Annie Augustine Davis is a communications strategist with over 10 years of experience working for leading media companies, including The Atlantic, The New Republic, and VICE Media. Spanning both old and new media, Davis’s areas of expertise lie at the intersection of public relations, marketing, live events and corporate communications. As an Atlantic Media Fellow, Davis partnered with the Aspen Institute on the 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival. As the Communications Director for The New Republic, she oversaw the national relaunch of a 100-year-old publication, working to expand its footprint beyond the Beltway.
During her tenure at VICE Media, Davis worked closely with HBO on publicity and digital strategy for two Emmy-winning news programs, including “VICE” and “VICE News Tonight” as well as the accompanying Peabody-winning website ViceNews.com. Most notably, she led public relations campaigns for two HBO documentaries featuring exclusive interviews with Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and the internationally recognized episode of VICE News Tonight titled “Charlottesville: Race and Terror.”
Davis graduated from UCLA in 2010 with a major in English Literature and a minor in Political Science. She participated in the Gotham Fellowship Program through Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s Center for Faith and Work as a fellow in 2017 and as a teaching assistant in 2018. In 2019, she took a sabbatical and pursued a lifelong dream to attend Bible school in Germany. Davis and her husband currently live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where they attend Good Shepherd Anglican Church. She responded to questions from MPJI director Paul Glader.
Q: Tell us about your class in public relations and marketing at King’s and what you are teaching the JCS majors and other students who are taking this as an elective this semester?
A: I’ve tried to make my class as hands-on and applicable as possible. My goal is for each of my students to finish the semester with enough tools in their toolkit to land an internship or entry-level job in public relations or marketing. We begin each class with what I call “The News of the Day Debrief & Discussion.” To succeed as a PR or marketing professional, you must understand the media landscape and obsessively follow the news, so my students maintain a strong media diet, reading The Poynter Report, Axios Media Trends, and Ben Smith’s media column in The New York Times each week. Then, we engage in a robust discussion around what’s leading the news cycle and why. Following the discussion, we dive into real life case studies from my time at VICE Media, The New Republic, and The Atlantic. We’ve also had the opportunity to hear from a number of excellent guest speakers, including peers of mine from Facebook, Condé Nast, and Capitol Hill. The class ultimately culminates in the final project—students are putting their skills to the test by constructing their own public relations and marketing campaigns.
Q: Your background at top media brands such as Vice, The Atlantic and The New Republic involved a different lens than a journalist who works at those brands. Do you think journalists at media outlets should think more or less about PR Marketing? Should they leave it to the PR team and focus on their reporting and story-telling? Or should they partner more? And how?
A: More! The media landscape is incredibly saturated. Every email, app, news outlet, and streaming platform is competing for your audience’s attention. I realize that some journalists might be skeptical of “PR flacks” and “marketing gurus,” but if you’re a journalist who wants your article to be read or your segment to be viewed, you can’t assume that your audience will find it organically—they’re inundated with a continuous stream of content all day. Someone (namely your public relations and marketing teams) must strategically usher your story from the newsroom to your target audience and into the public sphere. In my experience, this process is most successful when the journalist and public relations team work hand in hand. A journalist knows their story and beat better than anyone, and they need to share this knowledge with their public relations team, whose job it is to construct the perfect strategy for securing attention, buzz and press coverage.
Q: What does successful PR for media organizations look like? What does it not look like?
A: A successful PR professional for a media organization must possess a deep and comprehensive understanding of the media landscape and obsessively follow the news cycle. They must have a strong nose for news and be able to intuitively identify the newsworthy moment within a larger story—the moment that will catch fire and make headlines. Along with their nose for news, successful PR professionals must establish themselves as trustworthy, credible, and informed partners to the journalists both inside and outside of their media organization. I find that news nerds with a keen business sense and strong interpersonal skills make the best PR representatives for media organizations.
Public relations is a support role. A PR professional works tirelessly behind the scenes to elevate the work of another person or company. Whether you represent a media organization or a clothing company, you won’t succeed as a PR professional if you want to be the star of the show. If you’re someone who wants the byline or to be in front of the camera, that’s great, but public relations is probably not for you.
Q: How did you get into PR and Marketing and specifically doing that work for media outlets?
A: I grew up reading news magazines like The Atlantic and Harper’s. When I was in high school, my dad bought me a subscription to Harper’s to help me prepare for the verbal section of the SAT. I suppose I was bound to either fall in love with longform journalism or rebel and bomb the SAT. I fell in love and started dreaming about working for a similar publication one day. Upon graduating from UCLA, I was accepted into The Atlantic’s year-long fellowship program for recent college graduates. As an Atlantic Media Fellow, I gained a 360-degree view of the inner workings of the magazine and in 2010, during my fellowship, the 153-year-old publication turned a profit for the first time in over a decade. It was an electric moment for the publication and for the media industry as whole, and a clarifying moment for me personally. I realized that I wanted to immerse myself in the world of journalism and media, but not as a journalist. I wanted to be a pioneer: innovating, strategizing and helping the industry figure out a new way forward in the digital age.
Q: We see a lot of journalists - especially mid and later-career journalists - switching careers at some point into PR and marketing. I’ve also seen some PR professionals decide to switch careers and become a journalist. What do you make of this trend?
