Spokespeople should (still) have names

I got a too-familiar question in an e-mail from a publicist after Sunday’s USA Today column ran: Can you please update the story to attribute my quote to a company spokesperson?

That’s a scenario I’ve been dealing with for years. PR rep e-mails me a comment, I run it with the rep’s name attached, they offer one of the following reasons:

• I’m not a company employee;

• It’s supposed to be the…

New rule? If I can’t use your name as a company rep, I won’t use your exact quote either.

Stories usually call company publicists “spokespeople,” which seems increasingly funny given how many of them don’t want to be quoted speaking anything as a person.

Instead, it can only be the company saying anything. Self-aware PR pros know to stipulate their not-for-attribution condition at the top of their reply, but others complain after the fact when I quote them by name in a story.

This…

Next week, PostTV is launching “On Background,” and I’m delighted to be hosting it! We want to tap into what people are talking about and advance the conversation during the show and beyond. The show name refers to a phrase print journalists use with sources–often the information given “on background” is where the real story is. That’s what we want to bring viewers every day. Here’s my take on the drama coming out of New York City this week.