What are we trying to do here at Just In Time PR? I mean, what are we REALLY trying to do?

I'll cut to the chase (partly because I'm in a serious rush): we're on a mission to help democratise the media. Now we know it's going to take some time but you've got to start somewhere. And we may as well start here - and now.

[caption id="attachment_458" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Just In Time PR: Giving Smaller Businesses and Organisations a Voice"]

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The democratisation of the media, of course, is already taking place. People are already communicating with journalists and bloggers — and themselves — directly through the likes of Twitter and Facebook - and it's great to see.

Journalism is becoming increasingly open, new voices are being heard, the age-old hegemony of the mainstream media is slowly being broken — and that's got to be welcomed.

But in many corners of the mainstream media the same old experts and rent-a-gobs continue to be relentlessly quoted — and here at Just In Time PR we just don't think that's right.

After all, there are hundreds of thousands of experts out there who have fascinating things to say on each and every subject but they rarely, if ever, get the chance to show off their expertise and insights to the public in the mainstream media — and so the public suffers.

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As you would imagine, it's the people and firms with the big PR budgets who tend to get the most media coverage. They can hire PR fluffies to schmooze the journalists, and appoint someone in-house, too, to spend all their time creating content.

And so, coverage-wise, they clear up. The SMEs, the self-employed, the smaller organisations and bodies out there just haven't got a chance.

It's not the journalists' fault, though. OK, some are lazy bastards and the mainstream media as a whole can be cliquey but today's hacks, more than ever, are under intense pressure to meet deadlines and get their copy online. They're seriously under the cosh.

As an ex-journalist myself, there's no doubt that if you're on deadline and you know someone with a detailed understanding of a subject who can explain it in accessible terms (and who will also answer their phone or email straight away), you will use that person. I used to do exactly that myself, time and again.

But when I did have time I would make the effort to find new companies and people to speak to and use in my articles. I did this because I enjoyed talking to people other than the usual suspects and felt it added extra energy to the article in question.

I also did it for the simple reason that I loved giving great publicity to the smaller brands, those without the big bucks. Hell, it felt like the right thing to do, and today nothing makes me happier when I stick a company who have never been quoted in their local rag onto the front page of a national newspaper - for the grand old sum of 200 notes.

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Anyway, back to Just In Time PR: our mission, and we chose to accept it, was to try and find a way to help people, organisations and businesses that don't have huge budgets to get the media coverage and exposure of those that do - and to enable them to do so free of risk.

[caption id="attachment_467" align="aligncenter" width="294" caption="If you don't get relevant media coverage, Just In Time PR won't charge you a penny."]

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So that's why we decided not to charge a penny unless our clients get media coverage. That means they're more likely to give it a go, all the more so in this climate where every penny counts. And the more of them who give it a go, the more democratic the media become.

Our mission was also to put new people in front of journalists to help them out a bit, too. Believe it or not, most journalists love to quote new voices, but too few new voices ever reach out to them (generally because of cost).

All in all, we firmly believe that the more democratic the media, the richer the media - and, given the central role the media play in our lives, the richer our own lives will be.