Essential steps for dealing with the media during a crisis
How can you ensure media success when a calamity—fire, embezzlement, change of ownership or leadership, workplace accident, sexual harassment, or similar events—hits your business and catapults it into the spotlight?
Nurture relationships beforehand. Every organization needs to cultivate media during normal times. In an emergency, you don’t want to be questioned by strangers, but by people who know you and your organization’s culture. Build relationships through tours, briefings, regular press releases, and invitations to major events. Think of these steps as “partnering with the media.”
Train your people. Write and distribute a plan for crisis communication. Explain procedures for emergencies. Announce who will speak on behalf of the organization. Put your staff through mock press conferences, videotape them in action, and critique them to find where they need to improve. Make sure new hires receive this training.
Take the initiative instantly. When a crisis occurs, never wait for media professionals to come to you. Take aggressive action. Remember, delay breeds mistrust. Call your media contacts before they call you.
Highlight your CEO. Put the CEO on the front lines as a spokesperson. While CEOs can justifiably delegate other functions, they must assume maximum visibility during a disaster. Readers and listeners don’t want to hear that she is “unavailable for comment.”
Be sincere. Tell the truth, without diluting or withholding. “Little white lies” mushroom into a huge loss of trust. Even one misleading comment starts a “feeding frenzy” not only among the media, but also among the general public.
Avoid estimates. Do not estimate dollar damages, injuries, or loss of life. Lawyers, insurance companies and others will make you wish you hadn’t. That’s why CEOs say, “We need to make sure families have been notified” or “We’re still collecting estimates.”
Chorus of “No Comments”. Never say “No comment”. Whatever your intention, the interpretation is that you are being evasive. Try: “I’ll have to get back to you later, after we’ve gathered relevant information.” Of course, be sure to keep that promise.
Control press meetings. Take control of press conferences. You have the right to say where, when, and who will attend. Claim leadership instantly and don’t give it up. Videotape press conferences. The tapes will become valuable when someone uploads later: “I know what you said on TV.”
Follow up fully and publicly. After the subsidy crisis, let your colleagues know. Evaluate what you did well and what you can do better next time. Also, keep the public informed about how you resolved the situation: through interviews, tours, letters to the editor, speeches at civic clubs, special letters to shareholders.