Graham on PR

I’ve really enjoyed Paul Graham’s writing. It’s typically clear, concise and thought-provoking. There was some really insightful thinking (particularly on societal taboos) in Hackers and Painters.

I was interested, then, to read Graham’s new essay on PR. As far as media relations’ role in the media, he gets nearly everything right (I’ve been saying the same thing for a while). It’s a popular practice to demonize the PR industry, but Graham is very even-handed, and spreads blame around (he is, accurately, hardest on the journalists). He goes on to discuss how PR will have to evolve to responds to the blogosphere.

This is all well, good and accurate, but, c’mon Paul, it’s old news. We understand that PR and the media are deeply codependent. We understand that the majority of news originates in a press release. We even understand (and like to say on a regular basis) that dollars spent on PR beat advertising every time. At Capulet (and at many other PR companies), we’ve been pitching blogs for nearly a year (those 17,000 Google hits for ‘Nooked’ didn’t spontaneously appear). We understand how to listen to the conversation, and all the related bullocks.

Ultimately, it’s worth reading, but a Paul Graham essay without an original notion or piercing insight is kind of disappointing.