My journey of leaving the newsroom for PR.

I did not foresee that my professional journey would lead me to PR. I was committed to journalism – print journalism specifically. I was so committed that I married a fellow journalist.

Having said that, there were things about journalism that didn’t work for me. As a young hack working for a daily publication, I’d look at the mothers in the newsroom and the difficulty they experienced with the irregular work hours. Long hours were not the problem, it was the fact that you could not predict when you would leave the office on most days. I was determined that once I started a family, I would have worked my way up the newspaper ranks so I could be more in control of my working hours.

Unfortunately things didn’t work out that way. In 2009 a dramatic change in my personal life prompted a re-evaluation of my professional life. I took a sabbatical and it was in this time that I was approached for a position in PR. I remember telling the person recruiting me that I didn’t know much about PR, but I write accurately and in any style required. That satisfied them and I found myself doing PR for the Western Cape’s destination marketing agency for three years. I was the in-house writer for the business tourism team. I didn’t pitch the stories I wrote because they were highly newsworthy and business reporters didn’t need a lot of encouragement to publish or broadcast.

During my time there I’d gotten married and by the time I left, I was pregnant with my son. I could not return to a newsroom and so my next communication job saw me writing for University of Cape Town’s marketing and communications department. Our team reported on the newsworthy activities of UCT academics and on-campus events. This job led to a short stint as a communications manager in the Law Faculty. I also co-authored my father-in-law’s biography before I landed my first truly PR job in 2018. I was appointed publicity manager for the Shoprite Group’s Corporate Social Investment team.

Again it was my writing skill that got me through the door and writing is what occupied most of my time. I had a colleague who pitched stories to the media, but occasionally I would also be required to also pitch. I wrote letters on behalf of the CEO, his speeches and scripts for videos recorded for internal communication to the almost 170 000-strong Shoprite workforce. It was during this time that I discovered my passion for teaching and I segued into part-time lecturing for a couple of years before finding a PR job that allowed me to use my extensive experience to not only guide and oversee but also train PR professionals.

Transferable skills

At Tishala Communications we pride ourselves on the fact that most of us come from a journalism background. I firmly believe that PR specialists would benefit greatly from experience in a newsroom. As a journalist I not only reported but also gained experience in the news production of a printed newspaper. I therefore have a deep understanding of news processes although these have changed over the years. My husband is a broadcast journalist and through him I’ve gained insight into the news creation processes of a television news outlet.

My number one transferable skill from journalism to PR remains my writing skill. Well-written content always draws attention. More often than not it leads to publication without any changes, which means that the client’s messaging is conveyed exactly how they want it to be conveyed.

Years of experience in journalism cultivated a keen interest in news in me and it’s not work for me to stay up to date with what’s circulating on the SA news agenda. In all the 16 years I’ve worked in PR, I have also not lost my news sense. I almost instinctively know what will make journalists sit up and take notice and what will not.

Another quality a PR practitioner and journalist must have in common is persistence. As a journalist, especially if you’re working on a story that the subject does not want to see the light of day, you must persist. A journalist is like a dog with a bone in the name of public interest. PRs must also persist – treading a fine line between annoying the media practitioner and following up to ensure that their pitch leads to placement.

An ex-journalist brings to their PR role personal relationships with journalists they’ve been in the trenches with. The journalism streets are rough – sometimes long days, waiting hours for news subjects to emerge to address media. Such contacts are invaluable and authentic. You would also naturally follow your friends’ careers, and know what interests them, which would inform what story you’d pitch to them.

The media landscape is in constant flux especially with dwindling ad revenue and audiences. I’m still deeply invested in the media especially since the livelihood of so many dear friends and my husband depend on changes within that landscape. Therefore, for professional and personal reasons, I have to stay abreast of developments in the media and again it’s almost second nature for me to do so.

Finally as a leader in a PR agency I occupy a unique position: I feel as if I’m caught between two worlds. I have my eyes firmly on what is happening in media because PR is inextricably linked to media. However, I also have a responsibility towards the PR profession as I’m helping to guide and launch new professionals into an ever-changing industry.