Today we held a press conference for a client, and we were very pleased with the amazing turnout, about 10 reporters or so.   Our client was thrilled as well.  Press conferences are always so much fun: they’re risky because you never know how many reporters will show, but they have the potential to be hugely rewarding.  They’re also a lot of fun to set up.

During the press conference, one very young looking “reporter” from a major news outlet was present.  Although he had credentials around his neck, he clearly wasn’t of drinking age.  I was concerned he might be a fraud.  He asked questions during the press conference, and afterwards, my clients’ first question was, “Who is that?”  I had the same question, and sure enough, the “reporter” was, in fact, an intern, who was reporting on the story.  Budget cuts?

A reporter’s accuracy is very important, so I was surprised that a leading news outlet would send an intern to cover a major story.  Especially for a major publication.  Food for thought.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 2:42 pm and is filed under CRISIS, EMPLOYEES, MEDIA & PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.