"On Deadline:Managing Media Relations" - An Analysis (part 3)

Getting Started: Setting up Your Program 

(part C)

by

Charles Lamson

Getting the Office Prepared

Generally speaking, not enough effort is spent outfitting a media relations office. Much time and frustration could be saved if more preparation were put into the physical items needed in your working area. If you were a dentist, would you open up shop without the proper equipment? And a lawyer would not think of hanging out a shingle without making sure the necessary reference books were nearby.

The physical environments for media relations may be determined by the way in which your business operates. You may need the latest in computer software, graphics support, Web site development and video production, if that is how your company thinks. You may need plenty of filling space and workplace, or you may be able to work from a cubbyhole or from your home office.

How reporters reach you is key. They should never be frustrated in their attempts to contact you because your telephone is busy or unanswered. Ditto your cell phone. You need more than one line to your office, successive lines that automatically reroute to an assistant's or subordinate's line when your line is busy, and/or a cell phone. Whatever system you select, remember that the objective is to make sure a reporter can reach you when he or she wants to---not when it is convenient for you.

Make sure your email system has all the bells and whistles it can provide such as lots of storage space and broadcast email capability. If you cannot be in your office, carry your email with you in the form of any handheld personal communication device.

Your office should be a veritable library of resource information. Among the books, software and other materials that should be readily acceptable to you are:

• An up-to-date dictioary
• Style manual (your own or one such as the AP Stylebook)
• Thesaurus
• Your organization's annual reports for the past five years
• Professional/academic journals, books relating to media relations
• Company-produced material, such as recruitment  brochures, product promotion material, benefits booklets
• Copies of your organization's internal publications
• Media directories, including online and industry-specific directories
• Organization charts
• History of the organization (if one does not exist, consider writing it)
• Company data/statistics
• Calendar of events for the organization (earnings, releases, product announcements, speeches to be given by the president, trade shows, annual meeting, seminars, fund drives)
• Hard copy and online information kits, for example, the most recent annual report, a fact sheet about the company's products or services, the president's best or most current speech.

All of this material will be used in some way and at various times. Reporters can ask obscure questions and you have to be ready to reply as quick as possible. In adding to the above you should subscribe to the publication with which you will be dealing and set up a monitoring service for broadcast media and a clipping service for print.

 Of key importnce is the compilation of company organization statistics. Journalists adore numbers: they are easy to read, easy to compare, work well in headlines and impress readers. Get a head start on potential questions involving numbers by composing such questions yourself. The result should be a company profile that can answer questions about:

1. Employee numbers.  These could be broken down by management/non-management, union/nonunion, male/female, percentage in different universities, geography, ethnic growth and distribution over the years, number laid off in the past years and the last five years. member profiles follow a similar pattern.
2. Facilities How many factories or office buildings or sales office or service centers do you have? In what states? Countries? When was each facility built? What are their street addresses? How many facilities have you closed? Sold? Are you adding new ones? Where? When?
3. Miscellaneous information. What are the key dates in your organization's history? What are key dates of inventions? What is your best production/service record? Sold? Are you adding new ones? Where? When?
4. Executive information. What are the biographical data on each of your organization's executives. What is the percentage of male/female, ethnic division, local/national/expatriate? what about your board members? Who are they and where are they from?
5. Financial statistics. Besides the earning and other information available in an annual report, compile information on how much payroll your organization payed out in the last year. How much in federal/state/local taxes? How much to suppliers? How much to minority suppliers? How much to suppliers outside your country? How much did your organization contribute to community or service programs.
6. Environmental statistics. How much did your organization spend to meet environmental standards? How much did the company recycle in paper/trash/aluminum/plastic?

Because you do not know until the phone rings or the email beeps what might be on a reporter's mind, it is best to start gathering material now and to keep adding to it and updating it constantly. Convenient ways to store material are in your computer (with backup) or even in easily accessible, indexed binders to facilitate use by others when you are not around. Whichever method you select, remember the object is to have material at hand that you can get to quickly and easily when a reporter asks you a question. A reporter will remember you if you are able to respond immediately without having to say, "I'll get back to you on that."

This is also a good time to begin compiling a list of subject-matter experts within your organization. When reporters call for an interview or general information, they do not begin by asking to speak specifically to "Mr. Jones, the manager of personnel statistics." Instead the reporter is more likely to ask to interview someone who can talk about personnel statistics. The reporter does not know the people in your company---that is your job.

Start a list of subject matter specialists by thinking like a reporter and asking yourself who is knowledgeable about pricing policies? Labor relations? Purchasing? Individual products? Transportation services? Food services? Financial services? Member services? Global markets? Quality? Environmental affairs? Government affairs? If you list the subjects alphabetically and then beside each entry list the subject-matter expert (which office, home, and cell phone numbers and email address), you may find your job much easier the next time a reporter calls. Develop a subject matter expert list and distribute it to the media as well as posting it on your organization's news Web site.

