I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine who works as a reporter at the Rocky Mountain News a few days ago. This reporter was talking about the overall general malaise that has overtaken the RMN newsroom. There’s a good reason for that. In case you didn’t know, there’s a lot of turmoil at our local dailies. Lots of layoffs, forced retirements, job shifting, the works. In short, it’s not a good time to be an ink jockey in the Mile High City, or anywhere for that matter.

I say this with some sadness as I’ve long admired my print brethren. Denver has long been a bastion of quality newspapermen (and women) so it’s hard to watch the Rocky and the Denver Post struggle as they have in recent years. Staffs are being cut, beat writers are being phased out, making it increasingly difficult to maintain the relationships that are the bread and butter of the pr professional. This philosophy of “doing more with less” isn’t just affecting the papers. It’s done a pretty good job in the electronic mass media as well.

At all the local tv stations, photojournalist staffs are being pared down, in some cases, reporters are being asked to shoot their own stories. And regarding news radio, well, KOA continues to be the king in that arena, but even they are doing more from the confines of their tech center palace and putting less feet on the street. Radio does, however, continue to be a shelter in the storm, but I’m saving that nugget for a bit later.

I know, you’re asking yourself, “so Chris, how does this affect me?” I’ll tell you in one word…alternatives. As newsrooms cut back staff, they are forced to make tough decisions regarding what they can cover in depth, and what gets a blurb on page 12, assuming it gets any coverage at all. This means you have to be more resourceful, more tenacious and smarter with your pitches. It also means your relationships take on even more weight.

This is also where your alternatives become ever more important. I’m actually speaking about alternatives in two senses of the word. The first is – alternative media. Don’t roll your eyes, it’s out there, it’s powerful and it’s more valuable to you and your clients today than ever before. It’s no longer the sacred territory of the viral marketers. It now belongs to all of us, and as such, we should be taking full advantage of it.

Bloggers reach an untold mass audience, as does internet radio, internet television, online magazines and newsletters. In fact, depending on the audience you’re trying to reach, the alternative media will likely offer you better results for your clients than more traditional media outlets. There are advantages to the alternative media world. One of the biggest advantages is that online media is always, always, always on the lookout for material. That doesn’t mean you can ignore the crafting of your pitches, remember, many of these online outlets are now staffed by former journalists who didn’t lose their ability to determine a good, or bad story when they see one.

One big misconception with the alternative media, even today is a perceived difficulty in tracking impression rates. Public Relations folks feel it’s hard, if not downright impossible to figure out who’s reading, watching or listening when a story is placed in the alternative media. It’s not as pricey as you’d think to track who’s reading online, but the misconception is out there.

The online media also allows you to garner more hits on a regular basis than traditional media, and while they don’t normally have the reach of a People, or GQ, or New York Times, they often also cater to very specific niches, giving you a chance to target directly the demographic your client wants to reach. Plus with newspaper ad rates falling, and newspaper subscriptions declining, while online readership climbs along with their ad rates, you can actually give your client better value for their dollar than you might by placing them in more traditional media outlets.

The second “alternative” I wanted to touch on might mean more work for you, but could result in a number of additional hits for your pitch. As a former journalist, I can speak with confidence when I say that, by and large, journalists are a lazy lot. As most of you know, the more you do to make the job of the reporter or producer easier, the better chance you have to earn coverage for your client. This extra push is more important than ever, particularly in news, and in radio.

With a little planning a PR pro can include something as small as providing information for cover graphics (called CG in the “biz) for television interviews, audio interviews for radio stations, and fully pre-produced video news releases. In many cases we’ll shoot and edit our own b-roll to give to tv stations which we can send out either on a DVD or online with our press release. We also do radio interviews ourselves and pass them on to radio stations. Knowing that these stations are dealing with pared back staffs means sometimes you have to provide video on your own. We use professional camera, recording, and editing equipment, but you can use just about any video camera, and just about any recording device. The same goes for newspapers. You’re probably taking photos anyway, why not forward those photos to the news photo editors and see if they make it into the papers. In today’s news environment and with today’s technology, there’s no reason you can’t provide the content they need to publish or air your story. It might mean a bit of extra work for you, but when it comes to providing results and value to your client, it’s more than worth it.

This extra effort has another added bonus as well. It shows the reporters and editors that you know “what’s up” in terms of news. If a reporter or editor sees that you know how to “do” news, they’ll likely listen to your next pitch, or at least remember you in a more favorable light. This is how relationships with reporters flourish.

