Advice from the PR Pros: Ray Jordan

The Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication has conducted oral history interviews with dozens of the nation’s most influential public relations practitioners. The Page Center website features a vast collection of transcripts and videos of these interviews. On this blog, we will highlight some of the advice given by professionals on attaining positions in the field of public relations.

Ray Jordan is senior vice president of corporate affairs at Amgen, the world’s largest independent biotech firm. A pharma veteran, he previously was vice president of communications and information at Johnson & Johnson, and brought 27 years of experience in global health care to his position at Amgen, having spent 17 years at Pfizer before joining J&J.

More watchdogs than ever – Changing definition of a journalist

“They still are the watchdogs. What’s new is who is a journalist. And I do believe the net of journalists is larger than it’s ever been.”

“Where there historically had been a fairly clear delineation between journalists and non-journalists—if you were a journalist you could get something published, if you were a non-journalist you’d read it. Today, what you have is a continuum of journalism which is approached on one end by our classical beat reporters who can get something published… with editorial oversight and traditional press.”

“But very rapidly [we’ve moved] to online publishers and bloggers who reach tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of readers. Sometimes more impactful collections of readers than certain print journalists.”

“All the way to the folks who are commenting in significant ways about your products. So I think the range of who is a journalist and what is their impact is changing.”

“I do think the watchdog role is still there. We feel a regular pressure from the traditional press on why we’re doing what we’re doing, how we’re doing what we’re doing. But you feel an additional pressure from the other journalists along the dimension as well.”