Kevin Murphy is bureau chief for Computerwire in San Francisco. (Disclosure: He's covered the industry I'm currently involved in.) He knows his crap and has a ferocious wit, as you'll see.
He writes a post today about "How to Blag an Interview" that will look not only familiar, but exactly familiar to, oh, about every single PR agency operative of the most recent generations. In my opinion, it should be required reading for the next several to follow -- it shows how staid, predictable and all-too-full-of-pretense briefings have become.
This is uncomfortable to me as well because I've conducted briefings like this one. Many times. But I hope my thinking has evolved now to the point I can find my way clear to do something more valuable for both sides involved.
What would be better? How about a conversation? One where there's genuine listening going on, where everyone in the room asks smart questions about what's interesting to the other? How about some brainstorming on what the journalist wants to cover, and where he can find some useful resources?
And here's a barn-burner: How about doing this before you ever launch a product?
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