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publicist s day, just as they do in the newsroom of a daily
newspaper. Urgency and pressure are essential elements of the
job and if these tend to stimulate and invigorate you and provide
a positive challenge, please read on.
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104 Press and public relations
The working day may begin at home with an unexpected fax
or phone call about a breaking news story in which a client
plays some part. The publicist makes hasty arrangements to
join the client somewhere on the far side of town or even a
longer car, train or plane journey away from home. Instead of
heading for the office, there are changes to be set in motion
affecting the rest of the day s timetable meetings and other
routine affairs are postponed to cope with the new emergency.
Otherwise, the day that gets under way without such surprises
may start with a skim-read of the morning papers. At best, an
assistant will have done the skim-read and clipped out stories
of special interest.
The mix of the routine day s work might include phone calls
to clients and journalists either to talk about specific plans or
merely to stay in touch , lunch with a particularly useful media
contact, a session of press interviews for an artist who has
something new to promote and an appointment at a
photographer s studio to supervise the shooting of some new
publicity pictures. There might be a visit to a magazine editor s
office to talk over some story ideas or a trip to a recording
studio to meet a new client. There could be a 2-hour conference
with record company people to lay the foundations of a whole
new PR project. The variations on this theme are endless and,
as a rule, almost always add up to a long and busy working
day.
The myth which began in Hollywood and has persisted since
cinema s golden era is that the showbusiness publicist s job is
based on stunts involving celebrities and the invention of
sensational but absolutely untrue stories about the stars. The
truth is that while Fleet Street used to go along with quite
improbable publicists tales when it suited it, few media editors
of the nineties look kindly on blatant PR stunts unless they
involve such famous names that publication of a story is likely to
sell papers or add viewers.
The publicist needs to have a nose for a promising news story,
a well-developed sense of loyalty and discretion, a degree of
genuine devotion to the job, the willingness to work crazy hours,
plus a wide spread of skills and capabilities, some of which need
to be almost instinctive while others are far from easy to learn
and cannot be acquired from any textbook or solely via a
university or college course.
Where to start 105
QUALIFICATIONS OR PERSONALITY?
Quite apart from basic industrial knowledge and a liberal-
minded appreciation of music, the publicist requires mental and
physical stamina, ingenuity, patience and persistence, a lack of
inhibition and a vivacious personality. General intelligence, an
ability to communicate without discomfort in both business and
social circumstances and hands-on journalistic work experience
in some sector of the media count for as much if not more than
specialist academic qualifications.
In addition, it helps if the publicist has certain basic office
abilities, is able to type and is at least superficially familiar with
word processor software, along with the use of a modem and
electronic mail.
It is not essential to be able to write to professional journalistic
standards but it is useful if the publicist can churn out factually
reliable, well-constructed and conveniently presented news
stories, company profiles or biographical pieces at reasonable
speed and with a high standard of accuracy. Comparatively few
publicists farm out to freelance journalists the writing of press
releases and other media material. This indicates that at least one
person in the average publicist s office is a competent writer.
Various job titles are used to describe more or less the same
work: publicist, press officer, public relations consultant, PR
account executive, press agent, press representative. For the
purposes of this chapter, the word publicist is used, but not for
any significant reason.
Over the years, the introduction of new ways of transmitting and
delivering information and entertainment to the consumer has
broadened the work base of the publicist, who once concentrated
on generating press coverage (newspapers and magazines) but
now needs to pay equal attention to a wider spectrum of
communication media, particularly television and radio. For the
publicist, job satisfaction needs to be linked to the volume and
quality of positive media exposure gained for the employer or
clients.
WHERE TO START
Extremely few independent music publicists set themselves up
in business without previous PR experience. The most usual
106 Press and public relations
place to acquire that experience is in the press office of a record
company.
There are equal job opportunities for women and men in the
PR field. If there is an element of bias it may well favour
women some employers and some clients insist that, all other
things being equal, women tend to make the more persuasive
(and therefore more successful) publicists whether they re
dealing with male or female journalists.
In outline, at least, the role of the music business publicist is
much the same whether the service is performed as an in-house
employee or as an outside independent consultant. Part of the
job s appeal is that it has so many parts and the work is seldom
repetitious. Each day s activities differ from all others.
WHO EMPLOYS PUBLICISTS?
Artists in all sectors of the music business, from opera to rap, can
benefit from press/publicity representation. The launch of an
unknown newcomer can use the boost of PR attention to support
a first record release or initial public performances. The well-
established box-office success and chart-topping recording star
with a limited amount of time to spend on interviews and photo
sessions needs the expert advice of a publicist over which
editorial opportunities to take and which to turn down with
minimum loss of goodwill. The greater the artist s celebrity, the
more the publicist s role includes an element of protection
against unfavourable stories. It is naive to believe that all
publicity is good or to underestimate the damage which can be
done to an artist s reputation when bad press appears.
In the music business, the largest employers of PR services are
the record companies, many of which have their own inhouse
press offices run by a team of publicists and their assistants.
Medium-sized and smaller record companies may not operate a
full-blown department but simply employ one or two publicists.
Others who hire full-time publicists or retain the non-
exclusive services of independent PR consultants include music
publishers, artists managers/agents, independent record
producers and recording studios, music industry associations,
concert tour promoters and music video production companies
and their distributors. Out-of-house publicists, whether self-
employed individuals or part of a consultancy, may be retained
The publicist s office 107
on a year-round basis or periodically as and when a client wants
a short burst of PR activity to assist in the promotion and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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