I visited the CT Press Club earlier this year and the overwhelming feeling I got was that it was an association of old colonialists farts not representing of the Cape Town media fraternity. The youngest person there except myself was former eTV journalist Marion Merten.

To paraphrase the great Groucho Marx, no hack worth their salt would want to belong to any club that would have them as a member.
Press Clubs are stuffy, archaic institutions that serve no purpose other than to give hacks an opportunity to guzzle and swig in each other's company. And goodness knows, there are plenty of other places and opportunities to do just that.

It really saddened me to read all this. i was very much involved in establishing (and supporting) the Press Club at the then President Hotel when working for the now defunct Rand Daily Mail. It was a great place and frequented by people like Aristotle Onassis. In cape Town it was the Royal Hotel. Problem was Press Clubs became Piss Up Clubs.And yes, PR should support Press Clubs as part of their networking.
In Australia the Press Club is a revered institution. It is fully licences and operates a restaurant.Members are journos, PR professionals, policiticans and businesds leaders. Once a month a Press Club lunch is held with a guest speaker. In fact when the Federal Treasurer delivers his budget, he speaks on it at the Press Club the following day. The following day the leader of the Opposition gives his reply.Its tradition.These lunches get publicised (print and electronic). But the Press Club is marketed. There is an air of sophistication and exclusivity about it. In fact there is a WAITING LIST to join.
Perhaps that's the way to go.Market the Press Club. Make it an icon.
For strategies contact me.
Totsiens. Ek het heimwee.

for press club discussions, this is a pr site!

This is firstly NOT a PR site. This site is there for all those in the media industry, which includes PR, marketing, advertising and belive it r not even the press. Secondly, I'm sure that if the webmasters didn't see this as a relevant topic, they would not have allowed it to be posted.
Your closed-mindedness is noted.

After all, it is an integral part of the entire communications, PR and media environment! If not, it has no role to play! I trust that the National Press Club's networking and media briefing events are not for colonial......!

Ben Rootman

Had a quiet chuckle reading all this verbage! As a former journo in Johburg and then Cape Town I was involved in seting up Press Clubs in both cities. In Johburg we had a fab site at the Holiday Inn -sort of halfway between the Sunday Times and The Star. Due to drunkenness and one well known journo parking his Mini in the lobby we got kicked out. In Cape Town the Press Club was at the Royal. As for the comment about old hacks, steady on. We can teach you a few things -drinking included!

Pee-ahhhh dear, this site is for us all. Ben Rootman is correct. PR's tend to forget that they cannot seperate themselves from the media, the press included. Not that we want them more than they need us. Anyways that is not the point - point is press clubs will be discussed here, like it or not you Pee - eeeeerrrrssss. Your only problems is your complex, but you'll have to live with it. As they say, if you CAN'T beat them, JOIN THEM.

Although I'm not working as a journalist anymore, I can still recall what press club evenings used to be like. I was working at a daily as a junior reporter and went to press club meetings as often as I could. The great thing was to see all my old Technikon friends there and having a good time with them. The sad thing was that this was (and is) obviously not the idea behind the press club. What bothered me about the press club (PTA) is that it seemed to be a marketing strategy for the host company - hoping to get some publisity out of the evening. Not one meeting that I have attended in +/- 2 years really dealt with issues concerning the media and journalists. When you are a young reporter you still have a flame burning inside to tell / expose and speak up about issues. The press club painted a sad picture of older journalists to me, they never encouraged that fierce force that I had inside as a young and upcomming jounalist, regarding issues and problems faced by the media and journalists alike. If the National Press Club can't act as the speaker phone for journalists, who should? And what is the idea behind the press club then in anyway? It's a great tool and the media should use this and not be used by corporate companies for marketing.

well, what is it?