Media Training Worldwide’s TJ Walker Gives Insights On Public speaking & Media Training

TJ’s Insights

April 27, 2005

New Books, TJ Walker’s “Media Training A-Z”
http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/mediatrainingaz.html
“Presentation Training A-Z” http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/presentaz.html

Good Times for Bad News

In my weekly media tips newsletter, I recently published the following tip:

“Friday afternoon at 4:59 PM going into a Holiday weekend is a good time to put out bad news.”

I received a lot of critical email about this tip from loyal readers. The email is representative:

“Dear TJ,

No qualified public relations practitioner would recommend the above statement. That action is guaranteed to get the company issuing the news in hot water with its audiences. Considering just the media: They will assume that you are trying to hide something, which, of course, will make them want to investigate further.

Your tips are usually very helpful. This one is bad advice.”

Sincerely,
A Loyal Reader

So, did I give bad advice?

Yes and no, it depends on the context (and unfortunately there is no context in my bullet-point formatted newsletter)

If you are closing a factory and firing 10,000 workers in a small town and you try to release that information late on a Friday afternoon going into a holiday, you won’t help yourself. In fact, just as the reader above suggests, the media will be even tougher on you. The media will assume, rightly so, that you are trying to play a dirty trick on them and they will fight back accordingly.

If you are the U.S. President and you want to fire your own Attorney General because he refuses to fire a Special Prosecutor who is investigating your criminal activity, you aren’t going to help matters by doing it late Friday afternoon or on Saturday night. The media will fight even harder to get you.

So what did I mean with my Friday afternoon media tip?

I believe there are three kinds of potential negative news stories. #1. Big News stories. Plant firings, product recalls, firings of high placed public officials, indictments—these are big stories. The media has to cover these stories and they MUST do it in a big way. There is simply no way you prevent these stories from being released or even downplayed.

If the reporters’ reaction to your big news story is the following, you are in major trouble:

“Holy sh*%, I can’t believe these people scr*#@$ us over by telling us on late Friday. Do they think we’re going to fall for that? Hold the presses; we are really going to slam these SOBs now!”

#2. Non-stories. If an industry rag rates the upholstery in your new automobile line is ugly, chances are slim that NBC Nightly News is going to do a big expose on this. In a minor negative happening like this, no media strategy is needed because no other media organization is likely to be interested in the first place.

#3. Mini-stories. These are negative happenings that don’t involve major crime, death, sex or job loss. There are a huge percentage of stories that get coverage each day that are “close calls” by news editors and assignment editors. They might be covered, or they might not. It just depends. If you are a news editor and you fail to mention that the Pope died, you are going to be fired. If you fail to print a story about a first term state senator getting a divorce, nothing bad will happen to your journalistic career.

A first term state senator getting a divorce is a perfect example of this category of mini-story that I think fits into the late Friday announcement. It’s just not a very interesting or important story, but it is potentially embarrassing for the parties involved. If an angry spouse announces the divorce on a Monday morning at 10:00 AM when reporters have nothing to do and their editors are yelling at them for copy, then the divorce might get big play. But those very same reporters might not get around to doing the story at all if they are told while they are busy or preoccupied with bigger stories or bigger concerns—like going home late in the day.

The key to releasing bad news on a Friday afternoon is that reporters who get the news, whether it is on Friday, Saturday or Monday morning, have the following reaction:

“Oh well, no big deal, it’s not worth bothering with this story now.”

The broader point I was trying to make with my point is that timing matters, whether in life in general or with your media relations in particular. The more you know about every other story as it plays, out the better. The more you know about news holes, news cycles, holiday schedules, Pope Installations, and royal weddings the better.

Then, you can plan accordingly, while factoring in the scope of the story, the significance, the interest level from various stakeholders and the media, and your own standing in the eyes of the media.

Timing doesn’t solve all problems, but it will soften some. If you are Bill Gates and Microsoft 3000 has just been recalled becomes it accidentally melts computers, no amount of timing strategy will help you. But if you are the president of a local utility company and your 16 year old son got a DWI, don’t tell the media on a slow news day early in the day—it can make a big difference.

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Author of Media Training A-Z
& Presentation Training A-Z

TJ Walker
Media Training Worldwide
212-764-4955

Media Training Worldwide provides more media and presentation training workshops and seminars (54 separate courses) than any other company in the world. Media Training Worldwide also publishes more than 100 presentation training books, DVDs, CDs, and other information products and is the largest presentation/media training publisher in the world. For a product catalog or more information on training services call 800-755-7220 or visit http://mediatrainingworldwide.com/mediatrainingcatalogapril2004.pdf.

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