Monday Morning Media Minute

Media Minute: Silver linings to a big loss?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.JerryBrownPR.com

Any week when you have to admit losing $2 billion has to be a bad week. Or is it?

Personally, I’d consider a week when I have $2 billion to lose a good week — especially if I still had way more than that left over to play with.

I doubt Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, sees it that way. And he’d probably quibble with my use of the word “play” when it comes to describing what I’d do with all that money if I had it. He probably doesn’t want the people who work for him “playing” with his company’s money — although, if you consider gambling a form of play, that’s pretty much what they did with the $2 billion.

Usually when I write about executives or companies communicating during a crisis I’m describing what they did wrong. In Dimon’s case, I want to mention a couple things he’s done right. So far at least, Dimon appears to be handling his company’s big stumble about as well as he could under the circumstances. And, while not insignificant, JP Morgan’s $2 billion loss doesn’t appear to put the company in any real jeopardy.

Remember the three rules of Crisis Management 101: Mess up, fess up, dress up.

The messing up is the easy part, of course. We all do that from time to time. The real challenge is what we do next.

In this case, Dimon fessed up to the loss last week without equivocation: “It was a bad strategy. It was badly executed . . . It was poorly monitored . . . It puts egg on our face and we deserve any criticism we get. So feel free to give it to us, and we’ll probably agree with you.”

And this morning, JP Morgan Chase took a step toward fixing the problem when it announced the departure of its chief investment officer, Ina Drew. I don’t know whether more heads will roll, but I suspect they will.

Dimon himself is probably in some jeopardy, although I suspect his forthright acknowledgment of the company’s mistake and the quick departure of Drew are part of his personal strategy to protect his own job. Whatever the motivation, they’re also good examples of the right way to handle a crisis: Fess up and dress up — and do it quickly.

JP Morgan Chase’s stumble will revive the debate over banking regulation. And it gives ammunition to those who want more regulation, something Dimon has argued against.

While last week’s announcement will likely weaken Dimon’s hand when it comes to opposing more banking regulation, it could very easily strengthen his hand when it comes to exerting more control over what happens within his own company. That’s probably a good thing.

And, if you believe as I do that mistakes are great learning opportunities, then JP Morgan’s $2 billion mistake may prove to be good in the long term for JP Morgan Chase and the industry in which it operates. Only time will tell on that score.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?
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Check out Jerry’s new content-focused blog at www.JerryBrownPR.com.

Media Minute: What’s the lead?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.JerryBrownPR.com

You’re a reporter on deadline ready to write your story. What’s your lead?

Depends on what the facts are, right? Partly. But not entirely. The other big variable? Your audience.

For example, the Philadelphia 76ers and Chicago Bulls played game four of their NBA playoff series yesterday. The final score was Philadelphia 89, Chicago 82. What’s the lead? Depends on where you are. Papers in the two home cities focus on their city’s team. Everywhere else the lead almost always focuses on the winner.

The headline on philly.com: “Sixers down Bulls, now one win from advancing”

The Chicago Tribune’s headline: “Bulls in a 3-1 hole after Game 4 loss”

Another example, from Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. According to the book, a journalism professor walked into the first day of a journalism class at Beverly Hills High School some years ago and told his students: “Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods. The speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown.”

Then the professor asked the students to write the lead for a story about the announcement. All the students dutifully wrote a brief synopsis of the “facts” of the story.

The professor’s lead? “There will be no school next Thursday.”

I agree with the professor as long as the story was for the school newspaper. A writer for an education paper would have written a different lead. And the Beverly Hills Courier might not have cared at all.

You can’t tell your story effectively unless you know who you’re writing for — not because the facts change but because the relevancy of the facts changes.

