Mixed signals: what college presidents want from media relations--and what they say they want--are often two different things.

I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO PEN A COLUMN ABOUT THE DISCONNECT between what cortege and university presidents say they want from their media relations people, and what, in fact, they really want from them.

And now I've got my chance.

I recently returned from a panel discussion at the CASE Annual Conference for Media Relations Professionals, herd at the National Press Club in Washington. As I usually do at national or regional, media relations conferences, I sit in on as many of the sessions as possible, so that I can find out what other national, regional, and trade press forks think about higher ed issues. Most importantly, I hang around, lurking behind attendees as they chat with each other, so that I can hear what is on their minds. This time around as I listened to the Q & A's with other media panelists and then (OK, I admit it) eavesdropped on the table conversations that swirled around the discussions, a pattern began to emerge. Panelists kept advising campus media relations fork to be discriminating about the pitches they tossed at the media, and the communications attendees kept wondering why their streams of carefully crafted press releases weren't hitting any marks.

By the time my turn at bat came up, I was seeing a gap yawning so large between what the media relations people were doing and what the media wanted them to do, that I couldn't help but address the discrepancy directly.

"You've asked us a tot of questions today," I said to the room full of weary attendees (I was session number six and it had been a long and information-crammed day). "Now I'd like to turn things around and ask you a few questions." (That woke them up.) I then asked them to raise their hands to identify how many had come to the campus media relations office from other areas of the school (academic or otherwise), and how many had come to their post from other media relations jobs or from a media relations background or training. As it turned out, most were indeed media relations or PR professionals who had been distinctly trained for that role. Very few had moved into the post from the academic side of the university, or from a different higher ed business position.

"I'm surprised," I admitted. They looked puzzled at my declaration. I went on. "We've been talking about the ability to target your story pitches at the right media outlets. To choose appropriate stories only. To get attention via a sharp, succinct 'elevator pitch' approach. In short, we've been talking about the ability to be a salesman first and foremost. As media relations pros, you know that your goat is to get your school in the news--to 'serf' us a story that's so intriguing or timely, we've got to rush it into print." Heads were nodding. Yes, yes, were the words coming back at me. That's right. That's who we are. That's what we aim to do.

"Then who or what," I asked with little mercy, "is behind the endless torrent of paper that comes out of your offices? I could understand it if you were academicians and conditioned to spit out papers and studies every time you turn around. But for the most part, you say you're not; you're pitch people. So, what's going on here?" I wanted to know, furry expecting glares from the audience, and a tower-than-tow rating on my speaker evaluation card.

But they were smiting. Someone had finally seen the barriers to their jobs, and was trying to fling them off.

"It's the president!" a woman yelped from a table on the left. "He wants us to churn out press releases, or else he thinks we're not doing our job." There was nodding everywhere. (Did I hear an "Amen, sister!" from the back of the room, or did I just imagine it?)

"But isn't he most interested in seeing the school in print?" I asked. "Doesn't he know that if you spend art your time turning out innocuous releases, you'll never have the time you need to pitch to and work with the press to develop the stories they want from you? Stories that will actually get into print and help your school branding and image efforts?"

"They want paper!" another attendee called out.

And then I remembered a conversation I had had two years ago, at one of the first presidents' summits I had ever attended.

"Our media relations department is top-notch," one president told me proudly. I asked him how he knew how effective they were. "Oh, they turn out a ton of press releases every week," he assured me. "We've got productive writers in there."

But when I asked him how many stories had been placed in past months, he looked a little less sure of the situation. "They'll place one soon," he said, and then saw someone in the corner who he absolutely had to speak to.

So, here's my question to you: Are you retting your media relations people work their magic for you? Or are you hiring them for their expertise and then tying their hands with rubber bands? It's something to think about white you're watching your competition get coverage in the Sunday Education section, or wondering why I haven't read the 42 press releases you sent me last month.

You can reach Kathy Grayson at [e-mail].