"Corporate Conversation" is a new feature in PR NEWS. Because the universe of corporate PR/IR/marcom is immense, we'll introduce you biweekly to a corporate communications executive. To suggest someone to feature, send a fax to 301/340-1451.
Steve Forsyth, director of corporate communications, e-mail: [email protected]; phone: 404/715-2327
Delta Air Lines, Department 978, P.O. Box 20706, Atlanta, Ga. 30320-6001
Personal: Born - Denver; High School - Lawrence Central, suburb of Indianapolis; College - Indiana University, degree in journalism
First Job: working at McDonald's at age 15
First career job: Police and fire reporter, Commercial-News, Danville, Ill.
Community Involvement: basketball and soccer coaching for youth and Boy Scout leadership
Last Book Read: "Scorpio Illusion," Robert Ludlum
Advice: Learn to make communication interesting. Don't report everything you know; report what your audience or readers care about. It is a lot harder, but a lot shorter, than you think. It is much more engaging to report WHY something happened, rather than just WHAT happened.
A career mistake I wish I never made, but admittedly learned from: I agreed to have a corporate spokesperson appear on "Oprah" in a previous job, but was told it had to be a corporate attorney because it involved a workplace harassment claim. I knew it could be a problem, and the result was a disaster. While the attorney was knowledgeable, you can't win an emotional issue with cold logic. I also learned that when a talk show books a person, you have no control over who else they bring in on the same show. We ended up doing battle with an author selling his book about workplace harassment - ostensibly an impartial third party - and other workplace harassment claimants with unbelievable experiences. I think the bottom line is don't go where you don't control.