Public Relations: Biting the Handout They Feed You

The bane of every newsman’s existence is the publicity handout. In a never-ending stream, handouts arrive in the morning mail to proclaim that Consolidated Everything has just named Jim Jutjaw as the new vice president in charge of personal advancement; or that Sandi Starlet’s high-rise bust does not keep her from reading on her back; or that Senator Somnolence has forthrightly called for further discussion.

With few exceptions, the self-seeking blurbs are quickly ripped open and then ripped up. But even that takes time, complained Miami Publisher Jay Morton of the weekly Florida Business Leader. After analyzing his daily 41-ft. pile of junk mail, Morton decided to take Draconian measures. By registered letter, he informed 35 of the most constant offenders (none of whom ever took ads) that in the future he would regard any handout as an ad-insertion order, which he would automatically print at a charge of $2.50 per column inch.

It worked miraculously. Last week Morton reported that he was down to 18 inches of mail a day, “and there’s very little junk in it.” Even so, some publicity men have persisted. When Morton sent them bills as promised, Delta Airlines paid up. But when Publicist John Grouse refused, Morton took his $31 tab to small-claims court. There, to almost everyone’s surprise, Judge Martin Shachat rejected Grouse’s plea of accepted and traditional practice, ordered him to pay Morton’s bill on the grounds that the letter had clearly and quite legitimately redefined that practice. Morton, of course, was gleeful; Grouse went into shock. Said he: “It could be the doom of public-relations counselors.”