Your PR Architect

Public relations people are accustomed to news outlets using only a portion of their news releases. Often, editors and producers publish only the essential facts, just enough to fill a news hole. Paul Hermans from nl [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)  or CC-BY-SA-3.0, from Wikimedia Commons When broadcast news producers do this, they often direct viewers and listeners to their websites for the fuller story. This saves air time or news print. But, when there's only a truncated version of the information, it tells me I'm a victim of lazy journalism . One example: a recent news item from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, announcing $35 million in construction grants to a number of private colleges.  One Rochester TV station's online story listed an incomplete handful of colleges receiving these funds, including Rochester Institute of Technology. Emphasize the local angle? Sure. Except several other local colleges -- among them St. John Fisher College ...

I have genuine admiration for anyone who's succeeded in public relations for 30 or 40 years. My colleague Ray is one of the best. So I read his blog on the new golden age of PR with authentic interest. Yes, the profession has a new look -- very digital, and often data-driven.  But as I read Ray's comments, I noticed an absence of the most important word in this profession: relationships . He mentions it once, in the context of creating deeper relationships between marketers and PR professionals, and their audiences. In an age where you can swap online analytics with anyone, I'd argue that we're not in a golden age of PR -- because relationships are dwindling. Emails and voice mails are a poor substitute for live, face-to-face conversations. At Cedar Point, OH., "Gatekeeper" is a roller coaster. By Jeremy Thompson from United States of America  (Cedar Point 105  Uploaded by Themeparkgc) via Wikimedia Commons It's important to know the ed...