PR agency won’t repeat journalist awards following complaint from recipient
The owner of the PR agency which dished out trophies to its favourite journalists has insisted “it was not a bad idea”, but admitted it will be the first and last time it runs the awards after receiving a complaint from one of the winners, and ridicule on social media.
Wordstorm founder Monica Rosenfeld announced the winners of its inaugural Stormy Awards last week, with the recipients receiving the surprise trophy in the post. Awards ranged from the ‘most approachable TV producer’, to ‘the journalist that best featured our client’ and ‘the journalist we’d most love to employ as a PR’.
But the awards were roundly condemned on social media by both journalists and PRs, with one Twitter user saying “I love my job and think there’s good to be done through it, but people in the wider PR industry make me sick at times”.
The agency has apologised to one winner who complained her reputation had been tarnished.
Rosenfeld, who founded Wordstorm 14 years ago, defended the awards, insisting it was simply a “light-hearted” way of recognising journalists and claimed a “fair few” winners had been supportive.
“The aim was to acknowledge bloggers and journalists and the work they do in a fun and light hearted way. It was nothing deeper than that,” she told Mumbrella. “We had one journalist contact us who was not happy and we are talking to her at the moment. We sent her an apology.
“But most just took it very well and we had a fair few emailing saying it was a nice thing to do. I am surprised at the negativity because it was just light hearted activity.”
She said the winner who complained wrote a story about a charity called Hands Across the World, a pro-bono client of Wordstorm.
“Without such publicity for Hands Across the World it would not be able to continue its work,” she said.
Asked if she regretted The Stormys Rosenfeld said: “It is not something we would go again because of the negativity. In hindsight, I don’t think it was a bad idea but if we did it again then we would give more thought to the nature of the awards.”
On its website, Wordstorm said of the awards: “The Stormy Awards reward journalists and bloggers who we feel stand out in their category, on both a professional and personal level. These awards are our way of saying thank you to our friends in the media who make our job a little easier and much more enjoyable!”
Steve Jones
Water. Hands Across The Water.
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Some people can’t take a little light hearted fun these days, that Journo needs to take it easy…
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I don’t understand why any journo would object to being acknowledged in a positive way. My daily grist is dodging flack, the compliments are very few and far between. Good on you, Monica Rosenfeld!
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Yet again, PR agencies spectacularly mismanaging their own PR. And if they can’t even manage their own…
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while the whole concept is a suckfest gone wrong, it’s a bit tiresome to hear journos constantly complain about PRs (remember that recent op ed from the Fairfax journo who hates PRs because they write her name as Alex instead of Alexandra..or whatever it is…get over yourself luvvie), yet CONSTANTLY use PRs to inform their articles, and THEN have the gall to complain about their reputation being tarnished when they get outed…
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Wow – they really don’t understand the negativity?
In case Monica is reading this, let me explain.
Good journalists are expected to tell stories based on it being a good story – not because the talent has been able to afford help from PR.
To even admit that you’ve decided on a story because of PR input is viewed as lazy, poor journalism.
That the story needed PR in the first place speaks to the story not being good enough on it’s own to stand up and for a journalist to choose that one over many other potentially greater stories without PR says they’ve been too lazy to look.
If you had given one of these awards to someone at the abc or community media – that person would have been investigated for poor conduct.
Personally, I think the sight of these awards going to commercial media is worse since it reinforces the idea that independent commercial journalism is dead and what we’re left with is thinly veiled advertisements masquerading as editorial content.
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Can’t fault them for trying something new, it is a decent idea.
Then again, I would likely be voted ‘Biggest Prick To Deal With’ by most PR’s pitching lifestyle stories..
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“…yet CONSTANTLY use PRs to inform their articles, and THEN have the gall to complain about their reputation being tarnished when they get outed…”
Only the bad ones.
All the journos I know hate PR people and their incessant phone calls and annoying sucky tone of voice, ridiculous “news” releases, constant requests to see copy before it goes to print, follow up complaints and frequent dishonesty.
Employ none of the above and you’ll stun a journo silly, might even get a positive yarn out of it.