So, understand who your audience is before telling your story. You may need to tell your story very differently to different audiences because each audience may be interested in your story for different reasons.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

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Shameless plug: I recently changed my website to www.JerryBrownPR.com. You’ll always find a link to the latest version of the Monday Morning Media Minute there. There’s also a new blog available on the site. The new blog is called JerryBrownPR. Unlike the Media Minute, I’m not distributing JerryBrownPR by email. But I hope you’ll check it out from time to time. And I hope you find it useful and relevant.

Media Minute: What’s in a name?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.JerryBrownPR.com

Do you remember the Church Lady Bandit, the Three-Eyed Bandit or the Droopy-Drawers Bandit?

If so, you have FBI Agent Harry Trombitas to thank. Frustrated by being unable to get attention for a rash of bank robberies in central Ohio in the 1990s, Trombitas started coming up with catchy nicknames for some of the criminals he was trying to collar. He’s been doing it ever since. And it’s resulted in a dramatic increase in media coverage that helped solve some of the crimes.

What Trombitas did is an excellent use of PR to get attention. Trombitas himself is in the news this week because he’s retiring. I’d never heard of Trombitas until yesterday, when I saw a story about his retirement. But I’ve heard about some of his bandits who got national notoriety because of the names he gave them. Even if you haven’t heard of any of them, I can pretty much guarantee that anyone who’s lived in the part of Ohio where he works has. And his retirement is making national news because of what he accomplished.

Stumped when it comes to finding a hook to get your story noticed? Maybe you can follow Trombitas’s example and come up with a catchy name or activity that will help you get attention.

One of my favorite examples, which I’ve used before in the Media Minute, is Butterball. Through the simple tactic of renaming their company call center Butterball University and making the woman who manages the center the “dean” of the “university,” Butterball gets an amazing amount of national publicity every Thanksgiving and Christmas by offering free phone help to cooks all over America who need help getting an edible turkey onto the table.

Butterball could get some of that publicity just for the free advice they offer. But the use of the Butterball University name makes it an easier story to sell — and means much more publicity than they would get otherwise.

What’s your hook for your story?

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

Media Minute: Terrible, Horrible Day
By Jerry Brown, APR
www.JerryBrownPR.com

Like Alexander in Judith Viorst’s classic children’s book, John Edwards is about to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Well, it’ll probably be more than a day in Edwards’ case.

For those of you who haven’t read Viorst’s book, Alexander knew he was in for a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day when he woke up with gum in his hair. And he was right. Before the day was over his best friend deserted him, there was no dessert in his lunch, there were lima beans for dinner and kissing on TV. Yuck.

Edwards will be spending his week in court facing the very real possibility of going to prison. He’d probably trade places with Alexander in a heartbeat.

If you think your company is immune from crisis, consider John Edwards. Five years ago he had a serious shot at the White House. Today, he has a serious shot at prison.

Which brings us to the three stages of Crisis Management 101:

Stage 1: Mess up. We all mess up at some point, although perhaps not as badly as Edwards. The real measure of character comes with what you do next.

Stage 2: ‘Fess up. One of the recurring themes of crisis mismanagement is how often it’s the cover-up, not the original mistake, that gets people into real trouble. Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter destroyed his marriage and could have destroyed his presidential candidacy if it had been discovered before he dropped out of the race. But the affair won’t send him to prison. The allegations that he misused campaign funds in an effort to cover it up could. We’re all tempted to hide our mistakes. But in crisis situations that are getting attention from the media, it’s often the cover up that keeps the story alive and leads to real trouble.

Stage 3: Dress up. If the rest of us feel threatened by whatever you did to mess up, we’ll expect you to take believable steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Do it, if you want to restore your credibility.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

Media Minute: Anniversaries make news
By Jerry Brown, APR
www.JerryBrownPR.com

The Titanic is back in the news. Again. And, if you’re surprised by that, you shouldn’t be.

Saturday was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the famous ship, an event that horrified the world when it happened and that has intrigued Americans ever since.

So, all the news stories about the Titanic over the past few weeks were entirely predictable. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee some editors and enterprising marketing/PR people began thinking months or more ago about how take advantage of that anniversary to connect with their audiences.

