Broken promises

We’re putting together a supplement for a trade show at the mo. We’ve interviewed the CTO of the organisation behind the trade show and would be including that, but in addition the agency that represents the organisation behind the trade show was given the opportunity of penning a piece for the supplement.

That’s two pages of prime editorial FREE. It is, in PR terms, gold dust.

Two weeks before the supplement copy deadline I was sent an invitation to the show. I replied saying:

Cool thanks – I think The Escapist mentioned a contrib feature. Did your client mention anything?

The PR said:

Don't think she did, but I will check for you. Was there any particular topic/author that you guys had in mind?

I said:

I’m afraid I’m not sure on the details. I could be mistaken. I just thought I’d heard the Escapist talking about getting a contrib feature. I guess the CEO would be preferable. Not sure on topic, the CTO interview is fairly general so maybe digging deeper into the plans for the Organisation. I’d be open to suggestions.

The following Monday I sent this:

Hi PR

Hope all is well. Has there been any movement on a contrib feature for the supplement?

Cheers
Fin

I got this:

Hi Fin,

I have been speaking with the Client and we are looking into possible ideas for a contributed article. We are definitely keen to do this - when would you need the article by? At the moment we are thinking of a feature looking at something very relevant to The Client - does this sound like something that would be interesting? I know that you mentioned something else, but there have been no real developments on this front recently, and we feel the topic may not be relevant to those outside The Client and its partners, so it might be better to get a wider-focused feature instead. We are looking into whether it would be possible to get this by-lined to the CEO, but this may not be possible. The CTO is one of our favourite writers at The Client, but since your original interview was with him, would you prefer the article to come from someone else?

Let me know your thoughts.

Kind Regards,

PR

I said:

Hi PR

We need the piece by the end of this week and about 1600 words. Your suggestions on the topic area look good. I would prefer not to byline the CTO. Purely because the feature interview is of CTO, and it would look better for The Client and us if a different exec is bylined.

How does that sound?

Cheers
Fin

She said:

Hi Fin,

That sounds great. We will find somebody other than the CTO to write the article for you and get it to you by the end of the week. I will let you know if there are any problems.

Kind Regards,

PR


A day later I was sent this:

Hi Fin,

On the article for the show supplement, The Client are keen to get their VP Developer Product Marketing, to write the article. However, he would only be able to do this by next Friday (26th), rather than the end of this week, as you requested. Would this be alright? Let me know if not, and we can find someone else to write it to get it to you this week.

Kind Regards,

PR

I said:

Hi PR

I’m afraid the deadline is very definitely the end of this week. We can’t shift it, sorry about that
Cheers
Fin

A day later, one day before deadline, I got this:

Hi Fin,

We're so sorry to do this at such short notice, but unfortunately, we are not going to be able to provide the article by the end of tomorrow. We have been searching high and low for an exec who would be able to get this done, but in this time-frame we are just not able to get it turned around. Please let us know if there is any other way we might be able to help you to fill this space, as we are aware this is leaving you short-handed. Me and A Colleague are out of the office this afternoon, but I have included our mobile numbers below in case you want to speak to us about this.

Apologies again for the short notice, we have tried our utmost to find someone to write this, but it just isn't possible.

Kind Regards,

PR

Let me run that by you again….

“..but in this time-frame we are just not able to get it turned around”

They’ve had two effin’ weeks to pen a 1600 word article. How much time-frame does it take?