No ‘editorial opportunities’ here

This afternoon, I received a pitch from a public-relations professional, who was inquiring about a special report listed on the SD Times editorial calendar. (I’m sure that Sylvia got the info out of a stupid media directory, since if she had actually looked at the SD Times editorial calendar she’d have noticed that I’m not the listed editorial contact.)

What was noteworthy is that Sylvia used the phrase “editorial opportunity” in her pitch more often than usual — once in the subject line, and then five separate times in the message body.

“Editorial opportunity” is a phrase that disturbs many journalists and editors. PR professionals who have a journalism or editorial background understand this, and don’t use that phrase.

But many other PR people don’t understand why the phrase “editorial opportunity” raises hackles.

For the benefit of the many PR people who read my blog, here is my response to Sylvia (expanded to be more explanatory than the original response):

Hi, Sylvia,

I’ll pass along a comment: The phrase “editorial opportunity,” while commonly used by PR and marcom professionals, sets a journalist’s teeth on edge. It’s like fingernails on a blackboard. Yes, you see a story that we’re working on as an “editorial opportunity” to promote your client to our readership. However, we don’t see it as an “opportunity” at all.

We don’t view journalism as being about creating “opportunities” for vendors to pitch their wares or get out their marketing messages. When writing magazine and newspaper stories, journalists and editors work for their readers. We don’t work for vendors and their PR agencies. That distinction is important to us.

While we might do a story on, say, [client’s technology], we do not consider that story to therefore be an “editorial opportunity” for [client name] or any of the other vendors in that space. That’s not why we’re writing it.

In fact, we try to hard to ensure that we are not creating an “editorial opportunity” because that implies that we’re sellouts who are colluding with vendors to help market their products.

Because we feel strongly about this, your use of the phrase “editorial opportunity” may cause us to give a negative response to your pitch. You see, if we provide a positive response to such a pitch, we are, by implication, agreeing that our stories are indeed “editorial opportunities” for your clients, and that we’re a de facto part of their marketing team. We don’t want to do that.

Thus, my advice is that “editorial opportunity” is not a phrase you should ever use in pitches to journalists and editors. Instead, please refer to what we’re doing as “stories.”

Best, -Alan Z

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
7 replies
  1. Miko Matsumura
    Miko Matsumura says:

    Heh, this is like a page out of the “ClueTrain Manifesto”.

    There’s a wonderful “stepford/body snatcher” moment when you are communicating with someone where suddenly you realize that they arent human.

    that realization is frequently spawned by their inability to see you as human.

    You would think with all the great AI technology that these Cylons would be better at passing the Turing test (or even a Voight Kampf).

    In any event, thanks for a very reasonable, insightful and pragmatic blog post. Human beings like to be treated like human beings, well said.

    My 2 cents,
    Miko

  2. estherschindler
    estherschindler says:

    I wholeheartedly agree.

    I think PR people do this (in a well-meaning but still ineffective way) because they confuse the roles. Yes, it’s an editorial opportunity for them and their client, but that’s not OUR (press) button to push.

    But it must be a human failing. I’ve certainly seen plenty of real estate listings that clamor “Pride of Ownership!” when it’d be far more effective to mention how many bedrooms the house has.

    I don’t have quite the same nails-on-blackboard response that you do when I see “editorial opportunity.” But as with the house ad, I assume that the PR person doesn’t have anything more useful to impart.

  3. Alan Zeichick
    Alan Zeichick says:

    Esther – “Pride of ownership” is supposed to be a positive benefit for the buyer, at least. Maybe it’s lame, but it’s supposed to be!

    “Editorial opportunity,” on the other hand, is a term that has a positive meaning from the PR person’s perspective, but has a negative perception to the person he/she is pitching.

    Imagine if the real estate listing advertised a “Two-bedroom condo with great commission potential for seller’s agency!”

  4. Paul N. Leroux
    Paul N. Leroux says:

    Guess what, Alan: I just got a call from a respected, well-known, trade publication, alerting me to possible “editorial opportunities.” Now, admittedly, the call came not from an editor, but from one of the publication’s sales reps. But still.

    A good post, btw. Made me think about how, as a PR person, I need to respect the roles of the editors and reporters I deal with.

    – Paul

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