This time of year is brutal.

We’ve hit Reality Check Season here at Matter. In addition to the regular, end-of-year PR stresses of chasing reporters and stories, staying on top of the latest holiday trends, and planning for the New Year ahead, we fine PR pros subject ourselves to something called metrics.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s busy around these parts, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re in this business because we thrive under pressure and deadlines are like crack to us. We push ourselves partially because we like the thrill of the chase, but mostly because we’ve promised our clients that we’ll meet our metrics and we’re desperately afraid to fail.

What are these “metrics,” you say? They’re the measurement against what we promised our clients we would do versus what we did. At the start of each year, we sit down with our clients to learn about their impending business goals. We then plan and implement PR campaigns with agreed-upon metrics that support those objectives to ensure we’re focused on the right areas of their businesses.

Depending on a client’s needs, those metrics might quantify our target number of media hits, bylined articles, interviews in trade pubs, awards won or speaking opportunities secured. Or maybe they are more qualitative, like message pull-through or shifting the perceptions of a few key influencers. Regardless, we set the bar high and sure, sometimes we fall short for one reason or another, but our teams bend over backwards to meet these goals.

This time of year, we’re in our final stretch of bending, if you will, and the last-minute scrambling can take its toll. That said, the accountability that comes with all of that hard work is oddly refreshing. You can tell that clients respect our honest approach to PR and, as a team, there’s no question about where we need to improve a campaign or whether or not we’ve accomplished our goals.

It is the cold and flu season, you know.

Rather than risk totally taking out my entire office, I was thankfully afforded the opportunity to work from home yesterday. How did I make my day working from home super productive? Here’s a chronology and some tips that you may find useful when you’re also faced with “Should I stay, or should I go…” Yeah, you’ll be singing it all day long now. Sorry!

1. Begin your day just as you would if you were going into the office. For me, it’s early. 5:20 a.m. Ouch. Shower. Skip the shave. Dress in business casual khakis and button down shirt. No shoes/no problem. Cape Cod Times. Can(s) of Diet Coke. Two granola bars. Kiss wife and kids goodbye.

2. Commute 1 foot to my home office promptly at 7:10 a.m. (same time as if I were driving to work). Shut door to home office. Lock door to home office. Turn on lights, open shades and crack  windows in home office. Sit in very comfy chair at comfy desk.

3. Fire up trusty work laptop and personal laptop. Solid and speedy internet connection – check. Connect to VPN. Plug iPhone into laptop. Great 3G reception – check. Call office and ask coworker to forward my phone to my iPhone. IM. Outlook email and calendar. Notebook open, pen in hand (two in ready reserve). To-do list for the day.

4. Work. Read. Think. Type. Talk. Send. Repeat.

5. Unlock and open door to home office for late lunch at 2:45. Say hello to kids returning home from school. Microwave homemade chicken noodle soup leftover from last night – yum. Breathe. Talk. Laugh. Play. Repeat.

6. Shut and lock the door to home office at 3:30. Read. Think. Type. Talk. Send. Repeat.

7. Unlock and open door to home office at 5:50. Commute 15 feet to refrigerator. Open beverage of choice. Pour. Sip. Sigh. Eat. Enjoy. Sleep.

8. Repeat (if necessary).

It’s what works for me. It’s how I can work so well, even while feeling not so well, from home!

Do you have any other ideas?

It’s no surprise to anyone in PR that print publications are hurting. My esteemed coworkers have even talked about it on this blog before, here and here. But a recent article from the New Times of Broward/Palm Beach forwarded to me by my friend and colleague Matt Landry opened my eyes to just how much the print journalism world has changed. I’ve only been in PR since I got out of college about four years ago, and upon my entry into the industry, the digital revolution was in full swing, and I was already used to getting my news online. Print publications are still a part of my everyday outreach and scanning; print is just not the primary channel I pursue.

The New Times article examines the frenzied pace, the competition and the politics of the newsrooms of south Florida’s daily newspapers. Even though this article only focuses on that specific region of the country, I suspect it describes a familiar example of many newsrooms around the country. One anecdote I found particularly amusing is that one journalist was so bent on covering important, breaking news, that he would go through his colleague’s mailboxes and throw away press releases that were delivered to them.

Another story that struck me was that one newsroom actually purchased voting machines so the staff could test them out to find flaws in the system! I can’t really imagine any newsroom in the country with the staffing or financial resources to do that type of research now. Unfortunately, reductions in ad revenue have changed the way news is now reported. Editorial websites are more interested in covering breaking news than they are in developing longer, more in-depth and more researched pieces. While there is a place in the media for both types of articles, the latter is giving way to the former more and more.

But the saddest part of the article, however, was reading all the stories about how the changes at most print publications have forced just about everyone to fear for their job. I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but too often, we PR people hear about journalist layoffs and we’re disappointed that we won’t be able to pitch them anymore. We need to remember that these journalists are real people who are being told they can no longer do what they love to do (or threatened with the prospect), at least not in the capacity they’re used to. Some former reporters discussed in the article have found other ways to cover news on their own terms. Sadly, some have become so jaded with the industry that they quit writing altogether and enjoy other pursuits.

Reading about the way print publications used to be run makes me interested in hearing more stories about that world. While it may be a familiar way of life to many PR pros, many of us new(er) to the industry were never exposed to it. Feel free to share your favorite anecdotes about newsroom craziness or the way things used to be in the comments below.

On this Veterans Day, I’d like to extend a hardy THANK YOU to everyone who has answered the calling to serve our country.  Whether on the sea or below, in a far off desert or right here at home, we keep you all in our thoughts on a daily basis…today is just the annual reminder we have to take time to stop you on the sidewalk and thank you in person. (Yes, we know this is entirely embarrassing for you, but its the best kind of embarrassment!) So THANKS for making such an invaluable commitment to protect me, my family, and the other 300 million of us.

