About Us
Dennis Rutzou
I'm now at the stage when I can look back on a career which started in the
late 1950s when I joined a Melbourne newspaper called The Argus, initially as an
office boy, progressing to copy boy, and to cadet journalist before the paper
closed.
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I actually became a cadet journalist before my 17th birthday, and how I
survived I do not know to this day, as I knew nothing about nothing.
I attended the 50th anniversary of the closure of The Argus in January 2007 and
in an article written in a book which marked the occasion (The Argus – life &
death of a newspaper: Australian Scholarly Publishing) former colleague and
lifetime friend Ray Kennedy poses the question: 'Would I still be in journalism
if The Argus had not closed?'. For an excerpt from the book, please
follow this link.
It's a question I've often thought about. As a teenager working on a
metropolitan newspaper, everyday was non stop excitement. It was a fantastic
newspaper, with an illustrious history staffed by some of the greats of
Australian journalism.
But it was the closure of the newspaper that catapulted me into public
relations, a move I have never regretted.
Funnily enough, as a young journalist I had a poor opinion of PR people and we
called them the 'gin & tonic' men. You couldn't call them that today as among
other things most PR people are female.
Public relations took me to London in the 1960s, back to Melbourne and then to
Sydney in the 1970s.
The hundreds of accounts I have worked on have given me a formidable stockpile
of general knowledge (watch out if you challenge me to Trivial Pursuit), as well
as experience in an enormously wide range of industries and public relations
techniques under very varied circumstances.
So what are my goals today?
I'd like to share my knowledge with my colleagues at DRPR and my fellow
professionals in public relations, particularly to help address some of the
major issues we confront today such as professionalism and accountability.
And if that fails? Why not call in for a gin & tonic.
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