I'm a web strategist and aspiring know-it-all with a passion for all things digital. I've worked in PR, advertising and not-for profit industries, and now I run a creative agency. These are the things I think about, and am sometimes compelled to write. More...

Radical Transparency in PR

Jan 22 2007
11

I read a lot of blogs.  My favourites change over time, but one of my current favourites is Chris Anderson’s blog (no relation).  The Long Tail, is without a doubt, the best book about communications I have read in years, and Anderson’s blog is teeming with insight into the world of digital culture.  If you don’t read it, you should.

Lately, Anderson has been talking a lot about “radical transparency,” that is, businesses operating in full view of the world – doing away with secrecy and letting it all hang out.  Blogging has tried to do this to a certain degree, but not to this extent.  Of course, I don’t think that Anderson is suggesting that all businesses should work this way, so much as posing the question “what if they did?”

So, I got thinking about PR, as I am wont to do, and how “radical transparency” can help our profession.  Certainly, being completely open about issues we are discussing puts bold claims above scrutiny.  Imagine touting a private company as the “leading maker of X” and being able to back that up with sales figures, staff numbers and other data that CFOs and lawyers would never in a million years let you publish.

Beyond these fevered dreams of cooperation, how can this idea help the profession of public relations?  One thing that has always struck me as odd (but I did anyway, because that’s how I was taught) is that we never give clients full contact details for our media lists.  Maybe this is just the firms I’ve worked with in the past, but I know a few that make this a practice.  Sometimes, I do this just for the sake of simplicity, in general, I couldn’t care less.

It’s ridiculous, and even a bit damaging to the profession, when you think of it.  In a way, it says to clients that our only value is in knowing someone’s phone number.  If we let our clients know that privleged information, they could easily do our jobs themselves.  Of course, this is not the case, but that is exactly what keeping this information so close to our chest says.

So sharing contact information with your clients isn’t exactly radical, but what if we shared that information with each other?  What if, instead of guarding that golden rolodex, we laid out our hottest media contact for each other to see, including pitching notes, bios, photos, personal websites, blogs, beliefs, insights and everything else that will help us understand the reporters we’re pitching, and give them better pitches.  What if this was all free, and all that was required is that you have to disclose as well?

Seems to me that this would be pretty handy.  Bowden’s only takes you so far, and unless you’re focused on one or two industries, it’s very hard to know the key media in every market as well as you’d probably like to.

So – my question to all of you is this:

If such a thing existed, would you take part?  Would you share your contacts in exchange for other contacts?

If you are, let me know.  I’ve got some ideas, and if I get enough people on board, I’m willing to make it happen.

  • http://www.responsiblepress.org Joe Boughner

    You’re bang on when you say you do it that way because that’s how you were taught. The power of convention trumps the power of common sense far too often.

    One of the biggest problems that newspapers have had adapting to the new communications realities is that they are constantly trying to see how new technology can be applied to what they do, rather than by looking at what new doors are open. They get their columnists to blog about things they otherwise opine about in their columns each day, rather than look at new possibilities.

    I gather the same problem exists in PR, to a large extent.

  • http://www.responsiblepress.org Joe Boughner

    Erm, all of that to say that yes, I think the sharing of contacts would be a forward-thinking move that would benefit those who took part.

    Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my own preamble I forget to deliver my point.

  • http://www.ryananderson.ca Ryan

    That’s kind of what interests me about the concept of radical transparency – the fact that it flies in the face of convention. My first thought when I read it was “this would never work,” and then I thought “maybe I should at least consider it.”

    I still think it would be impossible in most situations, but interesting possibilities come out of thinking about the impossible.

  • http://www.roundestpeginthesquaresthole.blogspot.com Ryan / Andy

    I can see where you are going with this and on one level I agree, but coming at this from the other side of the aisle (I’m a reporter) there could be a blow back to what you’re proposing.
    For one, journalists, even small rural town ones like myself, get a lot of pitches and have limited patience for poor ones.
    While some people in your industry might use a large contact database to better tailor the right pitches to the right reporters, others might just use it to pitch every reporter they can on every story they have.
    How far would this openness extend? I have been known to give my home or cell phone number to important sources, but I would be rather disappointed if they then shared it with everybody?
    In general I like the idea of more openness in the PR business. I think it would give the public a better idea of how you’re industry works, but I think at the same time many of you’re clients would prefer if you were seen without being seen.

  • http://www.ryananderson.ca Ryan

    Hey Ryan / Andy – good to see you!

    Thing is, you get bad pitches from bad PR people. This would ideally allow the good PR people to deliver good pitches by detailing what you’re actually interested in.

    You’re already listed in Mediasource and every database of journalists in the world. They search for whatever beat you’re on, and they’re pitching you because they’re on a list in front of them.

    Would it not be better to have people calling you that knew what you wanted and when you wanted to be contacted – people that knew something about you?

    As for everyone having access, it would be limited to the community that updates it… it could grow to be fairly large, but that community is going to know enough not to pitch you on something that you wouldn’t care about.
    As for things like cell phone numbers, you’re right – things like that should be out.

  • http://www.greenbanana.com Heather Yaxley

    A couple of thoughts on this excellent post:

    1. I’ve never understood why PR practitioners aren’t transparent in citing sources to back up claims in (for example) press releases. If you cannot substantiate “leading company”, you shouldn’t put it. When I worked at Toyota, we backed up our claim that the Corolla was the world’s best selling car by reference to published sources of sales and production data.

