Media Relations

Media Relations

Media relations are very important for a company since it is not only a constituency but also acts as a transmitter. Investors, suppliers, and consumers as well, receive news and information about an organization through the media.

The news media

Before the 1970s business news were not very popular. However, after certain events, like the oil embargo, environmental problems at Love Canal and questionable advertising on children’s programs, people realized that business organizations had a huge effect on their lives. Therefore the interest in information about organizations rose. Additionally the media got more interested in business news, as on the one hand companies were forced by a new law to publish company information, and on the other hand because people, the newspaper’s customers, got more interested in business news. Business leaders, once used to have their privacy, now had to get used to deal with the media, because having a poor relationship with the media makes possible scandals even worse.
Another change was the increased use of other communication channels, than newspapers and magazines, to communicate business news. Especially the television and later the internet became very popular communication channels. Since the growth of business coverage in the media is even today still growing, companies have to pay carefully attention to their media relations and should improve their communication with traditional, as well as nontraditional media, such as blogs for example.

Building better relations with the media

The most important point in dealing with the media is trying to establish a good relationship with the right people. This can be accomplished by a media relations department, or a public firm. In the following are some steps described, which can help to establish a good relationship with the media.
The first step, which should be done, is a good research for targeting the media. After determining which objective a company has for a certain story, research should be done about the right place to pitch the story. Furthermore research should be done about a reporter’s background and his style of handling a story. The second step would be to respond to all media calls and let a person respond that is trained at dealing with the media, such as media relations department employees. Not responding to a media call could influence the reporter’s attitude towards the company negatively and therefore also his story is likely to reflect this negative attitude. The third step is that the person which will be interviewed needs to be prepared for the media interview. If possible a media relation professional should attend the interview. Trying to measure the success of the communicated message is the following step. However, it is hard to measure the success of public relation activities. A possible way of telling success would be how well the message was communicated, how effective the communication with the media was, and if the company’s objectives are met. The last and most critical step is to maintain ongoing relationships with the relevant media persons. A recommendation is to meet regularly with reporters working in the company’s business area. Even though this might seem to be a high effort, it is an effort which will pay off in the long-run.

Building a successful media relation program

To build up a successful media relations program a company should involve media relations personnel, for example the most senior corporate communication executive, in decision making processes, as well as strategy developing. Furthermore, it is recommendable to develop in house capabilities, by having special media relations staff and the company should use outside counsel sparingly, just in crisis or major projects.

Developing an online media strategy

The internet has become more and more important for the field of media relations. This is due to the fact that not only a few reporters have now the potential to influence the public’s opinion about a company, but every single individual with an internet access. Resulting from this the need for a good online media strategy, to response to consumer’s opinions, reviews, and ratings in the internet, becomes obvious.
Additionally it is recommendable for companies to extend their media relations strategy to the blogsphere. Blogs are also an important source for constituencies to receive information about a company. Therefore, it can be positive for a company to have their own blogs, in order to influence the user in a positive way.
Last but not least a company has to be able to handle negative news effectively. For this, the damage of certain bad news has to be estimated, and then how they can be countered to protect the company from serious damage.

Conclusion

Caused by new technologies and new ways of transmitting information the media relations function will continue to evolve from the PR model to a new professional group that can help the company to get their message out quickly, honestly, and to the right media.


In class / Examples / Experience:

Michelle Fryling, the Director of Media Relations and Community Affairs of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), was our guest speaker in class. She works in this job now for 15 years and she is responsible for the IUP’s crisis communication and image.
She talked with us about her job and its day-to-day problems. Right now her department is working on proactively positioning the IUP. This is an important point in being and staying attractive to he IUP’s customers, he students. Additionally Michelle talked about one of the most important part of her work, crisis communication. Her recommendation was a single contact to the media which is available 24/7 to establish a good and permanent relationship with the right and important media people.

In class we discussed another real world example of media relations. We discussed a case study about the Adolph Coors Company. The Coors Company faced serious image problems in the 1970´s. They had been accused of discrimination against gays, blacks, Hispanics and woman. Additionally they were blamed of human rights violations as well as union busting. As a result the Coors Company was boycotted. We discussed how the Company handled this problem and whether the open door policy was the better choice over the no comment policy. Coors followed the invitation by Mike Wallace, to attend his Television show “60 minutes.” The Coors Company did a really good research about the interviewer and the show. Joe and Bill Coors were well prepared and were not overdressed. The 60 minutes report showed a different way of the whole story and the discrimination accusations appeared to be wrong. With the well prepared interview and its open door policy the Coors Company changed its image in the public. This case is a good example for the power of the media and how companies can influence the public’s opinion with good media reports.


Links:

More information about media and public relations:
http://www.managementhelp.org/pblc_rel/pblc_rel.htm

Preparing for media interviews:
http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/operating/marketing/mediainterviews.html

Coors website:
http://www.coors.com/