Our editorial director at Liberty PR is Simon Faulkner, who began his career in journalism before moving into PR. He brings a wealth of experience from both industries.
Simon, 40, joined the company in May 2019 having previously worked with the company’s founders Lisa Jolly and David Watts.
But he began his career in 2008 at daily newspaper the Grimsby Telegraph, after studying for a degree in English language and literature at the University of Sheffield and completing a six-month post-graduate National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) course at Sheffield’s Norton College.
Making the decision to leave journalism was not an easy one as Simon had enjoyed his seven years at the Grimsby Telegraph, where he specialised as a local government reporter.
He said: “I enjoyed it and really took to covering local government. Some people might think listening to councillors pontificating sounds like the most boring thing in the world, but I loved the drama and the theatre of it, and we had some amazing characters there. I was very interested in politics.
“I also covered all the grass roots community news as well as reporting on some very interesting court cases. I worked on the website and social media, and this included creating video content.”
Highlights included interviewing politicians including former Prime Minister Tony Blair as well as having the opportunity to travel for assignments including a press trip to Auschwitz and four weeks in Tennessee with the Rotary Club.
But while journalism can be a dream job, it has its drawbacks – including unsociable hours and being on call – while the newspaper industry has been hit by staffing cuts and the rise of the internet and social media.
Simon said: “The idea of being a journalist became better than the actual reality. The negatives started to outweigh the positives.
“One of the reasons I didn’t see a future in newspapers was that we were working increasingly hard with fewer and fewer staff, and it became almost impossible to do a good job. I decided I was going to look for a change.”
Simon went on to work as a PR account executive and found it refreshing, as he was allowed the time and resources to really focus on the content he was producing.
And he was able to bring the news sense that served him well in newspapers to his new role – something that is central to the way the team at Liberty PR operates.
Because Simon and the editorial team have many decades of journalistic experience between them, they understand how media outlets work and what they are looking for in a story.
He said: “Having that news sense is important. There’s no point churning out press releases that don’t get coverage.
“We’ve been on the other side of the fence, and we know or have a good feeling for what a newsdesk or journalist is looking for. We produce content that’s interesting and of interest to the publications we send it to and that gets us more coverage and exposure. Agencies that don’t have that experience are guessing and sometimes guessing wrong.”
So, would he recommend someone currently working in journalism to move into PR?
“It depends on their standpoint,” he says. “When you’re a journalist it’s easy to look down on the PR profession and it’s seen as going to the ‘dark side’, but I don’t think that’s the case. I’m now getting greater job satisfaction than I did when I was a journalist.
“Moving into PR was a big decision for me, and I certainly don’t regret it. Maybe I waited too long, but I didn’t want to leave journalism without feeling I’d given it my all.
“The roles are pitted as opposites, but the day-to-day job is very similar. You’re telling stories in the most interesting and compelling way to an audience. You’re speaking to people and getting the information and getting a story and writing it up.”
There are many advantages to working in PR rather than journalism, he believes. “It’s less stressful, the hours are more sociable, and you feel you have the time to do the job justice. It is more structured and organised, and everything isn’t a mad rush.
“It feels like I’ve found my calling. I use my skillset from journalism and my experience of PR to make a difference and contribute to the business in a way I didn’t feel able to in newspapers.”
