I must admit I was suprised to read this sentence in a letter from the NUJ recently. "The NUJ considers PR as work within journalism.."
Can this be right? I suspect a few journalists may disagree.
As a journalist who's now been in PR for six months, I'm not surprised that the NUJ is saying this - I guess they need more members from somewhere. If they can get PRs in then that's one way to do it. However, it's also completely misguided: how many PRs would join the NUJ when even many journalists find it useless?
Ok - it's anecdotal. But barely any of the journalists I knew (and know) were/are in the NUJ, and the first thing I did when I left journoland was to cancel my membership to. To be honest, I'd almost not renewed a year back as they basically gave me nothing whatsoever for my £15 a month.
But anyway: is PR journalism? In short, no. Do many PRs find themselves embedded with our troops in Iraq? Do they have to battle to get interviews with the CEOs of failing companies? Do they ever publish things, essentially, that their clients don't like? No. PR is not journalism. We work with journalists, but we don't do their job. Thank god.
The NUJ's position was related to subscription revenue funnily enough, here's the full para:
"The NUJ considers PR as work within journalism therefore when completing the section concerning your income; earnings from PR will have to be included."
Ah well that's a little different. A lot of freelancers do a bit of PR writing on the side as well. And I guess, for the purposes of assessing income from writing, then then NUJ might want this counted. If it's excluded, freelancers seen to be earning a lot less than they really are.
On the flip side, there are PR people who also do a small amount of freelance journalism on the side (like me) and to include their overall income makes NUJ membership now look expensive for what you get back. I don't remember PR income being included 5 years ago when I originally joined.
ROSS FURLONG
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