Jeremy Berrington - Director of Digital Media, Merton G. Silbar Public Relations
2/11/2010
Disclaimer: Instead of a journalist profile this week, we’ve interviewed PR professional Jeremy Berrington.
By Libby vanBuskirk
Many PR professionals start out with an interest in marketing or public relations. For Jeremy Berrington, director of digital media with Merton G. Silbar Public Relations in Chicago, his first loves were journalism and politics.
"Really my interest in politics got me into public relations. My first job out of college was as a press secretary for [former Illinois governor] Rod Blagojevich," Berrington said.
He studied politics and communications in school and wrote for several newspapers. "They were looking for somebody with journalism experience who spoke Spanish and I filled both those qualifications. And it was my first job that was not pure journalism."
The experience clearly hit home, as his next move was to launch his own communications consulting company in Chicago. Then in 2007, he joined Merton G. Silbar Public Relations, where he began overseeing sports, nonprofits and media companies. This diverse body of clients gave Berrington a chance to exercise his skills from both the governor's office and beyond.
"Being a press secretary, there's a lot of elements of public relations involved with that," he said. "You're really in a position there of media management. You know that the media is going to be there for you."
However, Berrington points out that this is not always true for other sectors of PR.
"Not only is every sector different, whether it be media or, in my case, media, sports and nonprofit, but every client has to be approached differently depending on their own unique needs," he explained. "I certainly wouldn't treat, for example, a sports team in the same way that I would treat a politician. Nor would I treat a nonprofit in the same way that I would treat a business.
"For example, if you were representing the [Chicago] Cubs, the question would be, ‘How are we going to manage the 20 reporters showing up to our press conferences?’" Whereas for a nonprofit company, he said, "The question is, ‘How do we get people to care about us? How do we get ourselves in the media?’"
Berrington also pointed out that with nonprofits, "Sometimes you have to be more creative and a bit less conservative when you are approaching that media acquisition need, whereas if you're dealing with media management you can always err on the side of caution."
Having worked in both journalism and public relations, Berrington believes that most PR professionals should get experience on both sides of the media.
"I would definitely encourage anybody who's interested in PR to go out there and – even if it's as a freelancer – just try and get into journalism," he advised. "The people that I really look up to in this field, almost all of them started as journalists, and there's just no substitute for that experience... of having a dozen PR people call you as a journalist in two minutes."
His understanding of being a journalist has also allowed Berrington to get a clear perspective on the relationship between PR professionals and the media.
"When building contacts with the media, I think public relations professionals would be wise to keep in mind that it's really not about us," he explained. "What it's about is that journalist and helping them accomplish their goals. It's about giving them great stories."
Berrington advises to always remember these basic tenets of PR.
"Do some research … Don't call people cold having no idea about what they do or what they like to cover. Beyond that, show them courtesy at all times," he said. Asking a journalist if they have time for a pitch is a far better way to establish a relationship than blindly forging ahead when they answer the phone.
"You've got to build these personal relationships with people and you really have to develop your own equity as a PR person," he explained. "Build up that trust with individual reporters so that they know you're going to give them good stuff when they see your e-mail or pick up your phone call. So invest on the relationship side as much as you'd invest on the press release or the media advisory side."
Building these relationships is very important to Berrington, who believes that journalists do not rely on PR professionals the same way that PR professionals rely on journalists.
"We really need the media perhaps a bit more than individual media people need us," he said. "It is a two-way street in that journalists do benefit from public relations professionals. But it is not an equal partnership."
Berrington has worked very hard to keep his understanding of journalism and public relations at the forefront of his work and his approach to the media.
"I have a great love of media just as a way of communicating with the public," he said. "I still feel like a journalist at heart. I love showing people things that they might not have been in contact with before."
He added, "Just being able to really impact the public, I think, is a privilege being in media, whether you're on the journalism or the PR side ... I enjoy it and consider it to be a responsibility as well as a passion of mine."