A major aspect of PR that is not covered throughout the PR
degree is valuing of media coverage. This may be due to the fact that each
consultancy might value differently. For example, one of the major PR
consultancies in Perth determines the PR value to be 2 times the advertising
value, while another is 5 times – a significant difference!
I believe the basics of valuing - column centimetres,
modules and page rates – should be highlighted more during the PR degree,
instead of the brief mention I can vaguely remember. These valuing techniques
are different for most publications, and can change over time, but learning how
to apply these techniques so students do not go into the workforce blind would
be a huge advantage.
So far during my internship I have had to do valuing for
various clients, and while the account managers are always happy to help with
any questions I may have, I think they would rightly expect that I should have
some grasp of the techniques coming out of my university degree.
I guess I do have the disadvantage of being at a small
boutique consultancy, where there is not really a comprehensive database of
rates of all publications and media outlets (most publications are there,
online news outlets are lacking). However this has taught me that in PR if you
want to find out something (e.g. advertising rates) – you must call to find
out. Spending hours trawling through websites is just not practical.
It is important to highlight the importance of getting a PR
technique like valuing correct. It does not look very good for the agency if
the value of coverage received by a client is significantly incorrect.
Consultants use the amount of PR value gained as a way of determining how
successful a campaign or strategy has been. I believe it is an important tool
as a way of ascertaining the return on investment by a client, however it could
be argued that media coverage does not necessarily determine how much work has
been put into a campaign. Regardless of opinions surrounding PR valuing, it is
a tool adopted by consultancies as it is usually expected from the client.
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