PR Internship Experience

There is definitely a lot of talk about whether or not PR interns should be able to pitch the media. Just because you landed a pr internship, should you be able to pitch the media? That is the question.

Here is Jeremy Porter thinks:

Here are a few other reasons why I don’t think you should let your intern do the pitching for you:

• Interns don’t know your business. The typical internship is three months long. How long have you been working? Chances are you know a lot more about the topic than your intern. Reporters won’t just agree to talk to you without asking a few questions. If your intern can’t answer those questions, the reporter will quickly lose interest and move onto the next story.

• Interns will sound scripted. You have to get reporters excited most of the time. If you’re reading a script, they’ll pick up on it. You need to sell the story, to get them excited about what you’re pitching. This comes from more than a couple months experience.

• Interns don’t know the “dos and don’ts”. Your intern may think it’s perfectly fine to ask a reporter “when will you be able to write about the release I sent?” or “can you make sure our story appears on the front page, my boss says it has to be a front page story?” These are both real examples.

• Interns are still learning. It’s an internship, which is part of college. College is a place where you learn stuff. You can’t expect an intern to be completely up to speed yet. They’re still developing their writing experience (a big point). They’re still learning what media relations is, let alone how it works. If you have a great training organization in your company, you may be able to give your intern more responsibility.

• Interns take “no” for an answer. A lot of reporters will reject your pitch right out of the gate. They’re interrupted all day long and do their best to get you off the phone in under a minute. If a reporter says, “can you call me back later?”, most interns will say “sure.” The chances of getting the reporter back on the phone are slim to none. You have to be polite and aggressive (provided your pitch is relevant). It could be your only chance.

• Interns are fearless. This is not always the best thing. Good interns will call any media outlet and pitch any story angle you ask them to. This is the media relations equivalent of jumping off a bridge if asked. I have seen interns asked to pitch stories that more experienced PR professionals didn’t think they could place (because they knew the story was weak). This takes advantage of the intern, setting them up for failure and not necessarily providing them with the best work experience.

• Interns aren’t paid by your clients. In agency environments, clients are paying for your best talent. Having an intern work on a client account (without authorization) is a no-no. Provide the best available team to work on client accounts – or prepare to spend more time looking for clients.

Here is what Beck Johns thinks:

This morning, I read a post on the Journalistics blog by Jeremy Porter entitled “Don’t Let Your Intern Pitch.” The basic argument Jeremy makes is against public relations interns making pitches to journalists, and he offers seven reasons why.

• Interns don’t know your business
• Interns will sound scripted
• Interns don’t know the “dos and don’ts”
• Interns are still learning
• Interns take “no” for an answer
• Interns are fearless
• Interns aren’t paid by your clients

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To me, this is an interesting debate about pr internships. Check out marketing internships, intern cover letters, and internships resumes.

Comments

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