When Saying 'Sorry' can be the Best Communications

The media coverage of Federal MP Belinda Neal has been intense in recent weeks.

You'll recall Labor Parliamentarian Ms Neal and her partner, former NSW Minister John Della Bosca had a run-in with staff at a Central Coast nightspot. Heated words were exchanged and Ms Neal and her partner were subsequently accused of overbearing and bullying conduct.

The matter has turned into a mini-media storm putting both the Prime Minister and the NSW Premier on the defensive over the behaviour of their colleagues. Both Neal and her partner have gone to ground - maybe on party orders - and are saying nothing.

In the very early days of the affair the two may have been better advised to follow the crisis communications mantra of "fess up and dress up". If so the the story may have ended in two days rather than drag on for two weeks.

When public figures find themselves in an unfavourable public spotlight -and they have done the wrong thing - often the best course of action is to admit the lapse in judgement, tell the community how they will rectify the situation and move on quickly. In this case perhaps an early apology from Ms Neal to the staff involved was in order.

In these situations saying nothing or trying to stonewall leads to continuing public and media speculation and, when you don't talk others will fill the communications void for you.

The guidelines in this video for dealing with the media in a crisis, could have saved a lot of angst for all parties in the past two weeks.

Did the Traditional Media Release Just Die?

Is the traditional media release dying?

It could well be because most media releases don't succeed despite all the hours of love and attention that goes into them. Most are full of corporate speak and look more like policy platforms rather than documents designed to attract attention.

How long are cash strapped, time poor organisations going to tolerate this poor return on their PR investment?

The social media release may be the next generation way of sharing information with the media and others. It is an on-line document drawing together text,video,audio,images, quotes and in-depth information.

There's not much information about this new tool but this video shows the new format. (You'll need to excuse the blatant advertising by the three UK lads promoting their services).

Value or Vanity in Selecting Media

When running campaigns, sometimes clients insist in seeing their issue reported in a particular magazine or newspaper. This type of "top down" direction is great because it can really focus your media efforts.

But the big "but" is does that publication reach the target audience? Or is not merely reflecting the CEO's personal preferences. In other words landing a story in a particualr publication might be more about vanity than real value.

If your goal is to simply reach the largest number of Australians, the recent Roy Morgan Readership Survey for the year ending March 2008, is a good guide to where to direct your media relations efforts.

Right now the top three newspapers by circulation in Australia are:

• The Sunday Telegraph (NSW)
• The Sunday Herald Sun (VIC)
• The Sunday Mail (QLD)

And the top three magazines by readership are:

• Australian Women's Weekly
• Woman's day
• New Idea

Whether your media efforts are dictated by volume or vanity, don't forget that media coverage is valuable only if it helps you reach the people you need to talk to.

Roy Morgan figures as reported in the 30 May 2008 edition of AdNews

Link Your Story to National News

Linking your issue, cause or concern to this week's headline news is one way of attracting media attention. After all your organisation might be able to offer a journalist another perspective on what people are already talking about.

But short of turning into a mega media junkie, how do you find out what's making news?

Each week Australian company, Media Monitors, shows graphs with the top five domestic, international, business, sports and talkback stories. They count the number of times a story has been mentioned across print, radio and television which is a good indication of what's hot and what's not.

So the next time you think about approaching the media check their media index to see where your story might fit.

Are Newspapers Dying?

Predictions about the death of newspapers are premature according to Peter Christopher, Editor in Chief of Fairfax Community Newspapers in New South Wales.

Speaking at the recent Local Government Public Relations Association Conference in Sydney, Christopher put up a spirited defence of the role community newspapers play in Australia.

He argued that as economies become more globalised, communities are becoming “hyper-local”. Increasingly Australians are reaching out through community newspapers, events and even hyper- local blogs to connect with and understand the immediate world around us.

So the nature of news has not changed: we still want information on local events and issues. But the way that news is being delivered is certainly changing and the pace of distributing news has moved newspapers from marathon to sprint mode. This means the demand for content is insatiable and as Christopher colourfully put it, “the beast needs feeding”.

The practice for Australian newspapers to integrate print and on-line and use text, video and photography to cover important issues, is now firmly established. We are noticing this more and more and in one recent project we spent more time with on-line editors from major newspapers than with journalists working on print stories.

The pace of delivery and the demand for newspapers to have multi-media platforms will continue to grow. According to the 2008 edition of the Newsroom Barometer, an annual survey of more than 700 editors and senior news executives from 120 countries:

• 86% believe integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm


• 83% believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years


• 44% believe on-line will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. 31% cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper


• 35% said training journalists in new media was the number one priority for investing in editorial quality

The implication for communicators is clear.

The journalist's job is getting tougher and that means ours will too. To maximize the chances of getting our issues and causes published, we must be ready to package up and present journalists with video, stills images and audio opportunities before they even ask.

7 Media Lessons from ANZAC Day 2008

ANZAC Day is the biggest and best known event in Australia and media interest in the Day is understandably intense.

This year we were privileged to help the Australian War Memorial with media relations for its ANZAC Day program.

With thanks to the Memorial's communication team, here are 7 media tips from that experience:

• Even though an event is well known, it pays to work within specific campaign themes. This makes it easier to manage information, source images and video and identify spokespeople.

• Media relations efforts must tie-in with other marketing, sponsorship and internal communications plans. This ensures media impacts contribute to the broader goals of an organisation.

• Blogs can be a source of stories for journalists. Information on the War Memorial's blogs were picked up and carried into mainstream media for ANZAC Day and other campaigns. Links in media releases to blogs, wikis and on-line video (such as YouTube) can be valuable in guiding journalists to additional information.

• We may live in a global economy but the media still want local stories. Newspapers and radio stations are always looking for local (human interest) perspectives on national issues. The first question journalists often ask is what's the local angle?

• Approach TV producers prepared to talk in terms of images. Work with TV crews to provide the best visual opportunities and spokespersons. See this Channel Seven example.

• Maintain a media database so you can quickly see the details of journalists and details of interviews that have been set up. In a busy campaign this helps to keep track of who to call and what's happening day by day. And when the campaign finishes it can provide good evaluation data.

• Australian media have been reporting ANZAC Day for 92 years. Media outlets will want to report a continuing event differently each year. (See this ABC Radio's story on war time rationing). The key to continuing good media relations year after year, is to remain flexible and work with journalists to help them provide valuable information for their listeners, readers and viewers.