Conversations with PR people that are short
Bring!! I am at work. It is the phone. I am answering it.
PR person: Hello, I was calling to see if you’d like to meet someone, he’s the chief of a company that’s got an instant messaging product for the financial community, and–
Me: Sorry, why would that be relevant to our consumer-focused technology section?
PR: Well, I thought that because it’s IT, that–
Me: Have you read the section lately?
PR: Well, I know that you cover IT in the Online section, and–
Me: It hasn’t been called ‘Online’ for more than a year.
PR: Oh, um–
Me: Why don’t you give me a call back when you’ve read it?
It’s not even as if there are many “technology” or “IT” sections to have to keep up with in the nationals these days, either.
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- The best all-in-one Apple IM client? (24 September 2004; score: 45.06%)
- Kieren doesn't like the US TV news. We'll explain why right after this message! (23 July 2008; score: 24.56%)
- 'Missing' plutonium: just as you are missing money you still own (17 February 2005; score: 22.14%)




December 21st, 2006 at 8:35 pm
Respect.
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:41 pm
A similar thing happened to me last month too. From a PR company that was a finalist in “Outstanding PR Company Of The Year”. The idea was that I’d interview a CEO of an electronic design automation software company to talk about ‘future gadgets that may be powered by chips’. Another PR person that hadn’t done their homework properly.
January 3rd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Short conversations with PRs…
Charles Arthur shows that basic PR errors still linger on to annoy journalists.
I used to work with……
January 4th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Ha ha!
Every day of the week I get people pitching consumer stories at my business related section on Techworld.
Shall I give them your number?
Peter
January 5th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
PR industry struggling… and here’s why…
Interesting post by analyst relations firm, Lighthouse, about research that shows a massive slow-up in the PR industry in 2006 and predicted for 2007 [via Andrew Smith]. This deserves more investigation but I don’t have time right now to do…
January 5th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Nicely done Charles!
January 21st, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Charles I know this is old but WTF? technology.guardian.co.uk/businesssense
January 21st, 2007 at 9:56 pm
@7: businesssense.. yes, it’s a monthly supplement (which is only clued by the fact that they have different sections mentioned by months there). It’s not edited by me, appears on a different day from the Technology supplement, and is more aimed at small business than “the financial community”, which is what the original bod was calling about.
“Instant messaging for the financial community” lights a bulb in my head that goes “B2B”, and there aren’t any sockets like that in what I think we’re doing. Could change, of course, but presently, no.