By Isabel Hughes
When I first began interviewing with The Key in February, I was ready to pivot in my career from journalism to public relations.
My time spent working at a small, long-standing newspaper in my hometown gave me perspective about working in media, but I wanted to broaden my skill set and jump into a job that would allow me to wear multiple hats.
When I accepted my offer from The Key to work as an Apprentice, I really had no idea what the coming months would hold. None of us did. I thought I was going to move to San Francisco, meet my coworkers in person and start a new chapter of my life.
Instead, I started my Apprenticeship remotely in the midst of a global pandemic, while simultaneously seeing hundreds of layoffs ravage reputable news outlets, workplaces of journalists I have admired for years, where young journalists had just begun their post-graduate careers. That’s in addition to the publications that have furloughed countless journalists in an attempt to prevent them from being laid off.
As we continue to trudge through 2020, I’ve been thinking about the ways in which we as PR professionals can be better partners. As the only in-house reporter at a small newspaper, my inbox was filled with countless pitches on a weekly basis — and that was before the pandemic started and every company and organization simultaneously had news about their adaptations.
Empathy, of course, is always key, but it is especially important right now while journalists cover a global pandemic — during an election year, as police brutality makes national headlines yet again, protests continue across the nation and the U.S. reckons with deeply rooted systemic racism.
Regardless of what a reporter’s beat is, they have in some way become a COVID-19 reporter over the course of the past few months as virtually everything has been impacted by the crisis.
And now, reporters are putting their lives on the line to cover protests during a pandemic, while systemic racism is at the forefront of conversation in both their coverage and the newsroom. With less resources and more news, journalists are feeling even more overwhelmed than ever. We have to do our part to make sure we’re doing the best we can to support them.
Regardless of what a reporter’s beat is, they have in some way become a COVID-19 reporter over the course of the past few months as virtually everything has been impacted by the crisis.
As PR professionals, we must monitor the media landscape and understand the climate in which journalists are currently working. We have to make note of the layoffs and resignations that are taking place, so that we can take into account which publications are understaffed and overwhelmed right now, and how leadership is changing.
Lastly, we have to continue to support quality journalism monetarily. Without monetary support, quality journalism cannot stay afloat. Without quality journalism, we cannot do our jobs effectively.
At The Key, one of our Key Agreements is to “Speak Truth”, and it’s not something we take lightly. We’re committed to not BS-ing each other, our clients or journalists — which means we must actively think and be honest about the ways we can be better partners, especially in our current climate.
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