Photo by Lisa Truong
For University of Denver alumni Nina Petrovic, every day in the office brings new rewards and challenges, but she is ready for anything. Petrovic works at a public relations firm called Wachsman as a media relations executive.
Born and raised in Denver, Petrovic decided on working as a media relations executive after taking a gap year to visit and work in Beijing, China, and switching her major around a few times.
“I realized I really enjoy story telling and news in general after doing freelance work in audio production in China,” stated Petrovic.
Petrovic then went on to work as an editorial intern for Westword, a prominent news company based in Denver.
Now working as a media relations executive for Wachsman, a cryptocurrency and public relations firm, Nina works in a very dynamic workplace.
“Our overall goal is to build relationships with journalists to come to this firm first when news is reported for crypto,” says Petrovic.
For public relations specialists, the median salary earned as of May 2021 was around $62,800, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is much higher than the 2021 median pay for news analysts, reporters, and journalists, which also according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics is about $48,370 annually.
Petrovic works remotely, and with benefits including healthcare and plenty of paid time off, Petrovic truly enjoys her work.
“Most of my day to day work includes monitoring news every morning from sources such as coin desk, Forbes, and coin telegraph. Then I send information from the news to team for the day, schedule meetings to touch base with the team and clients, create agendas, and decide what news outlets to pitch to clients,” says Petrovic.
However, not every day is the same, and sometimes challenges do present themselves in this line of work, continued Petrovic.
“If we have a slower news cycle or cryptocurrency rates plunge, these trends definitely affect our workflow,” stated Petrovic.
To combat this, every week she compiles market commentary into a summary market recap report, which can be used to help predict trends such as potential slower news cycles.
There are many things she also enjoys about her position as well:
“Although we are a public relations firm, we operate like a newsroom,” stated Petrovic.
“Everyone bands together towards our common goal, and the hierarchy of who works above who is less important than reaching our goal,” she continued.
Other things Petrovic is responsible for include deciding what is newsworthy, sending emails with potential stories to journalists, and asking people to interviews with clients.
“Working with very experienced past journalists who offer me mentorship has made this job much easier,” continued Petrovic. “I really think we have a healthy workplace culture.”
In terms of necessary skills for media relations, there are quite a few:
“We look for people who are enthusiastic and care about their work. You want to have a readiness to learn, and don’t be scared to ask questions. Have a sense of curiosity, hit the floor running, be outspoken, and be good at networking,” stated Petrovic.
Petrovic also emphasized having an overall growth mindset and to treat mistakes as lessons instead of just errors.
When asked if she had any advice to those trying to enter the field, Petrovic again responded eloquently:
“The main thing to do to set yourself up for success is to network a lot. Join in on professional conferences, use LinkedIn to chat with professionals, practice writing and content creation as often as you can, and have a portfolio right away,” stated Petrovic.
MFJS Reporter Spring 2022 