This story - based on our visit with CommCore Communication Strategies CEO Karen Berg in White Plains, N.Y., to observe client Donna Jakubowski undergo media training - is the second of two parts. The first story focused on chemical heavyweight Ciba's public persona and this article will provide media tactics.
Jakubowski is director of external affairs for Ciba and will be among those translating for the press and the public her employer's "Risk Management Plan." Companies are required by the Environmental Protection Agency to file RMPs this summer to identify possible "worst-case" chemical accidents.
Nearly two decades after starting in PR, you'd think Donna Jakubowski would know all there is to know about facing the media. But perfecting media training is similar to being a Wall Street wizard: It's as much a dance in reaction as it is in practice.
For Ciba, schooling its global spokespeople in diplomacy as well as issues management is a necessity, not a luxury. Training executives in brevity and verbal cues that signal key messages have become building blocks for the way these spokespeople meet the press. They are taught to make precision a habit and to be careful about assumptions and presumptions, not to mention having too much gumption.
Berg is just one of hundreds of consultants offering media training, which can range from several hundred dollars for prepping for an interview to thousands for a six-executive group for over two days worth of schooling, one source tells us.
For more than 13 years, Jakubowski worked for pharmaceutical monolith Bristol-Myers Squibb. Now, in a somewhat nubile role, she's helping Ciba with its grassroots community relations programs for one of its newly acquired divisions. Jakubowki is considered by Wilson "one of the megaphones of the company," and as all spokespeople should be viewed, a window into the corporation's psyche.
Those Bombarding Broadcasters
There's no question the media loves controversy, so preparing anyone in your company who could be a mouthpiece is a must. Last year, the Institute of Crisis Management reported that an analysis of 60,000-plus articles indicated coverage of business crisis was up 19 percent over the prior year. More than 6,000 print stories touched on some kind of controversy.
Media training has become a way of preparing spokespeople for the inevitable. It gives them the chance to make mistakes in front of an instructor instead of going live on the six o'clock news with nothing but a wing and a prayer.
Media mentoring helps the interviewee find a way to direct the interview instead of giving the reporter carte blanche to call the shots. In training, this tricky shuffle is the core: you want the person to come across as affable and accessible, but you don't want your spokesperson to give away the store.
"We ease them in slowly - let them make mistakes and learn from their own observations, with our gentle prodding. I remember a fellow who was so nervous, he smoked a cigar throughout the training," Berg recalls. "I had one trainee who we later found out had nitrate tablets under his tongue. Going in front of the cameras is very grueling for some people."
At the Training
Berg tends to treat her trainees gingerly to build up their confidence and help them develop a level of comfort. "When you start with a rude mike-in-the-face approach, it doesn't show the interviewee's expertise," Berg cautions. "It just shows the interviewer's expertise, which isn't what you're attempting to draw out."
During the training, we watch Jakubowski go through a cold interview with little preparation. It is meant to reveal how comfortable she is being interviewed, one of the first steps of media training. Then Jakubowski and Ciba Director of Media Relations O'Patrick Wilson brainstorm a list of questions pertaining to Ciba's operations before Berg links those queries with key messages Jakubowski has helped hone.
Media training for the millennium means mentoring PR executives about the public's "cynicism" and "sophistication," both dichotomies Berg teaches to help the media trainee focus on how people respond to news reports. Berg tells Jakubowski that most viewers or readers respond to messages when they impact them in one (or all) of these ways: "the heart, the tummy or the pocketbook."
During the training, Berg refreshes Jakubowski on a world of jargon and tactics - approaches that are meant, in less-than-wanted limelight, to be safety nets. Cases in point: "the parachute phrase" - a tactic which allows a person to provide an abbreviated explanation, often technical, without leading the audience to believe that a complicated subject can be understood on a superficial level.
There's also "bridging" to try to move a reporter off a controversial question by reiterating key messages. "Once you cross the bridge, blow it up," Berg tells Jakubowski. "You don't go back over it or you will pay a toll."
The Set-Up
On first impression, we were sure media training guaranteed that attendees face a series of mock situations pitting them against hostile, confrontational reporters. We were also sure that effective media training means acquiescing to the power of press.
What we find, however, is very different, though we can never be sure how much effect our being in the room has on the process. At the outset, it feels like we're at a Dale Carnegie class where a fair amount of the discipline seems to hinge on juggling corporate propaganda. Several hours into the session, our impression has shifted.
Coming up with one concise message - in Jakubowki's case, it's "Ciba takes the health and safety of the community and its employees very seriously" - serves as a management tool for the interview process and we later see how it works. Before the day comes to a close, Jakubowski heads to the bathroom, only to return to Berg bombarding her as soon as she walks through the door in a hypothetical ambush-style interview.
Jakubowski is poised. She buys some time at the outset of the interview by asking the reporter to identify herself, a tactic that helps her guide the interview.
When Berg prods her with a question about the danger of chemicals which will be identified in the RMP phase, Jakubowski explains the company's commitment to assessing damage and notifying the public and authorities immediately. She stresses how responsible Ciba is.
She doesn't waver and she is succinct. But it is her confidence that we notice most.
(CommCore, 914/684-2330)
How to Secure Soundbites
Imagine having to sell a concept to an external audience if you haven't the wherewithal to educate outsiders. Media blunders usually surface when the interviewee isn't well-informed or well-prepared.
The session with Karen Berg underscores that trainee Donna Jakubowski may have a lot of knowledge, but her role as a spokesperson is to position Ciba as a company anchored to "responsible-care" practices (such as conducting emergency response drills) in an industry where safety is a focus and where scrutiny is commonplace. Jakubowski is taught to:
- Communicate the "bottom line" by sticking to a message/point;
- Provide proof through research and anecdotes; and
- "Make me care," a tactic which brings the message full circle by making it relevant for the audience.