A truly sad story. My former San Diego Union colleague (a great writer, reporter and editor who no longer works at the paper) Greg Gross posted an item about Chick-Fil-A’s VP of Public Relations, Don Perry, dying with Greg’s comment that this was for those who think PR is a cushy job.
And it most assuredly isn’t.
Just think about what it would be like to defend the company now in the middle of a boycott with all the written and verbal incoming missiles that threaten the company’s branding (whether brought upon by the company’s bigwig or not). If your job is public relations, you have to battle to stem the damage. And if your job is public relations, all along you have worked long hours to protect your company’s brand. Set aside your views on the issue of the content of the controversy and imagine the job stress. That is part of doing p.r.
Newsy.com has this good summary:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.