NEA Uses Satellite Media Tour to School the Press on Issues
It's a rule of thumb in PR that if you reach the media and get them to listen to your message, then part of the battle's won. Armed with that philosophy, the National Education Association has been using a satellite media tour as not only a way to get news out about its national assembly, which is held every July, but as a way to mentor the press about what green and longtime issues are driving education trends at the grassroots level.
For the union-based organization, the SMT - which is put together yearly by L.A.-based On The Scene Productions Inc. (OSP) and coincides with its national assembly - has been a virtual godsend in the sea of information and hotly debated issues which have brought education to the forefront of Americans' minds during this decade. The NEA turned to the SMT about nine years ago when public schools came "under attack" as quality-of-education issues increasingly began to drive media coverage and affect public perception, according to David Sheridan, a communications executive at the NEA, Washington, D.C.
At any given time, there could be thousands of pieces of legislation dealing with controversial issues as well as a myriad of education-driven messages the NEA's state presidents are trying to influence, hone or publicize.
"From a PR perspective it's (the SMT) up there [out of a list of about three or four] as a tool we rely on during the assembly," says Sheridan. Other events this past year were NEA awards to broadcasters and a special event in Atlanta during which state presidents read their favorite books to city children.
The SMT provides a quick but informative glance at how NEA players impact education at the local level. Prior to the assembly, the NEA invites its state presidents (if they want) to be interviewed by reporters all over the United States from areas as populated as Miami to those as pastoral as Cedar Rapids. The finishing touches come during the assembly, when presidents are briefed by NEA communication execs with national fact sheets and talking points (it's left up to the reps to know what the local issues are) and when OSP staffers make sure there aren't any visual hazards such as a missing tie or a too colorful jacket.
The World's a Stage
Long before the nearly $40,000 SMT (which is on par with figures reported by PR NEWS; see the June 2, 1997, issue) for last year's assembly was uplinked, some pretty frenetic footwork had to come together, according to Betty Shapian, the OSP executive who oversaw the two-day-long, interview blitz.
While the NEA was hammering out the logistics from their end, Shapian, one technician and four publicists wer working on the technical and PR details.
For about a month, a technical person worked with the Atlanta convention center to gel where the SMT would be staged and to determine equipment and support needs given the immensity of the convention floor.
That staffer was in charge of making sure that the aesthetic components came together as well considering what could ultimately go wrong, so that all the technical kinks could be worked out.
Meanwhile, the most crucial aspect of the SMT was coming together at the hands of publicists who were speaking with contacts at various TV stations. Each publicist was assigned a certain number of states and did the legwork to block out interview times in specific markets.
Monitoring reports show that more than 50 news segments (culled from the SMT) aired between June 30 and July 13.
Stations included WJXT-CBS in Jacksonville; KAKE-ABC in Wichita; WAAY-ABC in Huntsville; KSFY-ABC in Sioux Falls; WTRF-CBS in Wheeling; and KTTC-NBC in Rochester.
Everybody Wins
The NEA views its SMT (which also comes at a time when stations are craving hard news) as both a way to propel its image and move its messages on the national level as well as a way to give its individual state presidents a forum in which to reach the media.
Through the SMT and pre-scheduled nine-minute interview slots, the presidents are able to field press questions and provide information about issues, trends, controversies, proposed legislation and policy changes in geographic pockets all over the United States.
At face value, it might seem as if the NEA satellite media tour is just a well-polished promotional piece, but dig a little and you'll see how it's an ideal tool for information-dependent, 1990s-style PR:
(NEA, 202/822-7286; On the Scene Productions, 213/930-1030)
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The Local Angles of the NEA's SMT
Logistics and politics aside, the true worth of this SMT is the wide scope of issues that are covered at the grassroots level and the way it's able to improve its press relations. David Sheridan of the NEA provided this perspective on some of the divergent and compelling issues that were covered during last year's tour:
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