When I walked out of my Charlotte newsroom for the last time, I wasn’t totally sure what I was walking into.
I had spent over a decade finding news and producing newscasts in Raleigh, Charleston, and Charlotte. I knew how to lead a team through breaking news. I knew how to spot a great story before the reporter even stepped out the door. I could restack an entire A-block in 30 seconds and still hit the first tease on time.
But in 2018, 14 months after becoming a mom, I did something I never thought I’d do: I left news for PR.
I traded breaking news for brand strategy. Scripts for emails. Scanner traffic for social media calendars. And let me tell you…it was humbling. If you’ve ever gone from being at the top of your A-game in one world to feeling like a total rookie in another, then you know what I’m talking about.
The Learning Curve Was Real
The first few weeks in agency life? Let’s just say my biggest challenges were not what you’d expect.
I had to learn how to write an actual email, not just a line of copy that would go in a lower third. Calendar invites and Zoom links were totally foreign (embarrassing, right?). And I quickly realized that working for a boutique PR agency meant wearing a lot of hats and I needed to learn how to wear them fast.
But here’s the thing: life in the newsroom had already given me the three most important tools I needed.
Tool #1: Know What Makes a Great Story
In the news, that’s your lifeblood. In PR, it’s your superpower. When I joined McKeeman Communications, I instantly knew how to spot what would actually get coverage and what wouldn’t (see ya later check presentations).
I shared the secret sauce to a ‘tease-worthy story’ (VET – Visuals, Emotion, Timeliness) that my team could start injecting into their pitches and we instantly started seeing results.
Tool #2: Communicate Clearly
You’d be shocked how many people in the communications business struggle with, sigh, communicating. News taught me to cut the fluff and get to the point. Something that still serves me in writing, pitching, and presenting every single day. Of course, now I actually have to talk in front of people so, yes, I’m working on fine-tuning those skills (filler words anyone?).
Tool #3: A Willingness to Learn Something New
Whether it was writing VOSOTs or learning to cover education policy in a single morning, news trained me to adapt. In PR, that meant becoming fluent in everything from social media trends to SEO, planning events, crisis plans, and more.
The Takeaway?
You can pivot. You can learn. You can build a new path with the skills you already have, even if you don’t realize you have them yet.
Now, when I work with clients, I focus on three simple things:
- What are your goals?
- What are your challenges?
- What’s your story?
If I can uncover those answers, the strategy writes itself.
The newsroom was everything to me, until it wasn’t. And I’m so grateful I listened to the nudge that told me it was time for something new. Because now, I get to tell stories and shape them. I get to lead strategy and build relationships. And I get to keep learning, every single day.
Written by: Katie Parker