Introducing Yourself

Now that you have a media relations plan and a well-coordinate office, it is time to start letting the media know who you are. With your media relations plan in mind, you need to select the persons within the media whom you need to meet. Do not assume that you have to know all the editors and program directors at all the newspapers, magazines and television and radio stations in a 500-mile radius or around the world.

You should select only those media, and only those editors, who can help you meet your goals and objectives. Those are people crucial to your efforts. Once you have made that list, do not rush out and attempt to call on all persons at once or immediately call and invite each one to lunch. Instead take the time to think about what you want to do and plan your activities accordingly. If none of the editors know you because you are new to the job and/or new to the area, then your primary reason for contact is just to get to know these people.

Select your list of people and begin calling to set up appointment times when you can drop by and introduce yourself. Make sure you call at the least busy times: after the newspaper has been put to bed, after the television crews have received their assignments and have gone on location, after the newscast, after the bureau chief has filed the latest report. In making these appointments you should ask for just a brief amount of time. Do not try to crowd all your appointments into the same day because you also want to be on time for each appointment.

As you meet each editor, assignment director or program director, present him or her with some basic material about you and your organization: the information kits mentioned earlier, several of your business cards and Web addresses that will provide photos of the company executives, your company's logo and graphic standards, and, of course, the XYZ Company News Web site.

Summary

Setting up your media relations plan and program requires research about your role, your organization's intention for media relations and you, and a clear understanding of both parties of what can and cannot be achieved through effective media relations.

Setting up also requires attention to the practicalities of the job, from setting policy to developing a functioning office, from writing a plan to writing news briefs.

Sadly too many novices believe that sending out a news release is all that is necessary to being a media relations specialist. Your efforts in developing an outstanding media relations program will separate you from them.

Ten “Be” Attitudes for Successful Media Relations

1. Be cooperative. Recognize the newspeople face constraints and expectations that most of us never dream of, and that if you can say “yes” to a request for information or an interview, you are making their job much less of a hassle.
2. Be accessible. Do not even think about restricting your availability to the media to regular business hours. Give out your home phone, cell phone and pager numbers freely and encourage reporters and editors to use them. If your organization is a 24 hour a day operation and someone else can handle routine inquiries after hours, it may be perfectly acceptable as a matter of policy to direct those media calls to that person. But if the reporter calls you first, do not ask him or her to jump through hoops by saying, “Why don’t you call so-and-so. Give the answer yourself and suggest that the next time the reporter call the person on duty. Let the reporter know that you are always available if a question cannot be answered by someone else satisfactorily. Try to return all phone calls from the media within an hour.
3. Be Direct. When you cannot help a reporter, say so, and explain why. Do not be defensive. Do not sound pained and overburdened and above all, do not display arrogance. You should be genuinely sorry that you cannot help a reporter, because it is a missed opportunity for both of you.
4. Be fair. Don’t give opportunities for in-demand interviews only to certain media outlets and not to others.
5. Be a resource. If you cannot arrange an interview or answer a question for a reporter, whenever possible suggest someone else who can. It is always better to end a conversation with a reporter by giving him or her another direction to pursue instead of a dead end.
6. Be an authority. Learn all you can about your organization and its industry: history, financial condition, goals, future, mission. And learn everything you can about how newsrooms---both print and broadcast---operate.
7. Be an educator. You need to educate two very different constituencies---your co-workers and media representatives. Hold workshops, informal meetings and media training seminars if appropriate, to defuse distrust and misunderstanding.
8. Be an advocate. It is sometimes tricky to walk that tightrope between two sets of clients---those within your organization and those in the media. Although one of your primary responsibilities is to present your organization favorably to the media, it is just as important to reinforce the value of the media to your organization.
9. Be a strategist. This is where “proactive” media relations come in. Do not make the mistake of thinking that if you are not out there pumping up the organization’s agenda every time you have contact with a media person you are not doing your job. Be selective in what you promote about your organization.
10. Be a team player. This rule is really the internal version of rule number 1. You will find that becoming a team player is a great way to let your organization know how successfully you are practicing the preceding 9 rules. Seek out information from key people throughout your organization so that you can stay informed about critical developments. Keep others in your department who do not work in media relations apprised of your activities. What does all this lead to? Building relationships and credibility---both inside and outside your organization.

                                                                                                    ---Debra Gelbart, Phoenix, AZ

*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS 4TH ED., 2006 CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATHEWS, PGS. 19-24*

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