On this day, that we take to say thank you, I wanted to remind all of the military families out there about the Portraits of Love Project. I’ve written about the Project here before, it is a truly wonderful endeavor developed by the PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distribution Association (PMDA) and Soldiers Angels which, through December 4th, will continue to connect professional photographers around the country with military families to provide free family portraits to troops overseas for the holidays.  We here at Matter have had the honor to be invited to help out with this effort, one which we do on a pro bono basis of course, and are particularly proud of that effort today.

Thanks to the Portraits of Love Project, up to 10,000 military personnel will receive professional-quality family portraits this winter. For our service men and women who give themselves entirely to our protection, we here at Matter hope that these memories from home will help them get through a particularly lonely holiday season far from home.

Anyone reading this post should share it with their friends and loved-ones serving in the military, post it on your Facebook profile, Tweet it, carrier pigeon it, what ever your chosen media.

Over the past month and a half, I hit the road for several weeks traveling on behalf of one my clients to media train local spokespeople and staff interviews with local print and broadcast outlets.

The time away from home wasn’t one I initially embraced but once I was through airport security, sipping my Pumpkin Spice Latte and completed some trainings and interviews, I quickly realized the rewards. For three weeks I focused on being the best possible in-the-field resource for my clients. In the trainings, I taught media basics and helped our spokespeople understand why we craft messages the way we do and what to expect so when they stepped into the interview. In a matter of days I saw the result: polished, professional company spokespeople — some of whom with no prior press experience – beautifully deliver our messaging. A couple more days later I saw that translate into overwhelmingly positive press coverage.

As my time on the road continued, I gained a world of perspective as I met with more members of the company – some of whom had been with the company for 10-20-nearly 30 years. Their experience was invaluable and they were open to sharing their background which provided me with a greater understanding of my client’s customers. Truly eye-opening, the learnings I brought back to my team provided all of us with a more attuned understanding of what it like out there for our client’s field team and how PR can really make a difference on the local level.

When we first launched Matter Chatter, our Commander-in-Chief wrote about the value of meeting in person. Scott’s post came to mind several times over the three weeks away. I’m grateful to have read it as it pushed me to take a step back in the moment and realize the opportunity I’ve been given. So, thanks Scott.

At one point in our lives, we have all been told that we need to “think outside of the box.” Whether it’s drafting a contributed article for a client or brainstorming new angles for media outreach, there have and will continue to be times when we need to pause and take a moment to get our creative juices flowing. Sometimes it even takes a change of environment to inspire new ways of thinking.

I was at an offsite meeting for training on one of my clients’ product offerings earlier this week. The training itself was great and extremely informative. On top of that, I brainstormed new and innovative ways to connect the media professionals and consumers with the product. For me, taking a step back from my daily environment and being, quite literally, “outside the box” gave me new insights into what might catch the media’s attention.

As a PR professional, I encourage you to step closer to the products and services you represent, take a new approach, or look at them from a new perspective. The possibilities to ignite your own creativity are endless. So, how are you thinking outside the box?

For years, ‘what have you been reading lately?’ has been my favorite question to ask when interviewing a potential Matter employee, to the point where I am often teased by some of my colleagues for asking that very question. Nonetheless, I have always believed that the question gives you real insight into what a person offers beyond the ABC’s (writing, organization, press and client relations) of PR.

Today, our culture (led with great gusto by PR super-consumers) is producing and processing more content than ever.  Yet it appears that we (and I include myself) are actually reading and learning less, and therefore extending an age-old ‘mile-wide, inch-deep’ cliché for many professionals. Physically reading a newspaper/magazine/book forces consumers to read things that may not be of direct interest to them, but has the potential to open them to unconventional, yet effective, writing styles or perhaps under reported new trends that are exploding a continent away. At the very least, reading more physical media will broaden one’s knowledge base, which contributes to a well-rounded individual who can see angles/stories/trends that a more narrowly focused consumer cannot. Thanks to RSS feeds, blogs, Twitter, simple online news sites, Facebook… far too often content is filtered, skimmed and regurgitated, rather than understood, explained and taught.  This is a shortcoming that is detrimental to most, but particularly damaging for the PR professional.

Often what distinguishes the average from the good in the game is a professional’s insight on what messages, stories and trends that are gaining traction in the media and how to match them with the various assets of their clients. A combination of both old-school (fiction of all kinds, long-form journalism, The Grey Lady aka The New York Times, metro alternative papers, local broadcast outlets) and new-school (tweets, TechCrunch’s rude boys and girls, vlogs) content will give you the context, understanding and perspective you need to be a better PR practitioner.

Below is a sample of what I regularly read, both online and otherwise.

By the way, what are you reading?

Matt

* Boston Herald, ‘The Inside Track’ – Boston’s top gossip collection. No one admits to reading it, but everyone talks about it…

* The Daily Beast, ‘Cheat Sheet’ – Tina Brown’s latest venture offers up a quality collection of the top five newspaper articles of the day

* New York – Yes, I live in the Boston area, but there’s always an article worth reading in every issue.

* Fast Company – The top press target out there. Smart, insightful and always different.

* Salem News & Beverly Citizen – My local papers, some of the best reporting comes from your local journalists.

* Vanity Fair – Beautiful photos, thicker than a door stop and always a number of must read long-form, non-fiction articles

* The Given Day, Dennis Lehane – Labor unrest, race relations and Babe Ruth in 1919 Boston.