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As a journo, I too was groaning at this, but many categories were indeed lighthearted and I’m not surprised some winners were thankful. But I do product reviews and the last thing anyone in my area would want to win is, “the journalist that best featured our client.” That’s the real killer there. Winning it would be a black mark against your professionalism.
Wordstorm operates in this space so it should know better, even if the winner in this case was for a charity.
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The world of PR is broad and so is the world of journalism.
When we hear complaints about PR, it’s often the type who promote products or services, who are looking for unpaid advertising. But there are many who are literally public relations officers, who will help journalists reach the right people and find the right information no matter the story.
And on the journalism side, the world of glossy magazines is far removed from the 7pm news. Both would consider themselves journalists, but the editor of a women’s mag would respond much differently to these awards than would the anchor of ABC’s evening bulletin.
Whenever this debate comes up, I’m particularly disappointed to see that Mumbrella readers can’t differentiate between lines of work which are obviously very different.
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The “awards” were ill-thought out and quite ridiculous. The journalists did not enter them – who would enter a category for quickest email response? – and so have every right to complain. They were a bad idea. I would be more concerned if journalists didn’t complain…
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I can’t believe the agency was so naive to do did this. Some of the awards were just embarassing. I think all consultants have conversations about which jouralists they like to work with but to give them an award??? What journalist would want to receive one and have their repuation and professionalism questioned? Did the agency think about the conflict interest issues for journalists that received an award and then write an article about their client in the future? Like I said, naive.
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Tamz, the comparisons between mediums are irrelevant – it’s all about the audience.
The reader of a product review in a magazine and the viewer of the 7pm news both have the same expectation – that the media they are consuming has been prepared independent of commercial meddling.
No PR representative is there to “help journalists reach the right people and find the right information no matter the story” without a financial incentive to achieve a specific goal for their client.
Regardless of whether the journalist and the client/PR have aligned goals, if any of those goals contravene the expectations of the audience for independent editorial media, the journalist should be ashamed of their conduct and shouldn’t call themselves such.
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Sigh – must we? My take on this is many journos take themselves waaaaay too seriously and many PRs don’t take their work seriously enough. But really, both sides of the debate here are puerile. This kind of debate doesn’t happen in the US where PR is a mature part of business strategy and journos get the commercial reality of that …
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Greta, what fantasy land are you living in? the one where ‘good journalists’ have a magical capacity to know every story worth telling? where those same people can still do this despite an unprecedented workload in under-resourced newsrooms running to a 24/7 news cycle? Where they are experts on every topic worth talking about and have a divine ability to credibly curate the interesting and important? Your naivety and lack of practical experience of journalism leads me to believe that you can only be a journalism student. Care to confirm?
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Another case of social media hypersensitivity getting in the way. Like last week’s brouhaha about a book of Roald Dahl poems first published in 1982 resulted in it being taken off the shelves because it contained the word ‘slut’, these well I intentioned awards are gone. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging someone who helps you to deliver the goods. If you don’t want it, just put it in the big. I bet if they sent the journp some chocolates there wouldn’t have been an issue.
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Wordstorm in a teacup. While perhaps misguided, the trophies were not real awards and could have been ditched as simply and quietly as I’m sure a lot of other PR packages every day.
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Hard to believe that the agency couldn’t understand the reaction. I’m not a journalist and haven’t worked in PR but the awards seem like a naming and shaming process to me – being named as someone who’s easy to manipulate can hardly be good for your reputation. If you personally can’t see that media consumers have an expectation of honest research and fair opinion then you are probably standing too close to the fire. Even with product reviews there is an expectation it’s not a “Brand Power” ad and viewers are tuned in to smell product placement.
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Greta – that’s a grave insult to many many people working in communication.
We’re not all flacks trying to sell weight loss pills. What about, for example, the communication team at the CFA? Their job in a bushfire is to ensure that people have correct, timely information which could save their lives.
I could name dozens of other specific examples – from CSIRO to big businesses to government (believe it or not).
And of course there will always be spin doctors (even at the CFA). But it’s the job of the journalist to use their judgement to tell the difference – not to tar all PR officers with the same brush.
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So many comments about integrity but too gutless to post real names. I’m not a wanker but how do I get a job in this industry?
