Imagethief enjoys following the blogs of several of the foreign correspondents stationed in Beijing. Among the blogs I read is that of Tim Johnson, the correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers. McClatchy runs several newspapers, most of which are in smaller towns across the US. For instance, in my home state of California, McClatchy owns papers in Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo and Merced. It covers some big cities elsewhere in the country and it's got a large collective readership, but it's not the biggest newspaper group or the one with the sexiest titles under its mantle.

And I guess that's what my cross-town rivals at Ogilvy PR thought when they declined to invite Tim to Intel's recent announcement of its new fab in Dalian, even after he contacted them to request an invitation.

Personally, Imagethief is always thrilled when he gets to manage an event that journalists want to attend rather than one for which he has to plead, cajole and scrape. (This doesn't apply when he is working on crisis situations.) However it's pretty common for any given media event to accommodate a certain number of guests, and for PR firms and their clients to prioritize the media they want to invite. That's life.

This is where journalists for the sexy titles have an advantage. Everyone wants to talk to the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the New York Times, etc. Clients get all sweaty and flushed when they see their executives in the national dailies or global business publications. They'll even be grateful to their PR firms. Very briefly. And then the whip will crack again. I'll bet Tim would have been invited if McClatchy had retained the San Jose Mercury, which is Intel's hometown newspaper and was, I believe, originally part of the package of newspapers it bought from Knight-Ridder.

That situation is kind of a shame, because Imagethief feels there are probably a fair number of journalists and media organizations that routinely get ignored when the mega-announcements roll around. It's not that they should be used as dumping grounds for second-rate crap (your average journalist might see that one coming), but they might appreciate a lunch invitation every now and then. That said, Imagethief has never invited Tim out for lunch, despite being on his blogroll. Sorry, Tim. Next time I am in Beijing, I hope.

The point behind all of this is that Tim blogged the story of his attempt to get invited to this event. He even posted the text of some of the e-mails he received from Ogilvy.

So there's the lesson for us PR people. Our communications with journalists used to be pretty obscure; ephemeral communications that drifted through the back channels of the media business. No longer. Now they can be made embarrassingly public. That's something to ponder when we're crafting our pitches, responding to stories we don't like (a chore better handled by telephone, I've always thought) and, importantly, when we're declining a request.

In the comments, Tim said something that we PR people would do well to remember:

I prefer that PR people 1) Just say the truth, even if it is, 'You're not the kind of media we are targeting for this event.' And 2) understand that most foreign reporters are not by nature hostile to foreign business interests.

Good advice. Tim also used the post to remind his readers that, while the Chinese government is obsessed with controlling information, corporations and PR people aren't all that much different. Sadly, that's often true. But, as I pointed out to him in the comments, at least we can't force him to write a self-criticism.

Disclosure 1: Intel used to be my client. Not any more.

Disclosure 2: Ogilvy is a good outfit, a sister company of my own firm, and I know a lot of talented people there. No swipe at them is intended.