Media Titles Don't Have The Muscle They Once Did

The desire to have some element of control over what gets written about you in the press is an issue that's as old as the PR business itself.

Some approach PR naively believing it’s the way it works. That they get to oversee exactly what’s written about them before anything goes to print. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is no ‘dark art’ to this profession and copy approval on stories in the press, despite the growth of the practice, is a very rare occurrence. Like one might find accounting a mysterious wizardry, others then find communicating your message to the outside world something of a struggle too. We all have our own gifts.

The topic of copy approval reared its head with a confusing episode a couple of weeks ago with the Balding / Saga saga. Sports presenter Clare Balding, generally viewed as an all-round good egg by the nation, was accused of wanting too much control over the content of an interview she gave to Saga magazine around the promotion of her new book. The journalist writing the piece, Ginny Dougary, seeing too much had changed from the article she wrote, declined to have her byline on the piece and went public about the episode, accusing Balding of being an ‘insecure diva’. It was the most un-Balding like behaviour that seemed to give this innocuous tale all the fuel it needed. Only, that didn’t appear to be the end of it.

Balding held her counsel for 24 hours and left it to Saga to forcefully suggest she had no such demands. Now there was egg on the face of the journalist. Balding then supported Saga’s version and said she never asked for copy approval. Every PR professional wants to have as much certainty as possible that an interview will go well, but the trend for copy approval isn’t as positive as it might appear. We know that today’s media consumers are fantastically sophisticated, and for all the talk of “fake news”, they can almost always tell when they’re being sold to, or spun some sanitised line. Not only that, they rapidly learn to favour sources they regard as authentic over those they don’t. So, serving up some generic promotional fluff might suit the client, but generally won’t cut much ice with the end user. There’s really no point for anybody.

The fact that publicists can ask and get copy approval is a reflection of the fact that most media titles don’t have the muscle they once did, and need the content that celebrities like Clare Balding provide more than the celebrities need them. It’s also indicative of a growing trust deficit between the two sides. As the media environment has become ever more competitive, corners are frequently cut, journalistic standards slip, and the reality of digital distribution means that even if a client can obtain a correction for shoddy reporting, it will generally be too late to make a difference. So it’s hardly surprising that publicists are increasingly emboldened to ask, and that media are ready to agree. Yet while it’s tempting to regard that level of control as the triumph of PR, I’d be more inclined to see it as something of a defeat for both sides. A strong and independent media is crucial for all sides of the equation. It benefits neither the client, the communications agency or the media outlet to lose proper journalistic values and impartiality. Trust gets lost and the landscape becomes ever more fractious and difficult to navigate.