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Lazy Lexicon
Willard Marketing Monthly occasionally examines the words used, misused and abused by the advertising, marketing and public relations business. In this month’s “Lazy Lexicon” feature, we highlight a word that more often than not doesn’t mean what it says:
“Exclusive”.Exclusive is one of themost misunderstood words in the business. In a media context, an ‘exclusive’ can be a story developed by an enterprising reporter that no one else has, or it can be an exclusive interview given to a particular journalist or publication that appears nowhere else. Every journalist, of course,would prefer that all of his or her stories flowed from brilliant investigative work and developed from information that competing reporters either couldn’t ferret out or simply did not pursue.
In the PR business, it is common for a company, politician or institution to feel that there will be better, more complete coverage of a story if the facts are handed over exclusively to a single publication or broadcast outlet. And, to be honest, companies that give exclusive stories feel that this will ensure more favorable treatment, particularly if a PR professional is guiding the story. Exclusives can be dangerous, though. By giving one reporter favorable treatment, there is a possibility that other reporters covering the same beat will feel slighted. There is also a good chance - if the story is not a real bell-ringer - that other media outlets will ignore the story once it is out.
On the other hand, most publications are sufficiently mature to know that exclusives are given from time to time, and that the PR professional probably had a specific reason for letting one journalist know a story before releasing it to others. One scenario that should be avoided, however, is releasing information as an exclusive when, in fact, the news value does not rate “exclusive” status, and is merely a common, garden-variety story. Many journalists, on the other hand, aren’t too concerned about how exclusive the story really is. Often, they equate a private, one-on-one interview with exclusivity – even if the interview is one in an assembly line of such interviews being conducted on the same topic and on the same day.
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