A: I think it’s pretty clear why journalists switch careers at some point into PR and marketing. There are a lot more jobs available in PR and marketing, and they pay better. When I was preparing to teach my class, I read an article in the Columbia Journalism Review that said, “In 1980, there were about 45 PR workers per one hundred thousand population compared with 36 journalists. In 2008, there were 90 PR people per one hundred thousand compared to 25 journalists.” Obviously, this data is dated, but the point stands. Not only is there an increase in the number of PR and marketing jobs, but as more and more local newspapers sadly close and as national newspapers struggle to make money, the number of journalism jobs are shrinking. Also, being a journalist is a grind. You really have to hustle, and for some people, that isn’t sustainable over the long haul.
I think it’s less common for PR professionals to switch careers and become journalists. In some sense, you’re branded as a “PR flack, and it can be hard to shake the tainted label and make the switch. With that being said, it’s not impossible and I think one reason it happens is because PR professionals often have unrealized dreams of becoming journalists or writers. They love journalism, know the industry inside and out, and have spent their careers around journalists, editors, anchors and producers—now they want to try their hand at the craft. I get that.
Q: Journalists and PR professionals (who don’t work at the same organization) have an odd relationship at times, right? Sometimes they cooperate. At other times they are enemies. That’s especially true when an investigative reporter is encountering PR pros on a crisis PR situation. The same is true in political PR and corporate PR. Journalists are accused of being hacks and aggressive. The PR “folks” are accused of being spin doctors, obstructionists (and sometimes called worse names). Are we seeing two groups of people just doing their job and earning their paycheck? Is this just part of the game?
A: Good question. We had the opportunity to dig into this in class during our lecture on corporate and crisis communications. What I’ll say is this: As a PR professional, even in the stickiest of situations, it never serves you or your client to not tell the truth. However, as one of our guest speakers put it, it’s up to the PR professional to determine how wide they want to open the lens—or how much access they want to grant. Spin and manipulation never pay off, but just because a journalist is asking, doesn’t mean you are obligated to share every single detail. Information is currency, and a PR professional’s job is to use sound judgment and strategic thinking to determine what and how much information to share at any given time. I’ve worked hard to establish myself as a trustworthy and credible resource to journalists over the course of my career. While I can’t always tell them everything they want to know, they know I respect them, their job and that I am fair and honest.
Q: Is it possible to operate from an ethical framework - whether you are religious or not - as a PR professional and as a journalist? What are some keys to maintaining respect, dignity and civility in these rough and tumble realms of communication and information wars?
A: Yes, of course it is. Your integrity is the key. Whether you're a PR professional or a journalist, you never want to compromise your integrity. If you remain above reproach, you’ll win and maintain the respect of those around you—even the ones who disagree with you.
Q: In an era of disinformation, misinformation and spin, is it possible for citizens to find and understand facts and truths amid the information wars?
A: This is a tough one. Yes, ultimately, I do believe that it is possible, but I think citizens must be incredibly intentional, responsible, and discerning when it comes to their media consumption. Don’t fall prey to the algorithm, and beware of media echo chambers. If you regularly read The New York Times, subscribe to The Wall Street Journal as well. If you regularly read The New Yorker, subscribe to National Review. Also, who are you following on social media? Don’t just follow people and organizations with whom you agree. Push yourself to follow intellectually honest voices who hold different views than your own.
Also, if citizens want solid, healthy and intellectually honest reporting, it’s my opinion that they must be willing to pay for it. We’ve grown accustomed to receiving our news for free—we even feel entitled to it—but if we want high quality and uncompromised journalism, we must be willing to step up to the plate and invest in it. So I say, stop avoiding the paywall and actually buy a subscription.
Q: Was there a pivotal moment in your career so far where you realized this was possible?
A: When I was working as the Communications Director at Vice News, our news magazine show “VICE” attracted liberal and conservative viewers through its raw storytelling style. Our audience members on both sides of the political spectrum thought the show fairly presented stories in an unvarnished way. What this told me is that it is possible for a single news organization to attract a diverse and loyal audience through challenging and intellectually honest reporting, rather than spin and manipulation. This, however, takes a strong commitment to robust journalism at every level of a news organization.
Q: OK. Fun question. Tell us about yourself outside of PR and marketing work? What are a few factoids our students might like to know about you? Pets? Hobbies? Sports? Favorite NY Restaurants? Coffee or tea?
A: When I lived in the East Village, my favorite restaurant was Hanoi House on St. Marks Place. Now that my husband and I live in Harlem, it’s hard to beat a burger and fries from Harlem Shake on Malcolm X Blvd.
Q: Psst. This is a limited audience who reads our posts on our site and social media. So you can be super honest now. What do you really think of journalists?
A: I love journalists. I’ve spent my entire career working with journalists and supporting world-class journalism. The most accomplished journalists I’ve encountered are humble and thoroughly respect the roles of everyone around them, including PR flacks, marketing gurus, and the sales team. After all, these lowly business folks keep the lights turned on!
MPJI is based at The King’s College in New York City. MPJI provides education, training and professional development projects for journalists at the high school, undergraduate and professional levels. It is named after the late John McCandlish Phillips, a legendary reporter at The New York Times.
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