Enough with the PR-Spam Lists

Let me preface this post by reminding you all that I work with the media and that I have the utmost respect for journalists, bloggers and the like. In fact, I'm close friends with several journalists and bloggers in my personal life.

BUT I'm getting a little tired of hearing about how bloggers and journalists are sick of dealing with PR people. Granted these journalists are specifically complaining about PR professionals that "spam" useless pitches, but they need to understand that it's hurting the PR industry as a whole. Let's just say some new AAE at my agency emails a blogger (innocently) asking them to cover a product? I may have absolutely nothing to do with their pitch, but my agency would end up on a "spammer" list or Wiki.

Most recently, Gina Trapani of Lifehacker created a Wiki, encouraging others to add to her blacklist. A few months ago Chris Anderson of Wired created his own list, which was equally offensive (to the PR folk, maybe not to the journalists).

So in an attempt to make things right between PR people and the Media, please accept this apology on behalf of my fellow colleagues. I'm sorry that your inbox is flooded with emails that you don't care about. I know how annoying it is to get tons of emails from people you don't know and don't have time to respond to. It's a shame that people send emails to your personal email addresses - this is the equivalent of a telemarketing call and we ALL hate telemarketers.

Fortunately I've never been on any of your spammer lists, nor have any of my colleagues, but I worry that one day one of my pitches will be misconstrued. I spend hours each day thoroughly reading your publications/blogs/following you on twitter/etc. and I hope there is never a misunderstanding. Although, if at all possible, could you please be more considerate about posting people's names and companies on these spam lists? There are a lot of good PR people who are being put in a difficult situation because of ONE bad pitch. To be honest, one pitch shouldn't make or break someones career, nor should it keep you from ever reading another pitch from someone at their company.

And just to remind you, we need to all work together.

PR people need to be smart and think twice before sending a pitch to someone new. They should read your columns, blogs, etc. and then make a decision as to whether or not they should pitch you their new USB alarm clock, etc. At the same time, PR people work REALLY hard to make sure we're getting you all the appropriate news. We spend months planning press conferences, we take you to nice lunches (and mind you, this is the ONLY time we get to leave the office for lunch), we occasionally give you sample products (when appropriate) and then you add us to a blacklist? That just doesn't seem right. I think we all need to work a little harder so we can meet halfway here.

Thanks for listening,
LaurieShuls