The Titanic memorial cruise that set sail from Southampton, England, on April 8 to retrace the fatal voyage of the Titanic? Brilliant marketing and public relations. It’s generated tons of news coverage, particularly over the weekend while the ship making the memorial cruise was at the site where the Titanic went down.

A point I’ve made before in the Media Minute: Anniversaries of major news events, good or bad, make news. The bigger the original story, the bigger the anniversary stories.

And anniversaries aren’t the only opportunities to use the calendar to tell your story. There are seasonal stories that generate news coverage every year.

There will be stories over the Memorial Day weekend about the beginning of the summer grilling season, an opportunity for companies that sell grillable food or outdoor-cooking equipment. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day will generate stories about gift ideas. And so it goes.

Here’s my challenge to you, one I’ve made before: Take a look at your calendar to see if there’s anything coming up in the next year you can use to make it easier to get attention for your story. If there is, how can you take advantage of that opportunity?

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

Media Minute: Introducing JerryBrownPR
By Jerry Brown, APR
www.JerryBrownPR.com

I’ve changed professions. I used to be a writer. Now I’m a content provider.

The change happened without any conscious effort on my part. In fact, I didn’t even notice it until recently. So, I’m not really sure when this career change occurred.

I’ve been a writer for years. Spent 20 years committing journalism. Wrote zillions of stories back then. Spent another 10+ years as a speechwriter. Wrote speeches for two company presidents, a CFO and lots of other executives. I used to write articles, blogs, PowerPoint presentations, news releases, annual reports, all kinds of stuff. Now it’s all content. And the people who produce it are content providers.

I’ll miss being a writer. It required so little effort. As the late journalist Gene Fowler once noted: “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” I know all about those drops of blood. I think they must be bad for you. Take Fowler, for example. He’s dead. Of course, he’d be 122 years old if he were still around. So, maybe I don’t have to worry just yet.

Actually, I’ll be hanging out in better surroundings now that I’m a content provider. Content is king, after all. Rubbing shoulders with royalty. Wow.

Since I’ve changed professions, I’ve also changed websites. Moved into a better neighborhood, as it were. The new one is JerryBrownPR.com. Drop by anytime for a visit. Let yourself in. Feel free to take a look around. I don’t mind. Really. And if you come across any loose ends, I hope you’ll let me know. We’re still in shakedown mode. Just got the landscaping in over the weekend.

My Twitter handle has been @JerryBrownPR for some time. I have a new YouTube channel, JerryBrownPR. I’ve changed the name of my business page on Facebook to JerryBrownPR. And you’ll find a new blog on my home page, called JerryBrownPR. Do you notice a theme here?

The new blog will focus on content. I plan to continue doing the Media Minute. If you get the Media Minute by email that’ll continue as well. I don’t plan to distribute the new blog by email. But one of the loose ends is to create an RSS feed for anyone who wants to subscribe that way.

I hope you’ll visit my business page on Facebook, too. And, if you haven’t already done so, I hope you’ll Like it. I’ll be happy to Like you back. I like Liking people. It’s such a friendly thing to do.

But please don’t write on my Facebook wall. Add some content instead. It’s a more regal thing to do. And you won’t have to clean any drops of blood off of your forehead.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

Media Minute: You’re the villain
By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

What do you do if the media decide you’re the villain and don’t give you a fair shake when it comes to your side of a story?

Tell it anyway if it’s important for you to do so. But don’t rely only on the media to make your case.

Like a lot of Americans, I have strong feelings about the Trayvon Martin shooting. But I’m not going to join that fray here. It’s beyond the scope of the Media Minute. And I wouldn’t change any minds among those of you who’ve chosen up sides.

But I will say I’m concerned that news coverage of the incident has become so polarized. Much of it has turned into advocacy for one side or the other. Both sides have complained about not getting a fair shake from the media. And both sides are right on that score.

