Field Trips

By Bennie Sham, Internship Program Lead (@beesham)

I can't say it enough but it's been an great semester with our current group of interns. Lisa Langsdorf, director at Fusion, organized a few field trips to the Reuters, AOL and the NY Times offices over the past few months. I've never been to any of the offices and was glad that I could join the outings.

At Reuters, we met with an editor who took the time to show us his offices and explain how a newsroom works, where our press releases go and how the editors collaborate on stories. At NY Times, we learned another side of public relations, where the VP of their corporate communications department explained the differences between corporate PR and agency PR. Our meeting with AOL's senior communications manager may have been my favorite. He scheduled meetings with the editors-in-chief of AOL Television and AOL Music, as well as the senior VP and director of corporate communications, where we learned about consumer and entertainment public relations.

Each meeting brought a different view on PR but they all had the same advice: know your industries, know your clients, know your reporters and be honest. Their main pet peeve is an uneducated PR professional.

Are You Fine-Tuned?

By Leilani Needham, Intern

Writing is an essential skill to have in public relations and it is a skill I have yet to develop. Being at Fusion has given me an opportunity to draft press releases and learn AP style writing. I feel I am improving but can always be a better writer.

It is really important to fine-tune your writing and, most importantly, editing skills. Suzanne McGee, director at Fusion, gave us some great advice. She stated, “If the only thing you gain out of this internship is editing skills, it will be one of the greatest assets to you.”

Coming to Fusion has really helped me to understand AP style. It is difficult to break habits and stop writing like I’m in class, but it is possible. If you are not familiar with AP style, The Wall Street Journal and New York Times are great examples of publications that follow this writing style.

The AP Stylebook is a great tool that I have used often. Get it and use it in your papers and classrooms (unless your professor dictates a different style). If you’ve decided to pursue PR as a career because you were trying to avoid writing, it might be a good idea to rethink a different profession.