The Manager's Guide to Handling the Media in Crisis

Saying & Doing the Right Thing When It Matters Most

James E. Lukaszewski, Kristen Noakes-Fry

• Publisher: Rothstein Publishing
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781944480288
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Versicherung

Attracting media attention is surprisingly easy -- you just want it to be the right kind! If an event causes the phone to ring and TV cameras to appear in your lobby, you need confidence that the people who happen to be at your worksite that day are prepared. That's easy if everyone – executives, PR, managers, and employees – is familiar with Jim Lukaszewski's sure-fire methods for handling the media.

James (Jim) Lukaszewski, America's Crisis Guru ™, is one of the most visible corporate go-to people for companies when there is trouble in the room or on the horizon. The Manager's Guide to Handling the Media in a Crisis: Doing and Saying the Right Thing When it Matters Most, shares with you the skills he has developed in 30+ years of helping companies in crisis management, employee communications, ethics, media relations, public affairs, reputation preservation, leadership restoration, and recovery. Jim speaks annually before a wide variety of local, statewide, national and international organizations and associations heard by thousands of each year – and in this book, he is speaking directly to you.

With this book as a guide, you will be able to:

• Create and deliver the message that best represents your organization.
• Understand what it takes to be an effective spokesperson..
• Make sure everyone is aware of company policies and procedures relating to the press..
• Be aware of the needs, deadlines, and priorities of reporters..
• Prepare to give good answers to all sorts of questions..
• Monitor social media, assess its impact..
• Identify the ways social media could be used to attack your company..
• Preserve company reputation amid a flurry of conflicting publicity..

Reading this book, you will see why, wherever there is or can be trouble and crisis, affected audiences and troubled leaders are waiting to learn the way out of their problems from Jim. The book is practical, easy to read, filled with real-world case studies, checklists, anecdotes, discussion questions, and easy-to-remember tips for success.

Part 1

Understanding Media Relations

Media relations during emergencies are crucial – not just for your company but for media organizations as well. The crisis is important to the media because it has the potential to create big business for the news media. Thus, developing a news media relations strategy for your company is crucial because the public depends on traditional media in crisis for its insight and, though declining, its credibility. A media relations strategy is a communications tool that provides great exposure, great risk, and great opportunity for real-time surprises.

This chapter will help you to:

Achieve novel, powerful, positive emergency media responses.

Develop media relations policies, procedures, and plans.

Deal with network news programs.

Understand the requirements of being a good spokesperson.

See the crisis from the point of view of the reporter or editor.

Create and deliver the message that best represents your organization.

Manage victims and their needs.

1.1 The Crisis Media Relations Policy

1.1.1 Sample Crisis Media Relations Policy

The first step in managing relations with the social and traditional media is to establish a sensible, professional crisis media relations policy. Here is a seven-point sample approach.

1. Regional managers and Headquarters Media Relations employees are the designated spokespersons for XYZ Company, its parent, and subsidiaries.

2. All other employees must secure prior approval from Headquarters Media Relations for any outside publication, speech, interview, discussion, or other communication with or to the media if it involves XYZ Company or can have an impact on the Company.

3. Media calls from national and international media should be directed to Headquarters Media Relations.

4. Calls for financial information or overall (rather than regional) company information should be directed to Headquarters Media Relations.

5. The Headquarters Media Relations team will answer calls from financial analysts either by using information in the public domain or by referring calls to Investor Relations.

6. Local media calls are to be handled by local managers when regional regulatory activity, local employee information, or regulatory questions are involved.

7. Local issues may be discussed with the media if the information is public or if it is not material. Material information is that which would influence a reasonable investor to buy, sell, or hold stock. It is important that questions about this type of information be directed to Headquarters Media Relations and Investor Relations.

Organizational messages, regardless of who conveys them, must always be internally and externally consistent.

1.1.2 Guidelines for Designated Spokespersons

Organizational messages, regardless of who conveys them, must always be internally and externally consistent. Always use or obtain approved language. Model guidelines could include:

1. Predictions about strategy, earnings, sales, value of the company, industry trends, and the like must be avoided. Widely known existing strategies can be discussed as long as they are expected to remain the same.

2. Under regulation FD (Full Disclosure), the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers that all company spokespersons, regardless of title or level, equal XYZ Company representatives. In fact, under FD, all audiences are to receive equal treatment at the risk of penalties and sanctions that the SEC has become quite accustomed to imposing.

3. In 2002, the United States Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a law that initially imposed very strict regulations on accounting and disclosure. The passage of this law affects most publicly held companies regardless of where they operate in the world. Recent amendments to Sarbanes-Oxley adopted and initiated in 2004 set even more stringent requirements in terms of ethics and the behavior of corporate leaders, and the punishment they can experience should corporate governance laws be violated. The Sarbanes-Oxley laws have been subsequently amended and remain controversial.

1.1.3 Good Spokesperson Practices

In situations of crisis or catastrophe, the importance of competent, compassionate, careful spokespeople is crucial. After reading this section, one could argue that these techniques and practices are those of any good spokesperson. That would be true. However, in times of crisis and catastrophe, bad things happen faster and control is lost much more quickly. It is the spokesperson who sets the tone, tempo, and expectations of those paying attention or relaying on the spokesperson for information.

Remain calm. Crisis and catastrophe communication require the highest levels of professionalism from spokespersons. Whether the spokesperson is the most senior executive in the organization or someone else, that person’s job is to reassure people, exhibit confidence and competence, and use his or her words and writings to help focus on resolving the issues at hand and reducing the production of victims and collateral damage.

Coordinate all comments with the crisis website. Since most real news covers adverse situations, reporters tend to be quite experienced in covering crises. Therefore, they have a natural suspicion of information handed out by paid representatives, causing reporters to look for discrepancies rather than story lines. Make certain that whatever is said from a lectern, liv...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• About the Author
• Credits
• More from Publlisher