The Trayvon Martin story’s gotten enough coverage and discussion that anyone who really wants to can sort through the various versions to come up with a pretty good approximation of what happened.

But most stories don’t get that kind of coverage. And that means it can be pretty hard to get anyone to pay attention to your version if the media decides you’re the villain.

What should you do if you find yourself in that situation? I don’t know of any one-size-fits-all answers to that question. But here are some suggestions.

• With blogs, email and the social media, you have the option to reach out directly to the audiences important to you. If you feel it’s important and worth doing, use those tools to share your side of the story with them.
• If the story warrants it, consider enlisting third-party advocates to tell / support your side of the story. But don’t keep a story alive that’s ready to die naturally. Keeping a story alive with repeated denials or rebuttals is a common mistake.
• If you feel you have a strong case to make, schedule a meeting with the editor and/or editorial board of the news organization(s) involved. Most of these meeting don’t work. So, don’t bother unless you have a strong case and have factual documentation backing up your side of the story. The fact that you don’t like the way a story was written because it didn’t take your side isn’t a good reason for scheduling a meeting.
• Consider keeping quiet. “Negative” stories often have less reach and less impact than the parties involved believe. Waging a counterattack may simply spread the bad news.

Here’s the bottom line: If the media portray you as the villain of a story, you’ll have a hard time convincing the rest of us that you aren’t. If it’s really important, though, it’s worth a try. But pick your fights. Don’t argue about every “negative” story. And don’t base your argument on “the media always focus on bad news.” It’s a losing argument.

And ask yourself this important question: Is there a good reason why you were identified as the villain? Is there something for you to learn — and change?

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

Media Minute: Etch A Message
By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

I’ve always considered politics a source of entertainment as well as consternation.

And I found last week’s flap over Mitt Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom’s Etch A Sketch metaphor very entertaining.

But there were some interesting PR and messaging lessons as well. Here are four that struck me as I followed the story:

Concrete images are stronger than abstract ones. Romney, among others, has been accused repeatedly of being a “flip-flopper.” But the Etch A Sketch metaphor resonated in a way that flip-flopper simply doesn’t. Why? Because the Etch A Sketch is tangible. What does a flip-flopper look like? I don’t know. But I know what an Etch A Sketch looks like — and how it works. And so do you.

Take note: Use concrete imagery to tell your story whenever possible. Concrete images are powerful. Abstract ones less so.

Media training is important for anyone who talks to reporters. I was a journalist for 20 years. I still needed media training when I started talking to reporters as a spokesperson. Fehrnstrom is a former reporter and he’s been serving as a spokesman for Romney for many years. He should have known better than to use the Etch A Sketch analogy. For whatever reason, he didn’t.

I’ve long preached in the Media Minute and elsewhere that media training is essential for anyone who talks to reporters. And regular refresher courses, once a year or so, are a good idea. A key tenet of good media training: Know what your message is before any interview and stick to it. The Etch A Sketch analogy probably wasn’t on the Romney campaign’s message list for that day. Or any other day.

Some stories are impossible to stop. The Etch A Sketch story was one of those stories that have a life of their own. Sometimes you can use damage control to shut a story down. Sometimes the best damage control is to keep quiet and let the story run its course.

Some stories are impossible to start. The company that sells Etch A Sketch got a lot of free publicity because of the Romney story. Probably saw a spike in sales a result. But I heard the head of the company that makes them trying to make the case for the Etch A Sketch being a continuing metaphor for campaign messaging. That story’s not going anywhere. Trying to sell it was just silly. Be grateful for the free PR. Take the money from the extra sales to the bank. But don’t try to oversell a story that isn’t there.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

Media Minute: Variable Truth
By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

What’s acceptable as “true” can vary depending on the medium in which you tell your story. But there’s a difference between literary license to bend literal truth to make a point and breaking the truth by making things up.