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A few remarks from someone who’s worked on both sides…
When I first read of the awards a day or two back, the idea grated. It demonstrates a tin ear, a marked lack of empathy on WS’s part for journalists – especially the one who “best featured our client”. And the backpedal into the client being a charity reads like second-rate damage control. Might be worth looking at what other WS clients that journo touched on, I’d say.
That said, some journalists seem to think open and blanket contempt for PRs is the key to gun credibility. That’s as big a toss as the Stormies.
For scribes, it’s as easy as this: take what you need, bin the rest and don’t take pride in being nasty. Not publicly, anyway.
Which brings me to my last point: to the PR from Pulse who once told me I wasn’t important enough to get the sporting event ticket passed on to me by my editor: I left that men’s lifestyle mag to report for five solid years in your client’s industry. I never forgot that slight and gleefully reported you to your client. Never burn your bridges.
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Jez … doesn’t your last point contradict your philosophy of don’t take pride in being nasty?
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Hi Sammy,
Journalist with 8 years full time paid experience in the field, both in commercial media (radio and print, metro) and the ABC (radio and online, rural and metro).
Also worked 2 years as a media advisor for an NGO.
This has given me a pretty great understanding of both sides and I can tell you with experience that if a PR person and a journalist have completely aligned goals, then the journalist is not serving the audience.
Sammy, your comment basically outlines everything that’s wrong with modern journalism in this country. No, there are not enough resources in newsrooms – though the answer is not to vaguely reword a press release and publish.
If journalists accept that standard, there’s nothing standing in the way of it becoming the norm.
To be honest, in my early days, it was very easy to skim through the various PR releases to pick out a story, call the talent at the bottom, get a quote and push it out – though it did no one any favours, especially the audience.
As I learned to do my job properly, in general it took an extra 15 minutes to half an hour to use my brain and actually find a truthful angle – balance out the story, find different talent and flesh it out.
Discouraging new journalists from actually being journalists is destroying our media. It’s bloody disgraceful and I can’t understand how anyone could defend it.
It’s too easy for a fresh graduate to spend their day churning out reworked releases as news – this is our next generation of journalism who will inherit the media. If instead of their role models shrugging their shoulders and taking the easy way out, they actually spent the time and effort to do their job properly, maybe we wouldn’t have this problem.
Also Tamz, you could indeed pick 3 or 4 examples of needed, truthful PR and discount the thousands of companies and advisors in this country who are using spin to get the best financial outcome for their client – though that would be a classic strawman and not very useful, would it?
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Every time mUmBRELLA covers the events of the PR industry, it turns into a slanging match. I for one, am over it. This is a bit of an awkward, clumsy initiative by Wordstorm (who let’s admit it, is a consumer PR agency that sits firmly in the publicity space), but not one that deserves the industry trolls to descend upon it.
The industry in AU needs a serious Holmes Report / PR Week style publication to start talking about the comms work that matters – Real reputation management, strategy and advocacy programs, evolution of the profession through digital, real profiles and stories of industry role models and campaigns that we as a industry can learn from. Andy Lark suggested as much at CommsCon 2012 to help the industry be taken more seriously by the C-level. We need to get beyond the reporting of this basic publicity and marketing support stuff, and get to looking at how PR is solving business problems and building the reputations that given businesses the ability to operate and flourish in their industries and causes. Real PR’s deals with influence and reputation. Far more valuable that this perception of simple column and inches in coverage.
Tim, I’d suggest that it might be worth considering a spin-off title for PR given your interest in doing the same for the digital media and marketing space. Not PR through the lens of the ad industry.
This school-yard bitch fighting is getting really old.
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Honestly….honestly applauding you right now. Somehow those who work in communications management (I really can’t bring myself to say I work in PR) are lumped into the same category as consumer PR which, as you rightly point out, is about securing basic publicty and in many cases, it is pure product placement. There is a much more to “PR’ dahling. But as people have suggested, it was an error in judgement and let’s move on.
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High five Jules!
Outputs vs Outcomes game. I know which one I’d want to put my money on 😉
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Honestly….maybe if I had done a spell check…oops!
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