Article details

11/12/2007

Source: Boulder County Business Report

Author: Caron Schwartz Ellis

According to at least one colleague I'm about to join "the dark side."

After five years at the Business Report I'm moving on to a new employment adventure in public relations.

I'm joining Lynott & Associates, a Westminster-based PR firm that specializes in high-tech companies, including many I have reported on during my stint here. Plus I've known Yvonne and Greg Lynott for years and look forward to helping such a nice couple grow their agency.

It sure wasn't easy making the decision to leave.

Although I've reported from this cubicle for five years, the Business Report and I go way back. I started freelancing here in the early '90s, not long after Jerry W. Lewis and Jeff Schott bought the paper.

In those early days Hilary Lane, another BCBR freelancer, and I were the first BCBR writers to report on the Internet, back when it was text driven and slow as molasses because state-of-the-art technology was a clunking 2400 baud modem.

The dark side remark came from John Metzger, a longtime PR buddy who's headed up his own agency in Boulder for about 25 years.

Public relations, on its surface, seems to be more or less the polar opposite of journalism.

Journalists are traditionally noted for their high ethical standards, taking a distanced stance from their subjects and providing an unbiased view. (Note the word "traditionally" - we can exclude the 24-hour news services that shout about being fair and balanced but are clearly not).

PR flacks are popularly viewed as nothing more than used-car salesmen without the plaid jackets.

But it wasn't that long ago that you couldn't get into public relations without journalism credentials, Metzger noted. "When I first got into PR everybody, just about without exception, was a former journalist. Now that it's a recognized profession it developed its own academic studies, and people choose it as their major."

He sometimes mourns the olden days, especially when hiring, because those with college training in PR lack basic journalistic skills.

"The journalistic skills of understanding how the media works is fundamental to our profession," Metzger said. "It makes sense because of the foundation skills of writing and reporting, looking at things from a journalistic perspective."

One of my co-workers, who happens to have a journalism degree, was incredulous when he found out I was shifting gears.

"Aren't you going to miss the glamour?" he wanted to know.

I glanced around my windowless cube, every surface piled high with paper, and at a computer screen showing a backlog of unanswered e-mails. It was almost 7 p.m., and I was hungry.

"You call this glamorous?"

Maybe one reason I'm eager to try something new is that I have no training in either journalism or public relations.

Overeducated, yes, with two fairly useless master's degrees in religious studies and telecommunications.

But just about everything I've ever needed to know I learned on the job.

And I've had plenty of them.

Many have consisted of varying degrees of office work from executive assisting to typesetting and word processing.

Some have involved being around lots of people, like when I taught history and philosophy at the Community College of Denver. The religious studies degree came in handy for that, actually.

Some have been pretty solitary. Most academic writing - the journal articles and book chapters I've written - involved long hours between just me and the keyboard.

Some have been so much fun I suffered a serious letdown when they ended. I loved consulting with Accenture - the travel, the challenging assignments, the compensation. Being one of a massive "work force reduction" that occurred ironically just days before Sept. 11, 2001 was one of the saddest days of my life.

One of the oddest was hairdressing, which I embarked on to do something completely different. Also one of the few where I needed training before I could practice the craft.

After several months of school I landed a job as a shampoo girl in a swanky Harvard Square salon that Kennedys and other notables frequented.

My only regular client was Julia Child. The larger-than-life (she was about six feet tall) cuisine queen came in most Fridays for a shampoo, rinse, set and comb out.

One day after I had combed in the vanilla (really) rinse before a more experienced colleague took over, she sat rummaging around in her purse, finally retrieving a bag of Doritos.

"Would you like some, my dear?" she asked as she started snacking.

Now that was glamorous.

Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at 303-440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com until Nov.