Categories: OLD Media Moves

How biz journalism has changed in dealing with PR folks

Chris Rauber, a reporter for the San Francisco Business Times, writes about how business journalism has changed and is more opinionated, particularly when it is dealing with companies.

Rauber writes, “This came up just yesterday, when I was excoriated by an experienced PR guy for referring to his company’s name as ‘unwieldy’ in print.

“(Go on, Google it. Be my guest. That’s part of the point: in a world dominated, at least for now, by Google, we’re drowning in facts, data and untethered opinion, all of which can be found via Google in a New York minute. That’s where ‘informed observation’ comes in. Readers increasingly want me and other journalists to act like human beings, tell the story as best we can, and not to pretend we’re objective machines totally above and beyond the fray.)

“So, here’s the point: the company’s name IS unwieldy. I could do a survey, ask thousands of people, and assuming they knew the meaning of the word ‘unwieldy’ or had it explained to them, they’d agree with me. Company names/brands like Coca-Cola, IBM, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Fireman’s Fund, Cigna, etc., work. People understand them. They appeal to people.

“‘The Blah Blah Blah Boring Hard to Understand Company Inc.,’ as a moniker, not so much.

“According to my editors, and our parent company, part of my job now as a reporter is to make that kind of point. Because it’s true and I know it’s true, without doing lots of superfluous research, or calling an ‘expert’ to ask if it is. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, well….. you know the rest of the story.”