There's a new Medicare bill before Congress that could have a significant impact on your business. Your controversial new CEO is taking your organization in a new direction.
Activist groups are joining forces to attack the major players in your industry. Have you scheduled editorial board meetings with the key pubs covering your market?
Editorial board meetings can be mutually beneficial for journalists and company spokespersons when handled appropriately. (Note, however that the name is somewhat of a
misnomer. At a newspaper, such meetings involve editorial writers and beat reporters - not the actual board members on the masthead.) In the best scenario, such a powwow can
solidify your corporate positioning on a hot button issue, foster an exchange of ideas, and shore up relationships with key journalists.
Mark Schannon, a director with Ketchum DC, relates a story of a beat reporter he came to know in just such a setting. Weeks later, the reporter was on deadline and did not
have time to check a rumor he had just heard, beyond a quick call to Schannon. "He knew he could trust me because of a relationship we had established. He knew I wouldn't lie to
him," Schannon recalls.
Assume not, however, that journalists will be open to entertaining mere "get to know you" meetings. Chew up 45 minutes of an editor's time with a dog-and-pony show that's
devoid of a news peg and you'll pretty much guarantee that you'll never be invited back. "You don't go the Wall Street Journal if you are promoting a new chocolate bar,"
Schannon warns.
Invited Guests
Heavyweight meetings of this ilk typically are agreed to by editorial writers at newspapers, and by editors-in-chief at magazines. PR counselors are expected to uphold their
end of the deal by showing up with senior level experts who can speak to the news at hand (the CEO, CFO or chief technology officer, for example). "As a journalist, my expertise
should stop where theirs starts," says one editorial writer at a major East Coast daily.
It's not unreasonable to request a meeting within the week, particularly in cases involving breaking news. But the publication staff will want to meet with you when they
can. Be flexible.
The main rule of thumb in securing multi-editor roundtable discussions (aside from the painfully basic common sense that dictates knowing the publication's tone and scope in
advance) is that you must have a unique perspective on a major news event. UPS, for example, effectively leveraged the strategy following its initial public offering in November
1999 and dispatched CEO Jim Kelly to meet with bigwigs at The Wall Street Journal to discuss the company's future.
Similarly, Fleishman-Hillard Toronto orchestrated successful meetings at several national newspapers when its client, the Toronto Stock Exchange, underwent a massive
institutional change in 1999, shifting its model from a membership organization to a for-profit company (PRN, Oct. 16). Keyword: massive. "We brought in the president and
the chairman of the board," says Jane Shapiro, SVP at F-H. "They really represented the organization and could take the time to explain their re-direction. [Your topic] has to be
something [the publication is] covering in some form on an ongoing basis, with issues that are reasonably complicated, so that you are providing [editors] with valuable
information," she says.
Table Manners
Perhaps the best carrot you can dangle before an editorial board is a strong corporate stance on a hot button issue. "The best [situation] is when someone comes in and says
'Look, here is why we are here. There is a bill on the Hill, here's what it means to us, we think it's wrong, and here's our position," says the aforementioned editorial writer
(who prefers to remain anonymous). "We are grateful for the economy of [such a] presentation."
On the other hand, meandering presentations given consecutively by three or four PR staffers - replete with slide shows and charts that are neither relevant nor newsworthy -
are not appreciated. "Editorial boards are serious meetings, but they are also informal to a degree," says Tad Segal, director of public affairs at UPS. Cap the formal part of
the presentation at 15 minutes, max, and then open the floor for Q&A. "That is the most valuable part of the meeting," he says. Background leave-behinds can be helpful, but
don't overwhelm editors with paper, he adds.
Finally, in approaching editorial boards, be careful where you trod. If your ticket in the door is a hot potato issue, know the paper's stance ahead of time - and be prepared
to field hostile questions if that stance differs from your company's position. Otherwise, you may end up inadvertently catalyzing a negative editorial about your company - and
lose the respect of key journalists in the process.
-Jeff Custer
(Schannon, Ketchum DC, 202/835-8812; Segal, UPS, 202/675-3381; Shapiro, Fleishman-Hillard Toronto, 416/214-0701)