{"id":13496,"date":"2016-01-26T13:33:16","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T17:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=13496"},"modified":"2021-06-24T12:50:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T16:50:37","slug":"quotes-on-pr-writing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/public-relations-writing\/quotes-on-pr-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Our favorite public relations quotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

What writers & others say about PR writing<\/h2>\n

\"Our

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\u201cPress releases are a billion-dollar industry that creates 99% waste.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Josh Bernoff, author, Writing Without Bullshit<\/em><\/h6>\n
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Press releases \u201coffer no context, no understanding of the receiver, and no story. They are literally the laziest thing a company can do.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 John Biggs, east coast editor, Tech Crunch<\/h6>\n
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\u201cSome are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Daniel J. Boorstin, American social historian and educator<\/h6>\n
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\u201cPublicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front page ad.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2013 Richard Branson, British business magnate and founder of the Virgin Group<\/h6>\n
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\u201cDoctors lose their licenses. Drunk drivers get cited in the local papers. Speeders get tickets. Wild pitchers get pulled from the baseball game. Pedophiles must post signs warning the public of their past crimes. Why shouldn\u2019t grossly careless or incompetent PR people be lined up, exposed, and punished, too?\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Brenda Clevenger, ABC, co-founder of CornerBarPR<\/h6>\n
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\u201cFrankly, I consider \u2018PR quality\u2019 an oxymoron.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Christa Degnan of\u00a0PC Week<\/em>, in a\u00a0Softletter<\/em>\u00a0survey of media about the quality of PR writing<\/h6>\n
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\u201cI get calls from PR groups who can\u2019t even pronounce the company name much less discuss the technology.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Alexis dePlanque, META Group<\/h6>\n
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\u201cIf I only had two dollars left I would spend one dollar on PR.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft<\/h6>\n
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\u201cPublic relations specialists make flower arrangements of the facts, placing them so the wilted and less attractive petals are hidden by sturdy blooms.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2013 Alan Harrington, novelist<\/h6>\n
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\u201cI receive dozens of pitches every week on new gadgets, websites and web services. Each reads pretty much the same way. The e-mail starts with \u2018Hi Amber, I hope this finds you well\u2019 followed by four or five paragraphs that are copied and pasted from a traditional press release. These all end up in my trash.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Amber MacArthur, technology reporter<\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe question I always ask executives is: \u2018If someone calls you on the phone, how long do you give them to tell you what they want?\u2019 Usually the answer is, \u2018Less than a minute.\u2019 Then why do these execs think someone would give them more than a minute of their time, wading through a press release? Grab the audience\u2019s attention, spur them to action, then let them go. Put the fluff into a long version of the release you hang on your website, if you have to.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Mike Pierson, chief, Community Outreach at Air Force Space Command<\/h6>\n
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\u201cEvery once in a while I\u2019ll sit down with a jug of Jack Daniels and a bottle of Advil and dig through old press releases to see if PR agencies have learned how to write.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Mark Ragan, president, Ragan Communications<\/h6>\n
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\u201cBad writing among PR agencies is the one thing in this world we can count on. Ice caps may melt. Sunnis and Shia may one day make peace. But PR agencies will continue to bill their hapless clients for thousands of press releases that no one on the planet could possibly comprehend.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Mark Ragan, president, Ragan Communications<\/h6>\n
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\u201cPR writing is so horribly consistent \u2014 or consistently horrible \u2014 that agencies even have a template for it.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Mark Ragan, president, Ragan Communications<\/h6>\n
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\u201cNone of the kids hired by the agencies and billed out at $150 an hour have the slightest idea what they\u2019re writing about. They don\u2019t understand the product or the client. They have no background in the industry, and they never learned how to write in college.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Mark Ragan, president, Ragan Communications<\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe broad thoughtlessness of many press releases is sort of astonishing. The classic of the genre is putting \u2018Timely Business Story\u2019 in the headline. But there are also releases that seem tailored to speak to everybody and appeal to nobody.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Derek Thompson, staff writer, The Atlantic<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cPlease think about the journalist you are reaching. S\/he is reading 100 PR pitches a day. All of them are bad. Not most. Not almost all. All of them. That is the overwhelming rule of PR pitches. They are all bad. Because they are not useful.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Derek Thompson, staff writer, The Atlantic<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cNo agency or their clients will be impressed with how savvy you are to the marketplace if you can\u2019t express those thoughts in an easily understood and acceptable way. Get the writing skills down first.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ronn Torossian, CEO, 5W Public Relations<\/h6>\n
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\u201cOne of the top two abilities lacking in entry-level PR pros: strong writing skills.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 WorkInPR survey<\/h6>\n
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\u201cOnly two things will survive global warming: cockroaches and boilerplates.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ann Wylie, writing coach<\/h6>\n
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