I have never read your blog before (but will now!) and threw myself into this conversation when Bill Stoller (@PublicityGuru) tweeted a quip on this subject that sent me reeling. Now after reading your post and the subsequent comments I’m better able to put his tweet into context.

Throughout college, I completed three internships. In my third internship, after graduating from college, I worked in the media relations office of a major hospital and was expected to pull just as much weight as my seasoned professional colleagues. I had guidance and support from them and they made sure I watched and heard them pitch before putting me in the spotlight. When they did, it resulted in fantastic coverage and I left that internship with more than a name to put on my resume–I walked away with honest-to-goodness experience and mentors.

I understand what is at stake, but pros need to remember that internships aren’t just about them–they are supposed to be offering experience in exchange for effort and work. If they are being successful mentors and have armed themselves with already competent interns, they should hand over the reigns once in a while and trust that their brand or reputation won’t be at risk.

I would agree that it’s not always appropriate to have interns pitch and not all interns have the ability or stomach to do it on their own–but to say ‘never’ and discount all interns is sad. Weren’t we all interns once?

If you don’t think your intern will pitch properly, then train and prepare them so next time the opportunity arises they will be prepared to do so.

One of my professors said today that people in the industry and already part of the workforce often find themselves boxed-in and thinking narrow, while those of us who are still in school and/or entering the workforce don’t know that there is “a certain way to do something” per se, so we think up new and innovative ways to go about something and often it is awesome!

This post was mentioned on Twitter by tressalynne: Should PR Interns Pitch The Media? my newest BurrellesLuce blog post http://budurl.com/mx5s #mediarelations #PRadvice #PRStudChat #PRSSA…

I’m not sure if I’ll make #PRStudChat but I’m going to try! Great topic

Interns NEED to learn everything they possibly can, including pitching!

If you have a talented and professional intern, you’d be foolish not to let them pitch the media. If your interns have more to learn about pitching, you shouldn’t let them pitch the media directly until they’re ready for it. Instead, you should help them to learn how to pitch by providing feedback on their draft pitches and discussing your successful pitches with them.

Like Betsy says, to not involve interns in pitching at all is to deprive them of a valuable learning experience, which goes against the whole aim of the interning.

In the end, it is up to the seasoned professional to tailor the pitch for each particular media contact, and in the cases that allow the intern to be the right match, they should allow these professional learning experiences to happen. I’d love to hear what #PRStudChat has to say on the issue!

I feel very fortunate that at every internship I was given the opportunity to pitch the media. Learning how to develop a story, identify the appropriate media outlets and use follow-up techniques were perhaps some of my greatest learning experiences. To blatantly not allow interns to pitch the media is depriving young professionals the opportunity to learn the skills they need to develop professionally.

On some level, internship supervisors need to trust their interns. They may be surprised at just how successful their interns can be.