Ink is ink

After taking my new, wonderful job my boss and I decided to do what every good communication/PR person does. We sent a release stating such to the local media.

Of course, despite the four paragraph release, I was lucky enough to garner one, sometimes two, sentences in the four print media outlets in which it was published (Winston-Salem Journal, High Point Enterprise, Greensboro News & Record, and Triad Business Journal). Others I know are counting our company website as further ink, but I directly told the webmaster to upload the info, so that one doesn't count in my book.

In any case, it turns out that I've become apathetic about the small ink - especially the ones that we PR types call "mentions." Mentions are the smallest type of PR victory there is, blurbs rank somewhere in the middle, and then you have the varying degrees of stories. (Those, of course, are completely unscientific and unprofessional descriptors. Someday I may look up the real nomenclature of my profession, but the general public seems to understand the substitutes pretty well, so I'll stick with them for now.)

This apathy, I believe, comes from the fact that mentions are pretty darn easy to get, especially when it's something that a paper uses as filler between the "real" stories. In my experience, you send your release and - voila! - several days later, you're getting clippings.

So why is it that I had to have someone remind me - someone who's not in PR at all (officially, anyway) - that regardless of how apathetic I am about the whole foofaraw, it's still GOOD? Ink is ink. People get jobs from ink. People go to jail from ink. People get sued over ink. Ink pays the salaries of reporters, editors, copy writers, advertising reps, PR people, and the PR clients get all sorts of great things: brand building, name recognition, more sales, fewer problems, etc.

Yes, more ink is always better than less ink, but for those who don't understand that it doesn't take much to get ink, it's a pretty big thing. I suppose that comes from the thinking that you'll only be in the paper three times in your life: when you're born, when you get married, and when you die.

Any PR person will tell you that limiting yourself to ONLY three times in the paper is selling yourself short. You ought to be in there for graduation (all of them), any time you receive an award, every time you get a new job (especially if you're a professional), any time you publish something, every time you sit on a board, etc., etc.

So, thanks Jim, for reminding me that, "Ink, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, is still ink." I needed that.