Don’t make a drama out of a

crisisManaging the Media / A Practical Guide for Businesses Large and

SmallPresented by Stuart Gregor

Director and Founder – Liquid Ideas

• A leading  specialist public relations consultancy based in Sydney with 15 full-time account staff.

• Our clients are luxury and lifestyle – from Chivas Regal to Mr & Mrs Smith, golf to the wines from the Arrogant Frog.

Liquid Ideas / Gregor & Lewis

• Director and partner: Gregor & Lewis Bespoke Travel

• Noosa-based high end outbound travel agency with four full-time staff.

How to build positive relationships with journalists and, through them, your local community.

• First of all get to know them, take the trouble to meet them, invite them to lunch.

• Most of them are okay – certainly in a smaller community they are on your side.

• Don’t bullshit them, don’t make stuff up and don’t pester them when you really have nothing much to say.

• And don’t expect them (in most circumstances at least) to simply re-write your press release.

• Remember if you want certainty buy an ad.

• Do your research before making a call and find out what the journalist does, how often and with whom.

• Annoying PRs making cold calls with no idea who they are speaking to would be Number One on the pet hates of most media.

• Read their most recent stories and find a reason for the call or the email.

• Throw a small event/lunch and invite the media along. Ask them questions about themselves – journos spend a lot of time doing the asking when most of them just want to talk about themselves. . .

• Win an award and let them know about it.

How to get positive PR on a budget

• Maybe spend a little bit with a local PR person, preferably a specialist who actually knows the media. The fact so few PR people actually have good media contacts never ceases to amaze.

• Before engaging a PR specialist do your homework.

• Check out their website, their credentials, ask to see some recent work.

• Ask the media what PRs they respect, which ones bother them least, which ones appear to know what they are talking about.

How to get positive PR on a budget – engage a pro

• Don’t expect results in a week or two. Especially if you are a travel business hoping to get some coverage in the monthlies. Understand deadlines and understand your story might not appear for many months.

• I sent a journo on a trip on the Royal Scotsman when we were working for A&K, he kept saying the story was getting bumped and moved and TWO YEARS LATER it ran, five pages, great run, everybody happy . . . we just didn’t have the client anymore.

• Join the ASTW and get to know the media. The travel writing fraternity is the tightest clique in the working media. Why wouldn’t it be?

How to get positive PR on a budget

• Don’t take the call – let it go through to voicemail – they want to catch you on the hop, what you want on the other hand is a chance to gather your thoughts, be measured and try to control the agenda

• Be co-operative, recent example being a potentially damaging story about a client under-paying staff. The story was always going to get a run but by co-operating, being measured and balanced at least you have a small chance of having your side heard

What to do when a journalist calls you with a potentially damaging story

• Get your facts right, do your research, be prepared

• Don’t get angry, don’t make threats and don’t tell fibs

• Keep your messages succinct, try to stay on message but be yourself

• Don’t fall into the trap of “filling space”.

• Don’t believe in “off the record” unless you are VERY close to the journalist

Tricks of the trade when being interviewed

• Answer things honestly – never be afraid to admit a mistake, it takes a lot of heat out of a story

• Understand the journalist doesn’t write the headline

• Be aware that the action on-line and in Twittersphere can be just as positive/damaging as that in the traditional media – that said often one stokes the fires of the other

Tricks of the trade when being interviewed