    2. As an example of PR practitioners being open in sharing contacts etc, I am the general secretary of the Motor Industry Public Affairs Association (www.mipaa.com) – which has nearly 500 members representing competitors in the major car brands as well as consultancies. There is a great amount of co-operation and sharing in terms of open meetings with journalists, driving days to compare each others’ vehicles, hosting of training for members, a forum for press fleet administrators, etc. We have a published directory with key media and other contacts listed, a free JobSearch service and mentoring programme, and we’re about to publish on our website information provided by online media to improve the service the industry as a whole provides to these guys. It seems to work – the association is 40 years old in 2008. This is an incredibly competitive industry, but there is a level of trust and friendship that isn’t found in many areas of PR in my experience. It isn’t unusual for manufacturers in the UK motor industry to co-ordinating travel arrangements for journalists between competitor car launches. I’d love to know if there is any similar openness elsewhere in PR or if MIPAA is unique.

  • http://www.martinhofmann.net Martin

    Hi Ryan,

    We use Vocus PR software-as-a-service for our media database (and other things). It may be a closed concept but in a limited way it already does what you are asking for.

    Database entries can be tagged as a private entry or a system entry. If it is a system entry, then everybody else who uses Vocus can see the entry (after the Vocus research team verifies the info). If it is a private entry, then only the members of your company can see it and it doesn’t get shared with the rest of the Vocus world.

    We are trying to make as much information as possible a system entry because we believe that it will help everyone if everyone helps to update it. If it is a cell phone number that a reporter doesn’t want to share, then we keep it as a private entry.

    The golden rolodex is an outdated concept in some ways already. I don’t think it is a competitive advantage for us if we have updated contact info and another agency doesn’t. It’s the relationship (and not being stupid about a pitch) that matters.

    What we are using isn’t perfect by far, and I have no idea how many other Vocus users are contributing to updating the system info (vs. keeping private records). A free system would probably encourage more people to willingly share.

    But I like what we have, and I think it is okay that it isn’t free because Vocus has a research team working on updating and verifying information on their end, too.

    – Martin

  • http://www.roundestpeginthesquaresthole.blogspot.com Ryan / Andy

    Good to see you as well Ryan.

    I suppose it would be nice to have only good PR people pitching me on what I care about, but I wonder if you could really limit access to only the good PR people. If crappy PR person A adds one name to your little online rolodex and Excellent PR person B adds 100 would they both still have access to the whole thing?
    Likely because my readership is small (less than 5000) my encounters with PR people is pretty limited as it stands, but most of those who do get a hold of me are pitching things I couldn’t care less about.
    Like every business, there are good and bad practitioners of the craft. What you are proposing would be an excellent tool for both good and bad practitioners of PR and once something is online it becomes difficult to control.
    I like the idea of more transparency in PR and I think there should be more transparency in the way journalists deal with PR professionals.
    I think, for example journalists should better acknowledge when a story comes from a pitch or press release.
    At the same time, I think there would be a limit to how much transparency your clients would be willing to accept.

  • http://www.ryananderson.ca Ryan

    Heather – most of the time, I think that PR people would much rather be transparent (unless they’re whitewashing) but sometimes corporate realities rear their ugly head. You could disclose sales figures, etc., because Toyota is a public company. Most private companies I’ve worked with would never disclose that kind of information publicly, and to some degree it makes sense. It just means that you have to back up your claims with different metrics.

    Interesting that there’s so much cooperation in your industry. I think there is some semblance of that here – for instance I belong to groups where it’s easy to ask if anyone has a contact for X. Usually, they’ll share.

    Martin – I’ve actually never heard of Vocus. I’ll have to check that out when I’m deciding what service to use for my media database this year. What I was suggesting wouldn’t replace your regular software… what I had in mind was more like a wiki than a database.

    You’re right – it is about the relationship, and that’s what’s behind this idea. When I have to pitch a new reporter, I want to read what they’ve written, read their blog, know what they look like, things like that. Having a place where we could share that research would be nice.

    Ryan – remember, if bad PR people want to find you, they’ll find you. You bring up an interesting point about transparency when dealing with PR people… but to me, if you disclosed that a story came from a pitch, you’d have to disclose that a story came from watching The National the night before or from a man on a flaming pie in a dream. We provide our side of the story, but I think it’s taken for granted that you’re going to do your own research as well. I find it odd to put a different value on a story that came from a PR person than from one that came from anywhere else.

  • http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/brendanhodgson Brendan

    Ryan, a couple of things to add to your intriguing post…

    Simply giving clients the same tools we have does not logically assume that they know how to use them as we do – ie. tailoring the pitch to the reporter/publication, or weeding out those reporters who have no interest in the topic based on previous pitching efforts or existing relationships. It also does not assume that they know how to present their own “story” in a way that is relevant to the audience of the publication.

    My point being that, for many organizations, media relations is not our direct client’s strength nor is it their job title nor is it anywhere in their job description (depending on how big the organization is) – which is why they rely on us. I have shared contact information with clients and virtually every time, they have either blundered and asked us to clean up their mess, or elected (upon seeing the level of effort required, and acknowledging that we may have as strong or stronger relationships) to allow the agency to manage the process on their behalf.

    Personally, it’s not an issue of transparency. It is about relationships (as Martin stated) and experience, and benefiting from what many of my colleagues – and many in the agency world – do every day.

    Granted, and as Andy/Ryan indicated… a bad PR agency can do as much damage as the client might do themselves.

  • http://www.ryananderson.ca Ryan

    Brendan – I agree with you wholeheartedly. I should also be clear that I was not stating that sharing your contacts would put you out of business, but that I have known firms who felt this way.

    If the only benefit that we provided as media relations experts was a list of contacts, we’d all be out of business pretty quickly.