PR: rooted in media relations

Toward the end of an otherwise unremarkable column on an art gallery opening in London, Julian Henry of the British public relations firm Henry's House, suggests PR boils down to human relations:

If you were to reduce the role of the PR consultant to its most basic function what do you have? The man or woman on the phone whose job is simply to offer a description of their client's product in a topical, creative and engaging way.

It's a horrible truth that the more you work for major brand clients, the more likely you are to be dragged away from this pure and poetic form of public relations and sucked into an awful machine that denies spontaneous thought and starts the process of immediate corruption of intent.

To be a great publicist you must start by thinking as a journalist. This means creating stories, working to deadlines, moving quickly through the trees of the jungle, engaging people by being interesting, and, most unfashionably, having a mind that likes to question what is put in front of you.

Human relations, if you're in PR, consists largely of media relations:

PR people who don't regularly talk to journalists should go and work in advertising. It's that simple. Selling a story to a sceptical hack is important because it forces you to be exposed to the realities of the world. And any PR agency without this at the heart of their culture will quickly lose touch. ...

Like anybody else who's got an idea to sell, Henry probably goes a little overboard here. But he's got a point when he says "the art of good PR is rooted in the ability to inspire through personal contact, and not through pages of scripted corporate gobbledegook."