As the esteemed PR commentator, critic, raconteur and all-around pain-in-the-butt Jack O’Dwyer frequently notes, “Too many public relations people don’t know the first thing about dealing with the press.”

Dr. O’Dwyer has a point; that being, that even in this day of social media, the people that hire PR people pay them primarily to earn positive “third-party endorsement” from journalists – whether bloggers, broadcasters, daily newspaper writers, or whatever.

pr masterclassStated another way, in most people’s minds (including, importantly, those who pay PR people), it is publicity—the ability to earn “endorsement” from an objective, unbiased, indifferent and neutral “third party – that constitutes the essence of PR.

That’s why it really is criminal that many people engaged in PR don’t know the first thing about dealing with the media.

Finally, there is hope.

British daily journalist-turned PR professional Alex Singleton has authored a new book, “The PR Masterclass,” which provides all you need to know about securing press coverage.

Author Singleton begins his treatise by dismissing the naive contention, fostered primarily by Facebook fanatics and Twit-wits, that the conventional media – principally those hoary daily newspapers – are dead. Nonsense, declares Singleton.

“What is actually happening is that much of it – especially the trade press and daily news – is moving online. That is not death; it s a change of format.”

He points out that many of the leading newspapers – among them, The New York Times, Washington Post, London Daily Mail and Guardian – have a global daily readership that far surpasses their total print readers.

Singleton argues that most publicity attempts go awry because they are too “low level.”

He calls for “higher level” publicity attempts that concern things in which the media are generally interested; like an entrepreneur friend who created the world’s largest teabag to promote his tea factory.

Indeed, Singleton’s primary publicity-generating belief is that, “At the heart of all good media relations is creativity.”

Here he cites going back to the founding fathers of PR --- Ivy Lee’s promotion of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in visiting the miners’ families after the Ludlow Massacre and Edward Bernays’ campaign to use socialites in the New York Easter Parade to legitimize women smoking – for inspiration.

One vital source of publicist creativity, Singleton says, is seizing on data, research and opinion polls that journalists adore.  Another sure fire press release interest starter is writing about “conflict;” for example, an improvement from the status quo.

Rather than demeaning the embattled “news release,” Singleton prescribes the secret to making releases more enticing to reporters overwhelmed by the volume of email they receive from PR people.

Journalists, Singleton says, “are used to skim reading the publications that discuss their beats. So, says Singleton, “They get used to reading the headlines and the first sentences or first paragraphs. And so they will try to do the same with your press release.”

As to contacting reporters about news release, Singleton cautions that there are only two occasions where such a practice is advisable.

“One is where you are genuinely able to offer something extra, such as an interview with a chief executive. The second is when you have offered the story as an exclusive, and you are ringing to see if they want it.”

Among other gems, the book dissects contemporary PR techniques from pitching to appearing on television to hiring a public relations agency.

Throughout, the author reiterates his belief that perfecting one’s media relations skills may be the key to success for any PR practitioner; to which Jack O’Dwyer might surely respond, “Amen brother.”