Todd hit it on the head, it’s about the STORY not whether you have a “relationship” with this eWEEK reporter or that USA Today columnist (often times I find PR reps equating providing a reporter with the number of employees who work in his client’s IT dept for a sidebar in the May 12, 2007 issue as a “relationship”). Besides, in today’s media world, we’re having to forge new relationships every day given the musical chairs and new pubs launching every day. That’s nothing new to us.

Where agencies excel is keeping the pulse of the media – be it MSM, new media, etc. This ultimately leads to more effective media relations and, ah, “ink” for the client. I rarely come across a client exec that can match our media knowledge. But who cares, that’s why they partner with us, right?

For example, we know what’s happening at CIO and how the Weigh In section has now morphed into the Advice & Opinion page or how the WSJ and NYT have over 80 blogs combined or that the editor who has covered the client several times in the past year in Integrated Solutions is movin’ on up and now associate editor at Forbes. Or maybe that the tech beat reporter for the Omaha World-Herald is a bit odd and needs to be pitched a certain way and time of day.

We know these seemingly trivial things that Brian may classify as “legwork,” but I call it solid and intelligent processes which ultimately lead to stronger relationships.

Rich

I think it’s clear to most people that agencies have valuable relationships with A-listers/MSM and they realize that these relationships are difficult to replicate. The challenge is that, given media fragmentation and the rise of new media, outreach needs to be conducted in a more segmented, targeted manner, which involves reaching out to lots more niche bloggers (along with the A-listers and MSM). The question is who should own these relationships and what role should each party play.

I think the social media “sea change” for the PR industry applies as much to client relations as it does to media relations. In order for the agency/company relationship to continue to work, (as opposed to bringing it in-house), I think two things need to occur –

1) the agency should own the relationship with MSM/A-listers (where they have relationships and can provide the most value), while providing lots of strategic, real-time guidance to companies on how to deal with the long/mid-tail (i.e., who to talk to, when/how to get involved, what to say/not say, etc.), and,

2) agencies need to get a LOT more comfortable about sharing information with their clients. Yeah, there are a lot of complexities with this and an agency has a responsibility to protect their relationships, but given this new environment, the agency mindset needs to move away from viewing relationships and outreach as intellectual property that should be guarded/controlled at all costs.

The PR people that I find most trustworthy and that I want to work with are comfortable sharing lots of info about their contacts and outreach because they’re confident in the value of their strategic counsel and their “story-telling” ability.

In my mind, I have always thought PR agencies do two things. First, they do the “legwork” of helping write the copy in the release and the legwork of “introducing” it to the masses of journalists with some old fashioned selling. Second, they have some “proprietary relationships” with top journalists and bloggers in industries that overlap with their customer base, so that when something interesting happens, they can get timely access to the right people. What I have been surprised about in my own dealings with PR co’s is that there is a lot more of the legwork stuff going on and a lot less of (actually almost none of) the proprietary relationships.

Unfortunately for the PR industry, in today’s climate, I think the proprietary relationships are far more important than legwork.

A great PR agency in today’s day and age is one that can consistently produce high leverage proprietary relationships for the management of the startup in an almost factory-like manner.

This part came right out at me. The relationship is the key and without a relationship, a company (not using an agency) will more likely lose opportunities or not have the chance to take them because of it.