entitlement. PR is more about strategic planning, political relationships, handholding, budgeting, meetings, etc., than it is just knowing who the assignment editor is and what the inside numbers are. a lot of people in the media really never do any of these things. Can you really WRITE? Can you put out a typical desktop newsletter? Assemble a great press kit? Strategize a good campaign? Put together a crisis communications plan? A lot of media people think PR jobs are just providing soundbites on camera for your organization, which is perhaps 5 percent of the job at best.
I would caution you to be a little more humble about your media background when you interview. Unfortunately there are plenty of PR types who don't much like the media, even though they work with them everyday. You want to start talking and thinking like your interviewer ("us"). Leave your old job at the door ("them"). Stress your excellent planning skills as a producer, your management skills working with reporters, camera crews, writers, editors, and news directors, and be sure to have great samples that translate well to PR jobs. I've advised a lot of my former colleagues to do this, and they have been successful. Good luck!
Gayle, San Diego
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