What, Me, Wormy?

“Sleazy. Disingenuous. These are words used in U.K. newspaper coverage of the public relations industry.”

So starts an article in today’s USA Today.

Sigh.

The whole thing is a must read, and would take terrabytes of copy to address, so I won’t do it here (at least not today). But the upshot is that PR suffers from a PR problem, ironically. I would submit that this all depends on who’s doing the PR-in’. Virtually any industry can suffer from a misperception of snake-oil salesmanship (which is why many companies need PR in the first place). Sales of any kind, indeed lawyers, chiropracty, consultancy…the list goes on and on.

But it’s troubling when it’s your own life’s work under the microscope. Thank you to all who have earned a reputation for doing it the right way. Those who value media relationships as much as those of the client. Those who act as counselors, not order takers. Those who work hard to understand what “news” really is.  There’s not much one can do about the ne’er-do-wells….in our industry or any other.

I welcome your comments.