And of course, in the end, nothing can ever replace the good old fashioned relationships with reporters and editors, because there really is no alternative for that.

Yikes.

I’m quite sure that the owners/workers of Vanaik Furniture and Mattress store are not racist. Just like I’m fairly sure that the owners/workers of Cosmos Furniture aren’t racist. In fact, I believe the last thing any of these companies, including the Chinese company that made the sofa, wanted to do was to offend anyone. It was a simple oversight.

Question time: Would you have checked the label?

Now look around your business and ask yourself if there’s anything or anyone you’re not 100% positive won’t put your business into crisis mode.

Are you sure?

Look, it’s impossible to account for every disaster that might befall a company, and trying to prevent everything will drive you insane. But a good crisis communication plan can save you and your business when the unthinkable happens.

Here are a few things to take into account regarding a crisis communications plan.

Make sure you protect your employees and customers:

Whenever a crisis hits, the first thing that needs to happen is to make sure your employees and customers are out of harm’s way. A crisis is bad, compounding it by not helping the people that control your livelihood is disastrous. Keep them informed as well. These people deserve to know what’s going on, and it helps keep an inaccurate version of events from coming out later.

Make sure the plan can be followed by anyone:

You never know who’s going to have to deal with the crisis. It may be a secretary, or an intern, or the CEO who’s going to have to take charge. Make sure they have detailed instructions written down and accessible. Make sure everyone knows the location of the plan.

Be transparent, honest, and available:

When I was a reporter, an honest account of a story would get me one day’s worth of news. Finding out I was lied to, or not told the whole truth, gave me a week’s worth of news including an investigative story. Be honest! Reporters aren’t expecting total access, but they want to be treated fairly. If you don’t have the information they’re looking for, tell them you don’t know but you’ll find out. Then get back to them. Reporters work on odd schedules, so expect calls at odd times. Be friendly, and if you can’t talk with them right then, get back to them as soon as you can.

One message, one messenger:

If you have too many people talking to the media, your gonna have inconsistencies. Inconsistencies lead to questions of lying. You don’t want that. Appoint one person to be the press contact and make sure the message is the same one you gave to your customers and employees.

Take responsibility:

If your business was the cause the crisis. Be honest about it. You’ll have to deal with the fallout either way, but owning up to a mistake will help you in the long run. And make sure you fix the problem.  The last thing you want is to have another crisis caused by an issue you knew about previously and didn’t address.

If you don’t have a crisis communications plan, you need one. As Vanaik Furniture and Mattress Store found out, a crisis can come from anywhere. Talk to a public relations professional. They can help you put a plan together, and some, like us here at the PRAS Group, can come to your business to help you if you ever need to put the plan into action.

We hope you never have to go through a crisis, but having a crisis communications plan could make the difference between you keeping your business or looking for work somewhere else.

The PRAS Group was born a few short months ago out of a need we saw while working in various newsrooms.

Everyday, we’d get hundreds of faxes, emails, and calls from public relations folk who didn’t know anything about us, or what our “beats” were trying to get us to cover something their clients were doing.

I can’t remember ever covering one of the ideas we got from those “P.R. Blasts.”

But we could see that it wasn’t the P.R. folks fault. Most of them had never been inside a newsroom, much less worked as a reporter and they didn’t have a clue about news worth,  timeliness, or story angles.

It was then that we had an epiphany.  We can do P.R. better! And, viola, the PRAS Group was born.

So why the blog?  Because we want you to get to know us, and see that we want to help you.  We understand that having a positive image that people can trust is essential for a business and we can help cultivate and maintain that image for you.

We know that you’re an expert in  your field.  Our job is to help you show that expertise to your current and future clients and reinforce why they need to work with you.

Whether it be highlighting the truly newsworthy aspects of your company, getting you ready for your first big television interview, or getting you through a crisis, the PRAS Group will be there to make sure your business gets the attention and recognition that it, and you deserve.

So stop by The PRAS Group Public Relations Blog every once in awhile.  We’ll give you tips on crisis communications, media relations, and other public relations topics.  When we find P.R. horror stories we’ll share them with you along with what could have been done differently.  You’ll even be able to see us out and about doing what we do best!

Finally, let us know what you think.  If you have questions or comments about us or public relations, we’d love to talk with you and see how we could help you today.