Wallace Baker Public Relations consultants publicists Sydney, NSW, Australia

How publicity differs from advertising

Some people refer to publicity as advertising. Some confuse free publicity with paid advertising and publicity agencies with advertising agencies. We at Wallace Baker Public Relations, like most other publicity agencies, define publicity as being quite different from advertising. Publicity is news or other information published by the editorial department of a publishing company on merit, at the department's discretion and without charge to the publicity agency or client who submits the information. Advertising differs in that it is promotional information published by the advertising department of the publishing company by agreement with the advertising agency or client who places the advertisement and pays for advertising space in the publication. Publishers provide publicity coverage free but charge for advertising. Readers tend to believe editorial content and be influenced by it because it is published free and on merit for its informative value, unlike paid advertising.

When we as a publicity agency refer to publicity, we mean free publicity not advertising. We mainly provide publicity services although we sometimes design display advertising for print and web publications. Our publicity services include writing news releases for our clients then submitting the news to editorial departments, to journalists working on newspapers, magazines and websites. Publicity coverage is part of a news or feature story published in the editorial section of a page. Advertising is displayed within borders which separate it from editorial content on a page. The publicity agency liaises with the editorial department whereas the advertising agency deals with the advertising department of a publishing company.

That is how publicity and the publicity agency or publicist differ from advertising and the advertising agency.

Some public relations firms, like ours, serve as publicity agencies, with former journalists providing publicity and media-relations services to their clients.

Like most public relations consultants, we at Wallace Baker Public Relations usually refer to ourselves as consultants, not agents. We refer to ourselves as publicists or public relations consultants providing publicity services. So people do not confuse us with advertising agencies or employment agencies, which receive commissions. Many advertising agencies receive commissions from publishers for booking advertising space. Employment agencies receive commissions from employers for helping to recruit employees. Some of these agencies help to recruit people who seek employment as public relations consultants, publicists or publicity officers. Unlike such agencies, we do not accept commissions from anybody.