Buying the press
By : Anna Kocinska
Don't forget where you heard this: PR agencies give sweeteners to journalists at press conferenes.
Buying favors from journalists is probably as old as the profession itself. But while many reporters in Western countries now abide by a strict code of ethics concerning truth and objectivity, in Central Europe the tradition of paying for publicity never died out.
In Poland, public relations firms are often accused of buying journalists' affections. In less than a decade, PR has gone from an unknown industry to a fashionable media profession, and as the sector has come of age some PR companies have started to combat what they see as the industry's lack of ethics when dealing with journalists. For a handful of PR agencies, a code of ethics would give the sector the necessary credibility that many still feel it lacks.
One of these agencies, Warsaw-based RPR Group, set up in 1994 as one of the first Polish PR firms, and SMG/KRC, a market research institute, conducted a survey last month of journalists' perceptions of PR activities. The results of the survey will be available in September.
"We'd like to put a cat among the pigeons to cause some ferment in our community," said Beata Paczynska, director for strategy and development at RPR Group. "The idea we're aiming at is to provide solid and reliable information, but the Polish market is still very young. We need to sit down with media people and work out some code of conduct."
Now may be the right time as scores of rumors about laptops or cellular phones being handed out as gifts to journalists at press conferences have come to symbolize how PR works in Poland. "Unfortunately, the effectiveness of PR companies is often measured by the number of stories or briefs covering their clients in newspapers, so they (PR agencies) will do anything to grab journalists' attention," said Robert Moren, journalist and former PR manager. At the same time, many reporters are not "saints" and often don't hesitate to accept these incentives, he said. "My (PR) agency didn't buy journalists, but we would often find entire business sectors covered by corrupt journalists, whose requirements were constantly growing," Moren said
While some journalists follow company rules or simply follow their own judgment about not accepting any gifts offered by PR firms, others indulge in the T-shirts, watches and mugs or free food served at press conferences. Quite often, PR people and journalists end up looking bad in each other's eyes.
One result is mistrust. "Journalists don't trust us and take PR as propaganda, on the other hand we are afraid of journalists; of those who are only after breaking news at all costs and not just after information," said Dorota Zawadzka, PR director of United Pan-Europe Communications' (UPC) Polish operations.
Making the jump: Former Polsat journalist Beata Kolterman, now director of Schultz's Warsaw Office, has no regrets about moving over to public relations.
The early days
When Piotr Czarnowski set up First PR in 1990, the market for PR services was practically non-existent. By 1992, the sector had begun to emerge and two years later the 11-member Association of PR Companies was established. Since then, the number of PR firms has tripled.
"The development of PR in Poland started around 1996, before that there were few people with PR training abroad; most were self-taught," Czarnowski said. By about 1998 a significant part of Polish universities had introduced public relations studies. "Unfortunately, most lecturers had no practical experience in PR," he said. "They only knew public relations theoretically and were familiar with translations of German and British theories from the late 1960s. But students need (practical experience). The first people who trained in PR, with two to three years' experience, started to emerge just a couple of years ago. I'd say there are fewer than 100 such trained PR representatives."
While the majority of PR agencies' customers are foreign firms, the need for PR services among domestic enterprises has increased sharply in recent years. As a result, many journalists, often in search of better wages, have joined the ranks of PR agencies mushrooming around the country. Czarnowski views this trend negatively. "Only in Poland is a journalist automatically considered a ready-to-use PR person and journalism has really very little to do with public relations," he said. "What's more, a few years ago many journalists started working as press spokespeople and journalists at the same time. That is why both corporate clients and journalists started to consider journalism and PR as one profession."
Journalist in PR clothing
According to a survey by Warsaw-based ComPress PR agency, 20% of journalists would be ready to switch to PR in a few years and 26% would do it at once.
Beata Kolterman of Krakow and Warsaw-based Schulz public relations agency used to work as a journalist at Polsat, Poland's largest private television station. "I couldn't imagine myself as a journalist for the next 30 years, so I've been in PR for five years now," she said, adding that she has no regrets. "When I sense discouragement in a journalist's voice I strive to make him interested if I think the topic is good for his paper. If you send professional information and do not flood them with press releases, journalists cooperate quite eagerly."
