Public Relations and the Myth of ‘Free’

Not long ago, an opportunity crossed my desk for a media interview that was a good fit for one of my client’s clients. It wouldn’t directly benefit my bottom line, but the referral would have been a gesture of goodwill, which the client could then extend to their own client. 

And when clients are happy, I’m happy.

During our initial call to discuss the interview, the business owner rightly asked me if there would be a cost involved.

“No, this is a true editorial opportunity,” I responded.

“Oh, so it’s free.”

Before I could breathe, I responded, “My time isn’t free.”

A hundred times before this instance, I probably wouldn’t have responded with such gusto. Though this wasn’t my first encounter with such conversations, it illustrated an important point that we as PR practitioners don’t emphasize often enough with our clients.

Communicating what ‘earned media’ means

The phrase “earned media” feels stodgy to me (can we please modernize it a little? I’m open to rebranding), but it is accurate. Media relations takes work.

To reach the right audience, story angles and tactics require a good deal of planning and effort. And even the best story ideas don’t always land on the first pitch to influencers, producers or editors. Follow-ups upon follow-ups can take hours. Even after making all that effort, we often hear “no” — or worse yet, the sound of crickets chirping.  

In media relations, we also contend with editorial calendars, publications with long lead times, and breaking news that bumps our stories and alters our schedules. These facts of the business compound the time-consuming steps that are already easy for clients to overlook and underappreciate in an outcome-driven landscape. That’s why PR practitioners have to communicate to clients not only the work required to attain that sweet media coverage, but also the effort involved with fielding media opportunities as they arise. 

Making preparations

With media cycles moving at lightning speed, you might find yourself waking before dawn to catch the day before it runs away from you. Time, in every sense, is crucial to our success as PR professionals. 

If an opportunity appears and the media wants to interview your client, then you need to have them ready immediately. But even as we work to make sure everyone will be prepared even under impossible deadlines, the fastest-developing opportunities are surrounded by elements that take time — writing talking points, coordinating interviews, training and preparing clients to talk with reporters, etc.

Assigning value to time

Just as there’s no such thing as a free lunch, publicity is never free. We always have to remember to put a value on our own time.

There are costs associated with time in media relations, whether that time is spent by your firm’s owner, its employees or its outsourced partners. Someone is taking time away from something else to make an opportunity happen on your client’s behalf.

Efficiencies are at play in this equation as well. Many of us aren’t blessed (or cursed) with contained roles within our organizations — meaning that at any given moment, we’re bouncing among an array of marketing roles. As a result, any time that we spend in a particular arena, whether it’s earned—owned or paid media—becomes more valuable.

My example of arranging a media interview for a client’s client is an anomaly in many ways, but it still serves to remind PR practitioners that we need to better educate our clients about how we work (whether we’re in-house, agency or independent). True, public relations is often more cost-effective than paid media opportunities, but it entails different kinds of costs.

The clients appreciated my gesture of arranging the interview for them. Thanks to a little tough-love transparency, they respected the time involved and walked away with a deeper understanding of how the media relations process works. 


photo credit: ryccio