Marketing Profs

What a world of difference there is in the way organizations handle problems when they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

While issues are often relatively minor from a national media standpoint, almost every organization encounters problems each year as they have public run-ins with the media.

When a company is just starting out, it will do almost anything to get press coverage. As the company matures, senior people are less available to, and have less time for, editors and reporters. Without working too hard, therefore, management and its representatives can cultivate a cadre of enemies within the press.

To do the task well, however, you should follow a set of 13 simple guidelines that will ensure that you alienate many, or most, of the Fourth Estate.

Please be assured that this is not intended to be a definitive list. With a little imagination, you can add your own guidelines.

1. Develop essential and non-essential media lists

In every industry, there are target market, secondary and tertiary publications. Set up your list, work only with the target market editors, and ignore inquiries from all other publications. Just because they're interested in your organization doesn't mean that they can do you any good or that you should waste your time working with them.

2. Put up roadblocks

This is an extension of guideline No. 1. Establish a priority list of editors that you will talk with and those that your PR person should handle. Or, if an editor or reporter has a frivolous inquiry, have someone else in your organization handle it for you. The key is to make certain that most of the requests or inquiries fall into the last category.

3. Return calls in due course

Regardless of whether the re-porter is on deadline, make it obvious that their time and effort couldn't possibly be as important as yours. Return calls for information or input when you get around to it. If it's a daily newspaper, 6:00 p.m. is a good time. For weekly publications, Friday at 2:00 p.m. is ideal. For monthlies, five or six days after the initial inquiry should be sufficient.

For the clincher, respond with a "no comment," or tell them that you don't have the requested information available. Tell them you'll get back to them.

4. Scream when a story isn't 100% positive

Regardless of whether you and your company are right or wrong, expect every article to be a glowing report of the company, its products and its people. If a reporter has the audacity to print something negative, call his or her publisher and demand, at the least, a retraction. Better yet, demand that the reporter be fired. Follow up with a letter to the publisher, the editor and the reporter.