Are you using more PR material than ever before?

Apparently media are using more press releases than last year: could it be related to number of job cuts?

Journalists in the region are using press releases more often than they did in 2007, although many reporters still feel they receive a disproportionate number of irrelevant emails from public relations executives, according to the MediaSource/Insight Middle East Journalist Survey 2009.

In 2007, when MediaSource/Insight Middle East conducted its first survey, 58 percent of pollsters said they use none or less than 10 percent of the press releases emailed to them, compared with 45 percent in 2009.

“The ‘most irritating practice’ for both the Arabic and English media remains the sending of irrelevant press releases, just as it was in our 2007 survey,” said Ben Smalley, managing director of MediaSource.

“The survey reveals a pressing need for PR practitioners to become more targeted and develop a greater understanding of the subjects covered by the media outlets they are dealing with, rather than adopting a scattergun approach to distribution,” he adds.

The survey also found that while 63 percent of English-language journalists working in the Middle East say that the quality of journalism in the region is improving, only 22 percent believe the level of reporting is either ‘very good’ or ‘fairly good’ , compared with 47 percent of Arabic journalists.

MediaSource/Insight Middle East surveyed 219 journalists working for Arabic and English-language print, broadcast and online media in 13 countries across the Middle East.

Are you using more PR material to fill space, or do you think the quality of press releases is worse than ever?

Sun, sea and sanitised reporting

Not content with gagging the UAE media ("not to stop bad news but to stop journos digging for bad news blah blah" - Abdullatif), government authorities are now trying to silence business people too.

In a letter from Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, hoteliers were requested to comment only on business at their own hotels, since DTCM would “take the initiative of providing statements about the tourism in Dubai in general”.

This was “to ensure accuracy of the information published about Dubai” and to “avoid any misleading or conflicting statements,” the letter said.

Here's me thinking that hoteliers are probably well placed to comment on tourism in Dubai since they have ACTUAL room figures, not "government statistics". And they would ACTUALLY know - based on guest feedback - about whether tourists are fed up of construction, pollution, skanky water, price increases etc.

What's next? DIFC banning licensed companies from commenting on the state of the market? TECOM banning tenants from talking about internet usage and ADSL speed?

Turning the mirror back on PR

One commenter has requested we tackle the issue of PR; we agree - let's face it, half of you will end up working in PR anyway, so we're all for it.

How about we do PR for a while. Stop sending me 2009 calendars, stop 'reverting shortly', stop saying 'do you remember me, we worked together with...' (yes moron, i remember you - I'm not 94 years old). Stop filling every press release with the following words: solution, integrated, delighted, strategic, iconic, leading, inaugural.

Who gives a crap if a two bit company has been 'awarded' a contract? if the company is listed maybe, but most aren't so why bother - all it does is tell people how small the company actually is. Why do you approach me about clients you clearly know nothing about? Why do you think i would like to go to dinner with your insurance company client - even if it is free! If i say i'm not interested why do you approach my colleagues trying to get in that way - no means no!

Why, if your client's stock price is going down faster than a Somali hooker, aren't you having them talk to the public about how great their order book is? What the hell is your job if not to make the company more viable to investors?!?!?!

I could go on but i also know my co-media member friends will want to shout loud about the utterly ridiculous crap they receive and deal with each day. PR in the UAE, its not just the media that is full of people who couldn't get a job anywhere else.

Is there still no love lost between PR and media? If there are so many ex-journos in PR, why are the press releases still craply written? And, do any PR people have any balls? And do any of them truly understand deadlines - especially for news wires?

Update: and what happens when a magazine like MEED hires JiWin to do its PR? At a time when the construction and real estate industries are falling apart, will MEED have to stick its neck in to avoid upsetting some of JiWin's clients, like Sama Dubai, Tatweer, Tecom and Dubai International Capital?

A novel approach to Dubai

It warms the cockles of our DMO hearts when we can report on the success of a former Dubai journalist, especially when we're genuinely pleased. David Williams, who many of you will know as a freelance journo or as provider of media passes to the rugby or tennis, has had his first novel published.

Desert England is a thriller about football hooliganism, and is set in England and Dubai. While we're still waiting for our preview copies, we're told that some of the scenes in Dubai cut pretty close to the bone.

David is appearing on the book show on Dubai Eye on Saturday; a case of the poacher turned gamekeeper?

How not to recall a press release

Poor Dubaiworld Media/World-View Communications/World View (make your mind up?). It was bad enough that they sent out yet another dull press release this afternoon with the covering message:

Please find attached a Press Release titled “Russian delegation meets Dubai World officials, discusses scope of co-operation” for use in your esteemed publication.

They then sent out an email a few hours later with what we believe to be a recall message (just for reference, 7.30pm is a bit too late to start trying to withdraw stories, if they were going to be printed in the first place and even if my publication is an esteemed one).

The subject line read:

KILL KILL KILL !!! Russian delegation meets Dubai World officials, discusses scope of co-operation

On further reading, we realised they meant for the release to be withdrawn, not the delegation to be "taken care of" ...

The body of the email reiterated the point with : KILL KILL KIIL PLESAE kill this media release (their typos not ours).

Show me the money

What's the accepted average freelance rate per word in Dubai? How does it compare with overseas? Whether you're a legitimate freelancer, or doing some moonlighting, do you get paid the same rates? Do publishing houses like Motivate and ITP actually stick to a rate across the board? How many of you freelance for PR companies?

