Are You Media Savvy?

Although you might want to ignore the media, there are sound business reasons for dealing with them - provided you go about it the right way.

After a spate of roller coaster mishaps at various parks two years ago, Janice Witherow wasn't exactly surprised when a TV crew wanted to localize a Wall Street Journal story that questioned the safety of modern coasters. "He was very up front about it," says Witherow, the public relations manager for Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. "He wasn't trying to hide the fact that he wanted to do a safety story." At this point Witherow had a choice: stonewall the reporter, knowing that he was after the kind of story that could potentially hurt the park, or cooperate with him. She chose to cooperate. "We walked him through what our safety people do during the course of the day, as well as before the park opens and after it closes. Then we referred him to the Ohio Department of Agriculture, which inspects rides in Ohio. And the story on the news that night was nothing like what was reported in the newspaper. It was, 'Look at everything Cedar Point does to ensure your safety.' " Game, set, and match to Witherow for doing media relations the right way. When it comes to dealing with the media, you can never control what is reported about your park. But, with a little savvy you can increase the odds that what is reported will be accurate and fair.

Media Relations 101

It is axiomatic that if your park is facing a public relations crisis, it is already too late to develop good media relations. Good PR people are constantly working on keeping healthy relations with the media. "It's no different than having a relationship with anyone else you do business with," says Debbie Israel, the president of Profit Communications who formerly worked in public relations for Paramount's Kings Island and Six Flags Great Adventure. "It's being courteous and remembering to do the little things, like letting them know when they do a good job. "If you have a new attraction, you probably will get coverage. But the difference between getting a little bit of coverage and a lot of coverage is reflected by the relationships you have with these people. People like to do business with people that they feel are working with them and that they like, people who have innovative ideas and are ethical and give them information in a timely manner and don't dance around the issues." And how do you get favorable media coverage? Rule number one: Be honest. "Nobody likes a liar," Witherow says. "If you don't know the answer to a question, don't ad lib and don't guess; find out the correct answer and call them back. And if you do make a mistake, apologize right away and make sure they know what you're going to do to make it right, and nine times out of 10 you will be forgiven." Adds Israel: "As soon as anyone in the media suspects that you are being dishonest, it shuts down the relationship." Cedar Point cultivates relationships by trying to get a few minutes face-to-face with the media that cover the park. It does this by hitting the road every year in the weeks before the park opens, Witherow says. "Within a 400-mile radius we visit the newsrooms. We try to call ahead, even if it is just a day ahead of time. We let them know that we'll be in their area, and we would like to stop by and let them know what is new and drop off a press kit. "It's important to let them know how much time you need. I always say it will be five or 10 minutes. Most say if it's five or 10 minutes, sure. Sometimes it goes longer, but I leave that up to them. They are on deadline, and they don't have time to sit and socialize. They have a job to do, and it's important for PR people to recognize that." With a staff of five in its public relations department, Cedar Point is sufficiently staffed to make this "grand tour." Smaller parks with fewer resources can get this face-to-face exposure, too, but they have go about it a different way. Holiday World and Splashin' Safari, in Santa Claus, Ind., has an open house for the media every year, says Paula Werne, the park's director of public relations. "For TV we invite the entire news staff to come to the park the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. We give them a complimentary ticket; they can bring their spouses and their kids and spend the day at the park. And the whole idea came from the fact that with the TV crews every year it's a new face. When they spend the whole day here they get a better feel for the park, and they do a better job when they do come to do a story. And it also generates ideas."

