Building relationships with journalists

What do think of this post on building relationships with Journalists? The post: http://www.prnewsonline.com/prnewsblog/index.php/2014/09/25/does-building-relationships-with-journalists-matter-not-if-you-ask-journalists/

“Does ‘Building Relationships’ With Journalists Matter?” Replying to that question, YES! Of course, from a PR intern point of view. We are in Mauritius: a small island where almost everyone know each other. Building relationships is important in a small country like Mauritius.

In the blog post from PR News, the author writes that journalists do not really care about the relationship but only about the content. As far as the content is newsworthy, the journalists are fine with it. Positive aspect for the journalist but what about the PR person?

“Just send us something we can actually use.” Sending them something, this means sending them media releases. But what happens when the journalist obtains information on an organisation from somewhere else? The journalist obviously needs confirm those information but why would the PR person of that organisation help the journalist?

What happens when the information obtained will affect the PR person’s organisation negatively? In that case, if the PR person is aware of that little issue, the first thing he or she will try to do is get in contact with the journalist and try to solve things. But what if the PR person and the journalist don’t share a good relationship?

Can you now see the importance of building relationship with journalists? Not enough clear? Let’s apply it to a real life issue.

Some weeks ago, an issue arose which rapidly turned into a crisis. What was it about? Some employees refused to abide by some rules of an organisation (a client of the PR agency I am doing my internship with) and these employees were suspended for valid reasons. Other employees threatened to strike to fight for the reintegration of the suspended employees and for the employers to change the rules and regulations.

The next day, a newspaper reported about the meeting the employees had. It was reported in that article that those employees were suspended for some invalid reasons (the reasons were not mentioned).

As soon as my director saw that article, he wrote a media release with all the reasons and the benefits of these new rules. He contacted all his ‘journalist-friends’ and the next day, several newspapers published articles about the benefits and reasons.

Wouldn’t it have been more difficult to solve that issue if the director did not maintain any good relationships with journalists?