And that difference is at the heart of Ira Glass’s retraction last week of a story that aired on “This American Life” in January criticizing Apple’s manufacturing practices in China.

Glass is one of the best journalists in America today. His stories are always interesting, often edgy. He’s also one of journalism’s best-kept secrets. His show airs on Saturday and his stories are long enough that you have to be in your car a long time to hear one of them all the way through if you’re like me and do most of your weekend radio listening while driving.

The Apple story had more impact than most of Glass’s stories. Glass says it was the most downloaded story in the show’s history.

So, it had to be especially painful when Glass opened his show on Saturday by saying: “I’m coming to you today to say something that I’ve never had to say on our program. Two months ago, we broadcast a story that we’ve come to believe is not true.”

The story was based on a monologue actor Mike Daisey has been performing on stage since 2010 about visiting an Apple plant in China.

“As best as we can tell,” Glass says, “Mike’s monologue in reality is a mix of things that actually happened when he visited China and things that he just heard about or researched, which he then pretends that he witnessed first-hand. He pretends that he just stumbled upon an array of workers who typify all kinds of harsh things somebody might face in a factory that makes iPhones and iPads. And the most powerful and memorable moments in the story all seem to be fabricated.”

Different languages for what truth means

Daisey’s version: “Well, I don’t know that I would say in a theatrical context that it isn’t true. I believe that when I perform it in a theatrical context in the theater that when people hear the story in those terms that we have different languages for what the truth means.”

Glass made a mistake, admitted it and then set the record straight without flinching. The mistake will haunt him for a long time to come. But the way he went about fixing it speaks well of who he is. It was the right thing to do. And the unflinching way he approached the retraction and correction can only help him and his reputation as a journalist.

Companies that find themselves in crisis situations would do well to follow his example.

I agree with Daisey that theatrical truth and journalistic truth can be different. But he represented what he was saying on stage as well as what he told “This American Life” as literal truth. Unfortunately for him, the way he’s handled this story probably destroyed whatever “truth” is in the story he’s been telling on stage. It’ll be hard, perhaps impossible, for him to recover from that.

The lesson for the rest of us?

Mark Twain said: “Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.” Twain was right in the context in which he told his stories. If you’re taking literary license to make a point, you need to make sure the rest of us know that.

But if you’re taking literary license while representing your story as literal truth, you’ll destroy your credibility once that unpleasant truth becomes known — even if your story is “true.”

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

Media Minute Writing Tip: Grab Google and people
By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

The bear stared at me. I stared back. What I did next probably saved my life. And it could save yours.

Want to know what happened next? Me, too.

Even though the bear encounter is my story, I don’t know what happens next because it didn’t really happen. I made it up to illustrate a point: If you want the rest of us to hear your story, you have to make it interesting right from the start.

In the B.G. era, the olden days Before Google, people like me (I spent 20 years committing journalism) counted on a catchy lead to pull readers or viewers into our stories.

And that was generally good enough. We assumed they’d already found the story. We just had to hook them into reading or watching what we had to say — and then keep them reading or watching until the end.

Today, things are different. If you want your story to be heard (or read), you still have to make it interesting enough for the rest of us to care about what you have to say. But you also have to entice Google to bring your audience to your story. You can’t assume we’ll find it on our own.

The challenge is that Google and humans are enticed by different things. Google likes key words. It doesn’t care about things like human interest, drama, surprises, irony or a good joke — the kinds of things we humans tend to like a lot more than key words.

So, what’s a writer to do? Find a way to grab Google so it will bring your audience to your story and to grab your audience once Google gets them there.

The lead I opened with would have worked just fine in the olden days before Google — especially for anyone concerned about what to do if they encounter a bear during a hike in the woods.

But for Google’s benefit, I’d probably add something at the front like: “How to survive a bear attack” or “writing tip.”

So, today’s writing tip: To be heard, your story has to be found. To be understood, it has to be easy to comprehend. And to be remembered, it has to be interesting.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?