Dealing With Press Officers

Many journalists view the steady rise and rise of press officers and media managers with contempt. As John Humphreys put it, the view of many journalists is that while journalists are in the business of revealing, press officers are often in the business of concealing.

The truth is more complicated than that, but if you have the misfortune of dealing with a bad one then they can annoy you with their lack of understanding of journalism and block your access to decision makers.

Using Press Offices

While many editors hark back to a golden age when press offices did not exist, a good one can actually make your job easier.

Firstly, they give you a central point to direct your enquiry to. This can be worth its weight in gold when you are trying to find the right person to talk to in the labyrinthine structures of public sector organisations.

A press officer can also help you make the story meaningful for the reader. If you wanted a statement from the council's head of planning, for example, then there is every chance it would be so full of jargon as to be unusable. But a good press officer will make sure the jargon is taken out before it gets to you.

They can also give you valuable guidance and because they are used to dealing with the media they generally do not have the same distrust of journalists that makes their colleagues fearful of engaging with the media. They can emphasise the importance of meeting a deadline to colleagues who do not understand the way newspapers work and the good ones can sometimes steer you away from stories that could lead to you getting egg on your face.

Getting the Most Out of Press Offices

Be assertive with press officers without being rude. Many journalists will tell you that being rude to them is the only way to keep them in their place, but I disagree with this. I have heard plenty of journalists shouting at them and not only does it come across as unprofessional but it is also unlikely to get the result you need. Almost every press officer is much more scared of their manager's reaction to a negative story than they are to being shouted at by a journalist.

Make sure you use press offices when you can and always think about how national organisations can help you. For example, if you are writing about someone with a particular disease, there is a good chance a charity that raises awareness of that disease will be able to put you in touch with a local case study.

Also, do not feel it is wrong to make deals with press officers if it means you end up with a better story. I once wrote a story about how a child had almost drowned in a council swimming pool but was rescued by a man who had been swimming with his own children.

The council press officer said he could not put me in touch with the man because of data protection. I replied that if we could find the man then we would run a story about him being a hero, but if not then we would be running a story asking why a young child had almost died in a council swimming pool. Within hours, we had the man's phone number.

Setting Deadlines for Press Officers

Make sure you always give press officers a firm deadline for a response. Generally, you should make sure their deadline is a few hours before yours. That way, even if they are slightly late then you will not miss your own deadline.

Also, make sure you leave enough time to re-write the story as rather than just adding their response to the end of a story, you should leave enough time in case their response merits a complete re-write of the story.

Often, your deadline will be some days before the paper comes out, particularly if you are working for a weekly and the story is going towards the back of the paper. Press officers will sometimes argue that your deadline is unfair and that they are often allowed to give a comment much closer to the paper coming out. Explain to them that different pages have different deadlines but do not be apologetic about it and as a general rule do not compromise with them. They are supposed to have an understanding of the media so they should know this.

Problems With Press Offices

Sometimes it can feel like the bad press officers outnumber the good ones. All too often, they miss deadlines and they stop you getting the access you need.

When this is the case, you should not put up with it. It goes without saying that they will be accentuating the positive for their organisation and you just have to live with that. But if they are missing deadlines or using jargon, for example, then you should tell them your concerns.

If their performance does not improve then you should let their boss know. And if their boss does not do anything about it then complain to their boss' boss, and carry on going until you reach the top of the organisation. Never forget that while you might be paid peanuts, people who have budgets of hundreds of millions of pounds actually care about what you think and do not want to get on the wrong side of you.

The easiest problem to address is if a press officer consistently misses deadlines. Simply warn them that the next time they do not meet a deadline then it will go to press without their comment. But if you make a threat, make sure you follow through with it.

If the relationship is going badly, it is always worth meeting up with them to try to clear the air. You can compromise a little, but do not back down. Just clearly tell them what you want and what you expect, whether it is access to talk to senior people in the organisation or whether it is getting statements on time.

The issue of access to senior people is an important one. In the practicality of the working world, you have to be realistic about the fact that the chief executive of the local council or health trust is not going to be available to you all the time and it can make things more simple for both sides if media enquiries all go through the press office.

Whether you agree with this or not, this is generally the way things are done now and you are probably just going to have to get used to it. But having said that, if you find you are never speaking to senior management then things are not right. The only person who can change it is you.