Hi Christina,

The writing for the two can be similar—you need to think carefully about what your target audience wants and needs. For PR, you’re thinking about your target audience (journalists), and you’re also thinking about *their* audience and what they want to read.

In both professions, you’re trying to figure out how to make your message as important as possible for the right people. In PR, though, you have the challenge of not being able to predict when or how (or, most crucially, if!) your message will be used, whereas in copywriting, your client or boss has control of the message, either by putting in on a website or in an email or by purchasing ad space. This can be part of the reason why people put more faith in messages that come through the media since the implication is that they haven’t been paid for, but that trust is decreasing a bit now and, actually, that paid versus unpaid line is getting a little blurry, especially in the digital world. Did this help to differentiate a bit?

Thanks for commenting!
Nicki