Meeting the Media's Needs

Of course, the best way to keep good relations with the media is to help them do their job. That means, first and foremost, respecting the time pressures they operate under, Witherow says. "Whenever I deal with a reporter I ask, 'What is your deadline?' so I know ahead of time what I am working against. It is very important that you know that." Joe Stroop, the president of Stroop Communication Strategies, puts it this way: "Dealing with a journalist on deadline is not unlike having a ticket to a football game. If you don't show up on Sunday at 3 p.m. you're not going to see the football game. With the journalist, if you don't call him back in time, you're not going to be in the story." This means checking your voice mail and e-mail throughout the day, Werne says. "If I let my voice mail light blink for half the day, thinking I have to get something else done, it may be too late." Respecting deadlines is just the start. Reporters are always looking for a new way to present an old story. The savvy PR person helps them, Israel says. "They are looking for new and innovative ways to present information about things you do year after year. That's the difference between getting a couple column inches versus a feature story. "With so many coaster introductions, the story can't always be about the hardware. A couple years ago we packaged a coaster introduction by talking about what a ride does for people: It reduces their stress. The park is providing a place where people come and scream and reduce tension. The campaign became, 'Screaming is good for your health.' "It made an interesting twist, added a new angle, and we had the on-air personality saying, 'Hey, screaming is good for you.' " It also helps to know the different needs of different media, Werne says. For TV, this means good visuals. "With TV you can have a great story but if you don't have anything to show them, or can't get them access, it's gone," says Werne. "For print, give them time. If it is a feature story they are working on, they may have a week or two, so set them up with two or three people. And for radio, it's having someone who can give a really good quote." Another way to help the media do their job: Get them the sources they need. Reporters want to present their audience with credible sources, and the most credible source is the person who deals directly with the topic of their story-not the PR person. "If it's a story about live entertainment, I'm going to hook that person up with our VP of entertainment," Witherow says. "If it's about food, I'll get them to talk to our food department."

Getting Everyone on the Same Page

Putting reporters in contact with the expert source, of course, means that other staff members also need to be schooled in media relations, Stroop says. "People who have never been in the media business don't understand how daily and weekly deadline pressure forces you to work. And most journalists don't do a very good job of explaining their industry to the people they cover. So there is a knowledge gap between people who want media coverage and the people who provide it." It is up to the PR person to make sure the staff knows the downside of not being smart in dealing with the media-and the upside that comes with good media relations. This can be hard, particularly when the media is after a "bad news" story, Israel says. "It is our job as PR counselors to educate them as to why it is imperative to get back with some information." "If you have bad news," Witherow says, "it's better to have it come from you as opposed to a reporter digging it up or a rumor getting out of control. And in this age of the Internet, more reporters are doing research online and visiting these 'rumor rooms,' and they follow up on those." Educating the boss may take a third party, Witherow says. "You work for them, and while they respect you, they may feel they can overrule your judgment. So it's always helpful to get someone from the outside to back up what you're saying." Even so, there will always be people who think they can stonewall the press, Stroop says. "I have clients who think, 'If I just don't talk to the reporter, the story will go away,' which is patently ridiculous. They don't understand how many sources the reporter has to get information. How many guests have you had? How many workers? How many government officials have you dealt with?" Another argument to get the boss to understand the value of good PR: Translate it into dollars, says Werne. "If you can sit down and say, 'Let's see what last year's media coverage was: We were on the cover of this magazine; we were part of a theme park roundup in that magazine. If we had bought this amount of advertising in these magazines, it would have cost a whole lot of money.' "Usually, people who have trouble appreciating the media will pay attention to the dollars and cents." And, Stroop notes, even this underestimates the value of good press. Various studies show that readers find the content of stories to be three to five times more credible than advertising. Glowing editorial coverage is the ultimate payoff for being media savvy. And you never know when the opportunity will arise, Werne says. "I had a message from Eileen Ognitz. She writes a Taking the Kids column for the Los Angeles Times syndicate. Pretty big stuff. "She had left me a voice mail saying she was interested in doing a column about parks that people go out of their way to visit-even if they live close to a major park they would travel hundreds of miles to another park. And she needed three or four names of people to talk to. So I scrambled and put together a list of three or four people (from guest comment cards) and e-mailed it to her (after getting the guests' permission). "I tried calling to make sure she received it and got her voice mail. By the time I reached her to see if that was what she needed, it was three or four days later and it turned out that the story had been filed-and we were in it. If we had not jumped on it we would not have been included."

Dealing With the "Difficult"

Reporter Sooner or later every PR person runs into one: the "difficult" reporter, the reporter who is always trying to trip you up, or seems to come in with his or her mind already made up, or misrepresents the story he or she is after. What does the good PR person do? Keep control-personally, and of the situation.
"Be clear on what you are trying to achieve and stay on your message," says Debbie Israel, the president of Profit Communications. "The more clear you are, the harder it is for the reporter to derail you. When you are not sure of what you are trying to achieve and what you want your message to be, whether it is a new product introduction or a crisis, that is when that bad sound bite or that misquote happens." Another way to keep control: Don't let yourself be dragged into a topic that you are not prepared to talk about. This does not mean refusing to talk to the reporter about that topic; It might mean postponing the discussion until you're ready to talk about it.