PRDV107: Crisis Communication

Know the News Media

Communicating with the media starts with knowing how their operation works, what they need and how they need it. You must know what they are looking for and structure your information to fit their needs.

They need to know who, what, when, where and why. Also, the best outreach focuses on stating a broad point and then backing it up. And remember "quotability!"

Know the Partnership and Your Role:

• You and reporters have the same goal: accurate, timely communication of information.
• Misunderstandings occur because of a lack of awareness of how the media works and of what a reporter needs. Unfortunately, faults charged to the media are often a reflection of an industry or person who made the job tougher or did little to help the reporter "get the facts".
• The news media is comprised of individuals who have a job or assignment to do. They have individual biases, as we all do, but the vast majority are reasonable and receptive.
• A good reporter is one who asks questions. You will find working with the news media much easier if you understand that asking the tough question is part of their job.
• Reporters seldom have the time to research a subject as much as you or they would like. Instead, they depend on you to work with them in getting the full picture.
• Many reporters are skeptical, by training if not by nature, so accept it. Your part of the equation is to supply useful, accurate and meaningful data without losing sight of your point of view.
• The success of your approach depends largely upon your ability to understand the relationship between you and the reporter and your knowledge of your role.
• Meet with reporters and editors one-on-one, prior to when you need coverage (an editorial backgrounder) and keep the presentation as short as possible. You lose effectiveness if you talk too long and you may miss an opportunity to learn what they want to know from their questions. Your purpose is to establish a dialogue, rather than a speech. Listen to them. Try to elicit the tough questions while you are there to answer.

Know What is News:

Not everything is going to be news. One of the keys to success is to be able to judge that. One firm, Cohn & Wolfe, developed a model that helps them look at the news value of each story opportunity from a reporter's point of view and judge whether it's:

• A ho-hum
• A I've seen it before
• A tell me more, or
• A really newsworthy story or "hook"

That's important because in the first instance, you're going to have to find a special niche for the story and in essence create the news yourself. If there's some meat to the story (human interest, here's where some of your opportunities land) but it's not new, you have to do something that's going to show what's different about your news. If you've got a tell-me-more story, you have to pique their curiosity and build excitement. And, finally, if you've got real hard NEWS, you have to move strategically to control the news for your benefit, focus it so it tells your story, and sustain interest.

"News"

Differs from one audience to the next. For example, a new factory opening means:

• More jobs for the residents of the community.
• Balance sheet implications for investors.
• Shorter delivery times for customers.

The news item from the communications professional perspective:

• Must interest and motivate the journalist that would use it.
• Must inform the reader, listener or viewer.
• From our point of view, must be used as a vehicle for conveying the planned media message(s) agreed on.

The communications professional's job is to identify angles that will do the job. The most obvious, and in fact the most self-serving angle, may not. And what may be news to one reporter is not to another and vice versa.

So we go back to knowing the reporter and his or her job and publication again:

Read and Watch: Stay Alert to:

• Bylines: Who is writing what kinds of stories and the angles they typically take.
• Who is quoted and who is not.
• How a story is covered: For example, what was left out and why do you think it was left out?
• Overall tone of a publication or other news source, compared to its competitors.
• Where a publication is going over time: Does it give less space to a beat than previously? What topics are getting more attention and why?

Some Do's and Don'ts in Dealing With the Media:

• Have research to back up what you're saying.
• If you don't know something, say so. Promise to get back quickly with the correct information – and do it.
• Never play reporters off against each other or threaten to go to another reporter with a story.

Reporters are people too, so little things are important, like:

• A personal note on a fine story a reporter has written.
• A tip on a matter unrelated to what you are doing.
• A personal invitation to a social event.
• Be aware of how the same reporters can "pop up" covering different beats within one, or different media organizations.
• Never lie or attempt to answer a question you don't really know the answer to. Again, if you don't know something, say so, and get back to the reporter with the correct information.

For TV and Online Media:

• Think visually: Use exhibits, signage and demonstrations at news conferences and special events.
• Make it easy for television and online media to get visuals.
• Make available a summary video of the key message in a short spoken statement by a credible spokesperson (this applies to the uploading of video on social media Web sites like Facebook and YouTube, too).

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Source: NLC Communications Workshop, http://web.archive.org/web/20131024064005/http://nlc-communications-workshop.wikispaces.com/Keys+to+Media+Relations+Success
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