Media Relations

This blog posting deals with the issue of media relations, which is one of the most critical areas within any corporate communication function. The media are both a constituency and a conduit through which other constituencies can receive information. In this blog posting I look at what media professionals do and how companies should approach the increasingly sophisticated media.

The News Media
The news media are omnipresent in our society. Because they affect so many areas of our lives, the news media are a very powerful part of our society. The media brings the distant world of politics into the home of the average citizen. Business has always had a more antagonistic relationship with the press.
Before the 1970s, the average citizen did not care much about business news. Mostly businessmen were interested in information about the country’s companies. Therefore, business news was relegated to a few pages toward the back of the newspapers and to a handful of business magazines. There was virtually no coverage in national and local news broadcasts.
In the 1970s, these public attitudes began to change. Today, business news is a very important part of the news conveyed to the average American citizen. Typically, the media are not very excited about the good things that companies do. Instead, they are interested in reporting bad news about companies because this news is more likely to become a major story.

Building Better Relations with the Media
In order to build successful relationships with the media, organizations have to take the time to create personal relationship with important people in the media. This task can be accomplished by the company’s media relations department or can be outsourced to a public relation firm.
However, several significant points have to considered, when a company wants to manage successfully its media relations.
First of all, the organization should conduct research for targeting media. An analysis of the media and the reporters that typically reports on stories concerning the company provides valuable information. The next time when the company wants to launch a story, it can use this information obtained from the analysis and contact favorable reporters.
Another important point is that a company has sufficient staff in its media relations department to be capable of responding all media calls. Responding to media calls can make a powerful difference in how the company appears in the story.
Once the research and analysis is completed, the executive who will be interviewed needs to be prepared for the actual conversation with the reporter. The following approach works successfully. First, the executive should be given a short briefing on the reporter’s prior work. Then, he or she should be given a set of questions that the reporter is likely to ask. Afterwards, the communications specialist should arrange a trial run with the executive to talk about answers to possible questions. Prior to the interview it should be made clear what the executive wants to communicate to the reporter no matter what he or she asks. The actual interview should look as if it is totally natural and unrehearsed.
A fourth important point concerning building better relations with the media is to gauge success. A company should identify those communication activities that create the most value and evaluate how well an organization’s various communications functions perform against the industry average. A demonstration of the total value created by a corporate communication department can highlight the valuable work of the department.
After relations with the right persons in the media have been created it is equally important to maintain those ongoing relationships. A company cannot simply turn a certain relationship off and on when it needs a story to be launched. Instead, maintaining media relations is a continuous long-term job.

Building a successful Media Relations Program
Building a successful media relations program means involving media relations personnel in strategy (1), developing in-house capabilities (2), and using outside counsel sparingly (3).
(1) Companies need to involve communication executives in the decision making process. Communication professionals who are involved in the decision making process are more capable of presenting convincingly the decisions made by upper management.
(2) Organizations should develop in-house communication expertise because this expertise can save a lot of money. One problem for many companies is that they do not consider media relations to be important enough to hire professional staff in this area. However, scientists demonstrated that successful media relations have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line results.
(3) Outside counsel should only be hired if a sudden need for professional advice or information arises (major story or crisis). The ordinary and predictable work should be done by in-house experts.

Developing an Online Media Strategy
Over the last two decades, Internet has become the primary source of information. Modern companies need to use the opportunities given by the advance of the Internet in order to convey their messages to the maximum number of people. For instance, companies can establish forums for constituencies to share opinions, concerns, and complaints. Additionally, companies should extend their media relations work to blogs
because those publicly accessible Web sites that are discussion forums on a variety of topicsare becoming increasingly popular. The internet discussions can be used to monitor and influence information circulating about the company.

Class Discussion (02/28/08)
Last week, our communications class listened to and spoke with guest speaker Michelle Fryling, who is responsible for the media relations at the IUP. I learned how important media relations are for every kind of organization. Because I will surely work within an organization after I have finished studying, I need to develop a good understanding of the media relations business. Michelle Fryling helped me to develop that understanding by providing an interesting insight into practice. She has spent 15 years in the media relations job and has witnessed how media changed during that time. I learned that today’s media is faster, more sensational, and less detailed. We discussed in class that the media is the most important source of information. Therefore, it is crucial for me to know how the media works in order to be capable of appropriately evaluating the information I get through different channels. I learned that the media is a reflection of society. Thus, it changes as the society changes. When I plan my career or when I work within an organization, I should keep up with current developments in the fast changing media world.
I liked how Michelle Fryling explained and illustrated the fast changing nature of the media world and how she made clear that is a necessity to adapt to those changes in order to stay up-to-date. What I read in our textbook about the changes in the news media was a detailed addendum to Michelle Fryling’s words. Our textbook emphasizes that business news has become an increasingly important part of overall news throughout the recent decades. As opposed to forty years ago, today business news is omnipresent in the media. Since I am a business student, this was important information for me. Now I know that especially business entities are in the focus of media reporting. Therefore, business entities need to establish a close relationship with the media in order to ensure future success. I will have to remember that when I work in those organizations that deal intensively with the media.

Personal Experiences/Examples
A good example of media relation work is the German company BASF. When a person goes on the company’s website, he or she easily finds the media relation link. On the media relation site (http://www.corporate.basf.com/en/presse/?id=Qa4KdC7X6bcp.s1 ), there is current news and information. Each day, a new posting is published. Additionally, press information, photos, and contact information are provided. When I visited the webpage, I conveniently got all information I wanted to get. In my opinion, this is a good example of media relation work.
I experienced an example of bad media relation work, when “StudiVZ”, the German version of “Facebook”, changed it terms and conditions concerning the protection of personal data. “StudiVZ’ did not collaborate with the media in order to explain their changes to its customers. This led to confusion among the users of StudiVZ. Many left StudiVZ because they thought StudiVZ could use or sell their personal data. If StudiVZ had cooperated with the media in order to communicate the objectives of their change, they would have prevented the loss of several users.

Links:

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/pr_linking_strategies.aspx

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3552876

http://aboutpublicrelations.net/ucdavid1.htm

http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Internet-Marketing/Taking-your-PR-Campaign-to-the-Web-A-Menu-of-Smart-Partnering-Strategies.html