On Dec. 9, PR NEWS Senior Editor Debra Murphey sat in on a media training session led by Karen Berg, CEO of CommCore Communication Strategies, White Plains, N.Y. In the next two issues, PR NEWS chronicles what the front-row seat at that training revealed as well as the techniques that were used. The training was held at Berg's agency and our trip was paid for by her company.
One of Two Parts
Six months ago, Donna Jakubowski was part of the PR machine at pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, a corporation she was employed by for nearly 14 years. But just over a week ago, she was cutting her teeth in a very different venue as director of external affairs for chemical company Ciba's North American operations.
Jakubowski took part in media training as a part of Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp.'s "Risk Management Plan." Ciba, whose parent company is based in Basel, Switzerland, is one of thousands of U.S. businesses required to identify "worst-case" chemical disasters under new federal regulations coined RMPs which were enacted as part of the Clean Air Act. Of Ciba's 26 locations, six are affected by RMP laws. (The company's McIntosh, Ala., site, for instance, must detail how it would handle the accidental release of methyl mercaptan into a 17-mile area from a railroad car.)
Jakubowski has worked in the public affairs/communications arena for 19 years. At Ciba, she is one of about 15 communicators acting as spokespeople and directing communication strategies, providing everything from financial communications (the company is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange) to grassroots community relations.
Jakubowski is currently spearheading community relations for Ciba's newly acquired Water Treatments Division (formerly Allied Colloids) in Old Bridge, N.J. By June 21, 1999, more than 65,000 U.S. facilities that use hazardous chemicals will be required to file their RMPs with the Environmental Protection Agency, a move which will undoubtedly provoke a flurry of press and public attention.
The World According To Berg
For a growing number of PR professionals, media training provides a revenue stream. Each year, the Thomas Harris/Impulse Research survey ranks media training as one of the top outsourced PR services by U.S. corporations. To non-PR professionals, this kind of training might seem like a no-brainer. After all, besides advice to avoid lying, be succinct, and avoid going off the record, what more could there be to preparing to meet the press?
Media training is more impressive, however, and its challenge easier to appreciate, after observing all of the components and subtleties that go into the process of priming a corporate executive for the cameras or for a print interview.
The training, which usually occurs in a cloistered environment where both trainer and trainee can focus on a topic for the better part of a day, is as much an exercise in social science as it is in media savvy.
In this session, for instance, Berg reminds Jakubowki that more than half of what people remember after an interview is non-verbal. Effective interviewees are mentored on the "make-me-care" model, which means they are trained not only to put into context the message, but to make the interviewer understand its impact.
A former Hill & Knowlton executive and a former radio and TV producer, Berg has spent hundreds of hours training Ciba executives in her 20 years as a media trainer. Ciba, formerly part of Ciba-Geigy, has been a client of Berg's for 16 years.
Ciba's Director of Media Relations O'Patrick Wilson, a virtual veteran of the sound bite and the quote, was also present to watch Jakubowski learn the ropes. Not all of Ciba's media training is outsourced; Wilson often trains the company's employees himself. A former journalist, Wilson's resume includes a stint as a Time magazine stringer in Europe. Before joining Ciba, he handled PR for Hitachi for seven years.
"Media training isn't a process you do once and forget," Wilson says. "It's like golf - you have to go back to the range over and over."
Ciba walks that talk.
In addition to communicators and division heads, all nine of its executive committee members undergo media training. Now among their skill set is the 30-second clock, a model Berg uses to teach her disciples how to deliver a key message in 10 seconds, follow it with a five-second "bridge" and end with a 10-second explanation that hones in on the importance of the message.
RMPs aside, Ciba has had its fair share of media attention in the past month, proving that in a global market, good media training is a must. In November, Ciba announced, then withdrew, its plans to merge its $5.4 billion corporation with Clariant AG to create at $13.3 billion powerhouse. Last week, Ciba announced that CEO Hermann Vodicka will resign effective Jan. 1, 1999, and be replaced by chairman Rolf A. Meyer, who will also remain chairman.
Media training, in the era of CEO changes, mergers and acquisitions, digitization and the Internet, is an insurance policy whose value is hard to measure. You know what it delivers when you receive it, but you can't predict what you'd miss without taking an obvious risk.
...In our Jan. 4 issue, a look at what Jakubowski learned.