And, who are bad / late / no-payers? With great power etc: don't be a prat and start naming every company you don't like... we're looking for genuine warnings on companies that don't cough up. We'll give you a clue: they're normally government or quasi-government.

In the absence of proper unions, let's at least be open about the rates available, and make the tightwads pay up on time! We want to hear comments from editors about what they pay, and from freelancers about market rates and which companies are slow to cough up.

Crossing the fence

Hardened hacks are throwing down their quills and taking up comfortable jobs on the other side of the fence, either for PR, government, or DubaiInc.

Anyone else swapped newspaperdom for PR? If so, any regrets?


**ANNOUNCEMENT**
In other news, as you may have noticed we're a bit up against it and would welcome more contributors. Just drop us an email if you are interested. And do it from an anonymous account, not your itp or toady.com address.

Tut tut

This was a comment in an earlier post, but is worth its own mention:

"A cheeky PR lady has just helped her hack fiancé win the laptop which was a competition prize in a press conference this week, so either guess which brand it was, or guess who the hack and the lady were?"

Note from DMO Ed: let's hope he isn't a journo from ITP, as we all know he would have to hand it in if it was worth more than $30, wouldn't he?

Close encounter - but for who?

Confirmation of what we had hoped was a vicious rumour has come in the form of The Secret, Secret Dubai's newsletter, which arrived in the DMO in-boxes today. The typically veiled snippet referred to a "notorious H.A.C.K" who was in the UAE on a false passport.

Yes pop pickers, could Mr X be back in town? Dubai media veterans may recall his former aliases, which include: ITP journo, 7Days, freelance "PR" consultant, accompanier of ladies of negotiable affection. Oh, and in case we forget, convicted felon.

Mr X has had a couple of stays in a Dubai jail already, for alcohol-abetted auto scrapes and japes. How on earth could he get back in the country, we hear you ask?

Our second source confirms: "He's in town on a false passport and already got picked up by the Jebel Ali cops. They suspected who he was, but couldn't be bothered to pursue it, and let him go."

"Time to say goodbye"

Yep - hankies out for media and PR bunnies alike - for hackspruikermedialegendextraordinaire Greg kHunt is leaving us forever.

The time has come to change this column a little. After talking with my editor and the powers that be at 7DAYS, they have agreed that it should take a more international slant. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, we can always do with a little ‘freshening up’ of a weekly column so that we don't keep revisiting the same topics and secondly, my family and I are leaving Dubai.

Full tears of joyjerking story here.

Perhaps you'd all like to reminisce your fave memories from 18 years of media excellence?

Trashing PR

So journalists hate PR people and never read their press releases. Or only print them if there's a decent gift attached.

Hands up then.

Which of you lot filter certain PR companies straight to trash?

And who goes to High Rise press conferences just to get iPods?

Harper's horror

A truly self-congratulatory press release from ITP to announce the launch of Harper's BAZAAR.

Editor Rachel Sharp (formerly at the helm of the twin fabulousity of Ahlan and Grazia) says: "Everybody in the fashion industry that I speak to in Milan, Paris and New York is desperate to be involved in the excitement of Dubai. It is a huge market for them and they are delighted that a magazine with the authority of Harper's BAZAAR is launching in the city."

Sadly, in a city full of superlatives, George J. Green, president of Hearst Magazines International, who have licensed the title, was neither desperate nor delighted, but merely "pleased" to be working with ITP.

Thank goodness for Walid Akawi, one of ITP's titans, who finished off the press statement with a worthy flourish. Just take a moment to absorb the glorious poetry of his quotes, as well as the EXTRA EMPHASIS provided by superfluous upper case.

"They were dazzled by the energy and enlightenment of Dubai's people, and were convinced that the city's women would fall in love with the style and authority of Harper's BAZAAR. When we showed them that cities all over the Gulf, including Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha and Oman were developing with the same passion, they knew that they had to bring a Middle East edition of BAZAAR to this market."

If a PR company had sent out a press release this gushing, it would have been deleted or slated by the media, most notably former ITP title Campaign. And then there's the notion of the "enlightenment" of Dubai's people - a questionable claim at the best of times.

Who's zooming who?

Now, for this week's round-up of shenanigans in the murky media and PR world:

Which PR agency needs to worry about the airing of some dirty laundry? Staff may need to start covering up the bedroom antics of one of their clients, as her list of conquests gets circulated around Dubai? Her victims: half her senior personnel, as well as a couple of prominent locals and the head of one of the biggest companies in Dubai.

Which poppet has been a really good sport by offering more services to her client than just PR? We wonder if her fees rose as much as her client did.

PR Agencies wasting whose money?

Emirates Today ran a story back on 6/2/2007 that was quite interesting. Not sure how no one noticed it here.

To quote:

Public relations agencies are largely failing to provide their clients with value for money, according to the managing director of media analysts Mediastow.

Mohammad Elzubeir said UAE companies were wasting money on ineffective PR.

“Of course, there are good and bad PR agencies; some understand how to measure their effectiveness and some don’t,” said Elzubeir.

Mediastow surveyed 150 PR practitioners, 87 PR agencies and more than 200 in house PR managers. The study showed that 83 per cent of the respondents do not know how to measure their work, while only 12 per cent counted clippings and five per cent were able to calculate the equivalent advertising value.

Why is this not surprising?