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This article focuses on the importance of maintaining public relations in journalism. To increase the chances of a successful outcome, the public relations person often must interpret the media back to a client who may not understand how things really work. When it is necessary to counsel the client on the realities of the media environment, sometimes one needs to do it by accepting that he is going to have a fairly unpleasant conversation. When media relations turn bad, it can be because the practitioner, client or employer placed too much faith in efforts to control the media. Many companies don't understand what the news media are about. So many people in business look upon media relations as a kind of offshoot of advertising. They have unrealistic expectations as to what they are going to get out of it and how much control they can exert over it. Another suggestion would be the avoidance of messes that public relations can't fix. Business people may need encouragement to think about vulnerabilities, plan responses for possible exposures and be eager to tell their story.

This article focuses on the mass media advertising, audience reach and public relations practice in Saint Louis, Missouri. The Pulitzer Inc. web site says that the market alone handles about 700 million dollars in advertising spending. It claims a twenty nine percent hold of the advertising share. The total number of print media and radio and television stations operating in the region and the audience reach of each medium are given. There are 31 million primetime households in the area and if this figure will be evenly distributed among 72 cable channels, then each channel would have to deal with some 430,000 homes. The Internet is beginning to have its consumer audience and advertisers are taking notice. A big percentage of the United States' sport advertising comes through a brewery in Saint Louis. It is seventeen percent lower than advertising for the Olympic Year 2002.