Media relations department is one of the most critical areas within any corporate communication function.
“Media are both the constituency and a conduit through which investors, suppliers, retailers and consumers receive information about and develop images of a company.”
The News Media
•The news media is omnipresent in our society.
•With the advent of television and the tremendous growth in Internet, what had once been the domain of the print medium in newspapers increasingly has become part of the visual realm through television sets and computers.
•Business has always had an antagonistic relationship with the press. This stems from the privacy corporations enjoyed in the early past.
•However, businesses today clearly realize the importance of good publicity.
•The business sector has become much more public today.
The growth of Business Coverage in Media
With the change in public attitude over the period, business news section in the newspapers has gained much recognition.
•With the change in public attitude over the period, business news section in the newspapers has gained much recognition.
•Today so many magazines and websites are devoted to the business new that it is nearly impossible to find a topic not thoroughly covered by one media outlet or another.
•24-hour business coverage is found on FOX, CNBC and CNN.
•Business news in the present times is exciting as it covers stories appealing to a wider audience.
Forbes gains attention from a broad readership by publishing salaries of top entertainers http://www.forbes.com/2006/04/17/06ceo_ceo-compensation_land.html
While Business Week attracts an audience through features such as widely read rankings of business schools and corporate boards.
Experience – I get to know about the corporate world and the latest news stories related to corporations through T.V. channels like CNBC, NDTV Profit, and etc.These channels show expert opinions regarding various business issue. These news channels also accurately and timely capture stock market movements.
Building Better Relations with the Media
•To build better press relationships with the members of the media, organizations must take time to cultivate relationships with the right people in the media, which can be handled by the employees within the company’s media relations department or by public relations firms.
•The measure of success in the media relations business has been the amount of “ink”(coverage) that a company gets whether aided by in-house professionals or and outsider consultant.
•Getting lots of ink, which means many articles written about a company, may not have any value if it does not help the company achieve the communication objective.
•If your news does not reach to the appropriate media contacts, it will not make a sound. The best way to ensure your news is received is to utilize a newswire service. Newswires hold databases of tens of thousands of media contacts, have contractual arrangements with thousands of news organizations and websites, and can help to determine which of these should receive your release based on relevance, geography and industry.
•The news release should contextualize the news, story or event in a manner that gives the target audience an appreciation for the significance of the news without being overly promotional.
Conducting Research for Targeting Media
A typical media research operation includes the following steps:
1.The senior management needs to determine the objectives for a certain story. After realizing the goals, the company should begin to search for the right place to pitch the story.
2.The corporate communication professionals look in their files to find out who covers their industry and the company specifically.
3.The corporate communication department needs to determine what angle the reporter takes each time he covers a firm in the industry.
4.The firm’s corporate communication team needs to determine what kind of a reporter they are dealing with.
Responding to Media Calls
•Companies can strengthen their relationships with the media through the way they handle requests for information.•The Communications staff should ensure that the requests are met in a timely manner and one that will reflect the best on the company. The steps involved to meet the needs are:
The steps involved to meet the needs are:
1.Calls should come into a central office that deals with all the requests for information from important national media.
2.The person who takes the phone should try to find out what angle the reporter is taking on the story.
3.The person responsible should try to get as much information as possible while being careful not to give in return any information that is not already public knowledge
4.The tone of the conversation should be as friendly as possible
5.The media relation professional should communicate honestly about the possibilities of arranging an interview or meeting other requests.
The executive who will be interviewed needs to be prepared for the actual meeting with the reporter. The following approach works best.
•The executive should be given a short briefing on the reporter or producer’s prior work so that he or she develops a clear understanding of the reporter’s point of view.
•Next, the executive should be given a set of questions that the reporter is likely to ask.
•In preparing for a television interview, a full-dressed rehearsal is essential.
•In addition to thinking what to say, the executive need to think about the most interesting approach to expressing these messages.
•Finally, the executive needs to be prepared to state the key ideas as clearly as possible at the beginning of the interview.
•To build a successful media relations program the organizations must be willing to devote resources to the effort.
•Involve Media Relations Personnel in Strategy – Companies should involve the most senior corporate communication executive in the decision-making process.
•Develop In-House Capabilities – Companies do not consider media relations important enough to hire professional staff in this area but for long-term approach, it is beneficiary to develop an in-house media relations staff.
•Use outside Counsel Sparingly – Companies should hire outside counsel for advice or information, to help with a major story or when a crisis hits.
•Internet has become a valuable tool that enables companies to get press releases out quickly and broadly.
•Companies’ media strategies need to be augmented with tactics for dealing with the new dimension of coverage. ·Because of the widespread reach of the internet, large number of companies are paying more attention to the web realizing that bad publicity online can threaten their bottom line.
“Blogs are publicly accessible public website that serves as a source of commentary, opinion and information on a variety of topics.”
Getting the organization visible on blogs is an increasingly important way to reach not only the buyers, but also to reach the mainstream media that cover the industry, because reporters and editors read blogs for story ideas.
"Blogging gives me a place in the media community to stand out," says John Blossom, president of Shore Communications Inc., a research and analysis company. Blossom has been blogging since March 2003 and writes about enterprise publishing and media markets. "In ways that I didn’t expect, my blog has allowed me to become a bit of a media personality. I have been picked up by some big bloggers, and that makes me aware that blogging is a terrific way to get exposure, because the rate of pickup and amplification is remarkable. The press reads my blog and reaches out to me for quotes. Sometimes a reporter who does not even speak with me quotes me in the media. For example, a reporter from the Financial Times recently picked up a quote and used it in a story—based on my blog alone."
Experience – Google’s blog provided me lot of information regarding the company during my research. Thus companies in this era of technology should make use of this tool to reach its constituencies.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Handle Negative News Effectively
•When a company does stumble upon bad news about itself the communications department should quickly access the potential damage that the news might cause.
•Company lawyers should be consulted to discuss what legal stance the company might need to take.
For example, when Pepsi Co, India was faced with allegations regarding the pesticide residues found in the drink, the media department used proper channels and communicated to the consumers regarding the safety of the product.
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