Robert Moren, who has a degree in geography from Warsaw University and another in journalism from Oklahoma State University, quit his job as a reporter to take up a PR position three years ago but returned to journalism last year.
"I started working in PR for the money," he said. "For many journalists it's a chance to improve their financial standing. PR can be exciting; it was exciting to me, but it's a job for two to three years. It's true I learned a lot about what happens on the other side of the wall, but it's a relief to be back at home (in journalism)."
However, considering the large number of former journalists working in PR, it's significant that, according to surveys, they don't really know what reporters require of them. Only 7% of respondents to ComPress' survey said PR people know "very well" what the needs of journalists are. "It's annoying that PR people try to get us to attend different conferences and they never think about who we are and what we need," a Warsaw-based journalist said. "I don't like their forced and insincere politeness," said Magda Szczecinska, a reporter with Eurobuild magazine. "Generally, I prefer to look for information by banging on the doors of managers and directors. PR people are only good at arranging interviews with people who are not widely accessible."
The future is mine: Piotr Czrnowski, president of First PR, says many journalists cross over to RP agencies for financial reasons.
Having your cake
When asked about the advantages and disadvantages of their profession, many PR people said it is a thankless job because trying to satisfy the demands of both clients and journalists is close to impossible. And their clients' ignorance is the reason behind most of their problems with journalists.
"Clients would ask me how many journalists I can come up with for a press conference but that's not what PR is," said Paczynska of RPR Group. Moren agrees. "Clients don't understand that sending five press releases a week to one journalist ends in disaster," he said. "It was a shock to me when I first started writing press releases. I wanted to write it in a way I would do it for journalists but I knew my client wouldn't accept it."
Czarnowski said he had come across companies that wanted the number of newspaper articles to be written about them stipulated in their contracts. "I said it's a mistake and that it was a job for an advertising agency," he said. "When you talk to Poles, PR means advertising, one-time promotion." Regarding First PR's clients, he said there are not that many of them but they have all signed several year-long contracts. "They all believe PR is a long-term investment. Companies are starting to grasp that idea."
Zawadzka of UPC also said times are changing. "I heard about companies that when hiring PR services organize training for the management," she said. "Management needs to know what communication with the media is, what PR is. PR and management have to speak with one voice. I was never evaluated by the number of stories I generated, but I do monitor the press. If journalists don't want to write about something, that's worth considering. One can shape future communication policy on such observations."
Free lunch
Integrity is not an inherent aspect of the Polish media and PR world. Foreign observers are appalled by the widespread custom of serving free food during press conferences, the distribution of free invitations to various events, flowers in the mail all of which is often dished out at the expense of solid, reliable information.
What is par for the course in the West is still relatively new in Poland. For Dow Jones, the U.S.-based financial news service, its reputation as an independent source of reliable information is the central premise of its conduct code. The business relationships and activities of its employees are clearly spelled out in the company's policy.
In Poland, however, more than 70% of publishing companies' editorial departments have no rules banning reporters from accepting gifts or other incentives, according to ComPress' survey. Nearly 60% of them do not outline what kinds of gifts can be accepted by journalists. Consequently, PR agencies seem to be benefiting from the lack of hard rules.
"I heard that one car company distributed laptops to journalists attending its press conference," Paczynska said. "This is corruption and our community should marginalize such agencies and such practices."
According to Schulz's Kolterman, journalists have always had a reputation for accepting gifts. "Of course, there are reporters who always deny them," she said. "I think this situation might not change quickly unless some companies understand that journalists cannot be bought. We're struggling against that attitude."
Others, such as UPC's Zawadzka, believe that small offerings shouldn't be taken as bribes. "You can't bribe anyone with a T-shirt or a mug," she said. "But we should remember that the value of those gifts shouldn't exceed a certain amount of money. There are worse practices than that; I have even heard about buying stories for money."
Czarnowski said media and PR people should discuss much more serious issues than the distribution of gifts. "Journalists are not forced to take gifts and I know people who'll never take even a pencil, but there is a much more dangerous trend on the market," he said. "Manipulating information for different information or political gain. There are PR agencies that deal only with this kind of gray, or even black, public relations."
