Gizmodo published a lame, clickbait story last week that exposed a ‘dossier’ (fancy for briefing sheet) that Microsoft PR had prepared for an executive’s interview with Fast Company journalist Mark Sullivan, and then somehow accidentally emailed to Gizmodo. Oops. Gizmodo then called out the mistake. Like. It. Was. News.
When a colleague sent me a link to the story, I first had to look-up the definition of dossier, but then read the story and it was what I had expected – an exposure of PR’s inner workings. Dossier’s are a course of daily business in the PR world, we just don’t call them dossiers. Any engagement with the media requires a briefing sheet. And any spokesperson that doesn’t receive a briefing sheet prior to a media interview is being shortchanged.
The fact that Gizmodo exposed what is a fairly standard PR practice and called it a story is, well, kind of Gizmodo-like. Slow news day? Check out Gizmodo? Looking to waste time reading about weird things, headlined in a nonsensical manner? Gizmodo.
For those not ‘in the know’, a briefing sheet provides a spokesperson with information pertinent to the journalist the executive is meeting with, plus notes on the journalists’ background, links to previous stories pertinent to the subject at hand and in some cases, tips on messaging or cues to look out for from the journalist. It is not personal.
If given the opportunity, I would ask Gizmodo’s editors directly - do your reporters conduct interviews with subjects without first researching that person and the topic at hand? Wouldn’t it be folly to show up for an interview without being briefed first?
The real victim here is the Microsoft PR rep who accidentally sent Gizmodo the briefing document. It was a big mistake, for sure, but was it worth a headline in a national publication? There is the potential that something like this could cost someone a job, depending upon the forgiveness level of that person’s boss, and that’s just not fair. The journalist assigned to write this piece is likely about the same age as the person who sent the email. They probably make a similar salary, conduct similar off-work activities, and in another dimension might even be friends, but in the real world they are sadly pitted against each other as adversaries.
At the end of the day the Gizmodo writer simply did her job as directed by her boss. That’s all. It wasn’t personal. It was Microsoft clickbait. What self-respecting media outlet passes that up anymore?