The Unsexy Part of Dealing With Reporters

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I don't use the word unsexy often, but it clearly defines one of the most boring parts of media relations.

Every organization needs a well-defined way of interacting with the media. It might not be sexy, but it really helps from things going sideways.

Boring But Big

When I do a media training workshop, I always set aside a few minutes to talk about how the organization deals with requests from the news media for information and interviews. I do it early so people’s eyes don’t glaze over.

Most organizations have professional communicators who do great jobs and have solid plans set up to deal with the media. However, I find it helps to have somebody like me facilitate a discussion between the communicators and those who will be speaking to the media.

Some of those people don’t really want to talk to reporters, even though that’s one of the responsibilities of their job. Others know they have to do it, but it’s not a priority for them. They need to be reminded if it’s a priority for the reporter then it should be a priority for them. Getting back to the reporter a week from Tuesday isn’t exactly going to work on a breaking news story.

Have a Plan

More importantly, every organization needs a written process or policy to follow when it comes to dealing with the media. Again, not sexy but really important.

Who speaks or the organization? Who is the backup? How do they speak to the media?

All these questions not only need to be answered in the policy or procedure, but people from the organization need to understand what needs to be done. Just having it in a written policy that sits in a binder on a shelf gathering dust isn’t helpful. People knowing what the policy says and more importantly, what they need to do, is really important when a reporter calls or emails.

Here’s the other thing that needs to be spelled out – who does NOT speak to the media. There should only be a small group of people from any organization who speak to reporters. Normally the number of people who aren't allowed to speak to the media is much larger. In some cases, for every person from an organization entitled to speak to the media there can be dozens who can’t.

As a reporter, I always wanted to speak to people who were in that category. They likely hadn’t been trained, didn’t really know what they should say and as a result, were much more likely to say something they shouldn’t. It made for better radio copy.

When I work with organizations, I look at their media exposures and remind them that almost everyone working in the field for them should not speak to the media under any circumstances. All they need to do is to tell the reporter they’re not the person who should be speaking to the media, and the reporter should contact Communications to get an interview scheduled with the best person.

I’ve seen organizations that have done media training and got their execs ready to go, only to have their plan thrown out the window when a junior manager in the field said something embarrassing to a reporter.

There’s nothing wrong with the junior manager telling a reporter he or she isn’t the right person to be doing the interview and deferring to somebody else. In fact, it’s really the only way to go.

Tim Cook and a few others speak for Apple, not somebody working on the assembly line putting new iPhones together.

Unsexy

It’s not sexy, but knowing who should speak to the news media for an organization and who should not is fundamental and critically important. The rest becomes easier after that. Whoever does the speaking needs to figure out the questions they’ll be asked and how they’ll answer them. Then they just need to execute during the interview.

There are only two things you can control when you do a media interview – your preparation and what you say in the interview.

All that comes after you deal with some of the tedious details like a media procedure or policy.

It’s unsexy, but bad things can happen if it isn’t nailed down.