This is true. I've been told by PR people that 80% of the content in a newspaper or a magazine is written by PR agencies.
I have a question, though. Why don't they also create an expert system that writes PR pieces? I imagine it would be really nice tool for people in the business. You write down the variables (who, what, when)from an interview with a client in a form and you get to show him an instant first draft, you correct it together and you publish it after leaving the room.
Or even better yet, take that data and use advanced algorithms to embed mentions of clients, products and initiatives in bigger articles.
This is how a PR piece usually goes:
1. Case, problem, solution. Short story here.
2. Introduction of company
3. A Question and an Answer
4. Another look of the company, credentials.
5. This is really cool think about it. There may be a sound (text) bite here.
It's not hard to hire people to write PR stuff. It's just unemployed english majors of which there are legions. There are no associated costs as the positions have no benefits and everyone works from home.
...and the interns get to say "I've written for New York Times" the next time they interview for a job. Everybody wins, as The Economist argued: http://www.economist.com/node/21528449
I have a question, though. Why don't they also create an expert system that writes PR pieces? I imagine it would be really nice tool for people in the business. You write down the variables (who, what, when)from an interview with a client in a form and you get to show him an instant first draft, you correct it together and you publish it after leaving the room.
Or even better yet, take that data and use advanced algorithms to embed mentions of clients, products and initiatives in bigger articles.
This is how a PR piece usually goes:
1. Case, problem, solution. Short story here.
2. Introduction of company
3. A Question and an Answer
4. Another look of the company, credentials.
5. This is really cool think about it. There may be a sound (text) bite here.
Do you see the patterns?