There's no worse time to burn a media contact than when your
organization is in crisis. We polled some of our colleagues at
sister publications to find out what companies do wrong when
dealing with the media while in crisis - and what they do
right.
Seth Arenstein, VP and editorial director of the Broadband Group
at PBI Media, says Court TV impressed him when it cancelled
"Confessions," a show featuring videotaped confessions from
hardcore criminals, including murderers. "There was a great outcry"
about the show, Arenstein says, and the network cancelled it within
two weeks. "What I thought was terrific was that Court TV chief
Henry Schleiff made unprompted calls to members of the media the
day of the cancellation announcement to brief us individually. CTV
could easily have buried the announcement on a Friday or a
Saturday, or on a Web site (as many cable nets do when they cancel
a show)." The straightforward approach won the network Arenstein's
trust and established credibility with trade outlets. On the other
hand, he says, companies like HBO, which recently attempted to bury
the announcement that this is the last year for "Sex and the City,"
lose credibility when they are reluctant to discuss potential
crisis issues.
And what's even worse than attempting to bury the facts is
outright lying about them, says John Ourand, editor-in-chief of
CableFAX Daily. Remember that journalists are very good at
uncovering the truth and often have the skinny on your crisis well
before they contact you. During any crisis interview, a reporter
may just be confirming what he or she already knows and gauging the
company's response. If your response is dishonesty, you're digging
yourself even deeper into a hole. One company Ourand covered
recently (he declines to embarrass the PR pros involved) found
itself in crisis, and a company spokesman lied to him during an
interview on the topic. "I knew at the time he wasn't telling the
truth, and he lost all my trust because of it," Ourand says. "When
the truth comes out, all credibility is lost."