This London Fashion Intern has never hidden its dislike of PR as an industry. However, I have recenty been eyeing PR j*** more and more closely to the point that yes, I did apply to a few. None of my applications were successful since my experience in fashion is limited to the journalism side of the fence.
On June 5th, Trish Evans wrote in the British Journalism Review that
As journalism flounders, public relations continues to thrive. But that’s good news for both sides of the divide
Of course, it's in her interest, as course leader of the BA Public Relations degree at the University of Westminster, to say so. Her article covers politics and business but doesn't mention fashion. She focuses her argument on the many editors who made the jump from newspaper to PR, often answering the call of a higher salary or a higher power.
I can easily justify jumping ship. I need to eat and save money for that J-school master I'd like to do. I would also learn new skills, and ideally I bring my understanding of what-annoys-the-hell-out-of-journalists to my job, as well as my knowledge of the fashion blogs, a field PR is still coming to terms with.
On the other hand, every time I apply for a PR position, I feel like I am betraying a little bit of myself, even though I could consider it as a short, mean-to-an-end stint. In my mind, the people I would go on to work with as a fully-fledged journalist, would look down on me for having crossed to the dark side. I believe this is a perverse effect of my compulsive reading of Marie Curie and struggling-writer biographies as a child. They left me with this very Romantic idea that suffering for your craft will eventually lead you where you want to be. However, I doubt that 19th century stories are anything to lead my life by in the 21st century recession Britain.
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