Reporters (part B)
by
Charles Lamson
Handling Requests for Information
If you have an active media relations program, you are likely to get calls from reporters every day. They may want more information on a news release you issued. They could be working on a feature story. Or they might want your organization's view on a major news event of the day. There are, of course, myriad ways in which you can respond to these queries. But one overall rule applies: If you or your organization initiated interest in the topic you cannot duck or evade reporters' follow-up calls; if a reporter originated the contact, your response will be dictated by your company's objectives, policy and style.
As you are working with people in your organization to write and clear a news release, you will want your internal contacts available on the day you issue the release---and stay in your office yourself that day and probably also the following one. You should also brief whoever answers your phone on the importance of the release and the proper and rapid way to handle the calls it generates. Reporters' normal sense of urgency quickly turns to panic as their deadline approaches. Believe it or not, public relations people actually have issued news releases and then gone into all-day meetings, leaving their secretaries alone to fend off frustrated reporters seeking additional information.
On occasion you also may be called by reporters seeking to get your organization's reaction to significant external news events, such as the announcement of a proposed change in international trade or federal tax policy or a local rezoning application for a new industrial park. Whether you are requested to comment on such general public issues will probably depend on the prominence of your organization within your community. Whether you choose to respond will often depend to a great extent on the personal style and civic involvement of your organization's top leaders. You should know or help establish your organization's general policy for handling such broad requests so that you can promptly deal with this type of media. Follow your local media's coverage of such key issues so you can anticipate and plan responses for the types of calls you may get. 
When a reporter asks for information do not hesitate to ask enough questions your self so you have a full understanding of the story on which the reporter is working. If you take a single, isolated, question you may not be able to give your expert enough to go on or to offer a competent answer. Or the answer to the question, when relayed to the reporter, may lead to another question and you will have to go through the process all over again. Get a good grasp of what the reporter wants. Try to visualize the whole while you are talking about the parts. Anticipate follow-up questions. Be a reporter's reporter.
What you want to avoid is being perceived as a person intent on withholding information, or, just as bad, a person who does not have access to information. There still remains a certain skepticism---and sometimes definite hostility---from journalists toward media relations people. The only way to overcome this is to prove yourself every time you work with the media. If reporters continually call other sources within your organization, it is because either they do not know you or you are not meeting their information needs.
Never give away an "exclusive." If a newspaper, radio or TV station or an online magazine develops a feature article on its own and comes to you for information, or is approaching a news story from a unique angle, its rights to exclusive use of that story must be respected. If two reporters seek the same information, however, tell each person that the other person is working on the story. It will avoid subsequent conflict and help keep you from being caught in the middle.
*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS 4TH ED. 2006, CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATHEWS, PGS. 77-79*
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