Hi everyone, my press release was published in the local newspaper, The Borneo Post today!!! It is in fact my 1st real life experience getting a news published. I wrote quite a lot of press releases in the PR units taken but to see my work being published in the newspaper, it felt really different. Now I feel more complete as a PR Executive for my company.
I'm gonna share a little of my experience with one of my colleagues and the press here. It was not smooth and sweet as you may think. For your information, the press release written was about the new teaching scheme introduced by the school I currently am working for. As I previously mentioned, I work directly under the Head Principal hence the other staff have very little knowledge of what I'm doing, especially thing like I sent in a press release which I was not even sure if it was gonna get published. The school I'm working for, MITS did not put much attention on PR efforts until recently. Therefore, many of the staff there are not aware of what PR is for and what is the benefits of it. I understand that it will take me some actions and patience to gain their support and acknowledgment in my job as in my city, PR is really not so popular.
Anyway, getting back to my story about the press and my colleague. I submitted my press release through the fax machine at home in one beautiful morning feeling so excited about it. And the next morning, straight after waking up, I flipped through the newspaper with expectation like never before. Guess what, I got so disappointed not seeing my news in it. I was wondering if it was not good enough or they just did not get my fax. Soon later, the office called, saying that the press called and requested for another copy of the news as it was not clear through the fax machine. So it was the fax machine's fault. But what is worse? I was told that the secretary yelled at the press person and told him off. Why? She had a bad day, she has always been a grumpy person and she was not informed of the press release. I was not there to observe but I guess the conversation just went bad.
I felt really bad after I found out, it might mean that my press release would never be published. We are all taught that media relations is very essential in our line, PR. And I felt like mine was just ruined before I even got the chance to build it. So the first thing I did was to visit the press personally and clarified the misunderstanding. Applying what I have learnt in campus, I submitted a new copy of the press release, spoke to the person in charged and hoping that it would get published the next day.
The same thing, I checked the newspaper the next morning again. It was not in. Again I wondered why, getting a bit disappointed. I was thinking, maybe what I learnt in the course does not apply. Soon I sort of left it behind as I still had tonnes of work to get done and deadlines to meet.
Today, while sipping my coffee in the morning, spending time with my puppy, reading the paper like usual, I found something cool in the news! My press release was published! I don't quite understand the delay as I mentioned "for immediate release", anyway, I was really happy that it was in.
The lesson is, to always keep the office informed of any possible calls or faxes from whoever you are dealing with to manke sure that they don't give out wrong information or cause unnecessary conflicts. As with a letterhead in your press release submitted, they may just contact the office but not to be too bothered about the part "for further information, please contact...". Lastly, what is taught in uni does apply! It applied in this incident, in event management as well as other fun PR works we are doing now.
It has been fun sharing here and reading all your posts. I hope you all have a great time at work and study. Looking forward to reading more of your experiences. Have a nice Sunday!
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