Advantages of a long-term media strategy

Any company which has been featured on programmes such as Watchdog or Panorama, or been the subject of a sustained newspaper campaign, will know that the fallout can be devastating. However, if the company puts the right structures for dealing with the media in place in advance, it will have a good chance of protecting the company’s reputation against even the most virulent of reports.

Long-term consistency

The best approach is to have a long-term media strategy which employs a consistent approach to dealing with the media and protecting the company’s reputation and that of any of its brands. The company’s position on its goods/products should be refined to a point that it may be handed out, with confidence, to journalists at a moment’s notice. While this sounds straightforward, it is surprising how many companies only start thinking about their position on issues and products when Panorama comes knocking.

Ownership of the issues

It is important to identify where there are issues which relate to the company specifically and where issues relate generically to the relevant trade or industry. Where a company chooses to adopt an issue which is, in fact, a general trade issue, then that company will be seen as the spokesperson for the industry and this will simply place the company in the spotlight. This is often positively encouraged and welcomed by the media, which will always prefer to place a well known company name in the spotlight, rather than to have issues being handled by a trade body. However, from the point of view of the spokesperson company, why should it take the media “hit” on its reputation while its competitors stand anonymously and untainted behind it?

Moreover, this will run the risk of the company in question being targeted at all times in the future where there are negative issues arising in the media, which may start a long-running chain of adverse consequences for the company’s own reputation.

Trade body or Information Centre

One solution is to create or nominate a body to act as a spokesperson for the industry. In many trades and industries, companies appoint a spokesperson from its trade organisation to fight the industry’s corner. This spokesperson will then be briefed on the trade or industry issues, will be highly media-trained and will often be able to deflect attention from the individual companies themselves. If the market leaders will not agree to fund a trade organisation, an alternative is to fund a quasi-independent body, principally using a website to field most enquiries, with a spokesperson available to respond to media issues. The strategy to be adopted by the trade body/Information Centre/company should, of course, always be consistent.

The principal strategy

In all dealings with the media, the principal strategy should always be to know what rights the company has and how best to insist on these rights being respected. Companies should always exercise their rights to obtain information and understand the context in which any statement or interview is likely to be used, in order to tailor the company’s response to the situation. This requires appropriate training, precedents and action plans.

The action plan for dealing with adverse media should operate on a number of levels. In particular, the company’s PR department or external PR advisers, will need to communicate directly with journalists and editors, to push at this level for the company’s side of the story to be represented and for potential inaccuracies to be corrected in advance of publication. Input from lawyers who are familiar with the issues can assist in this process. If this fails to bring about the desired effect and an adverse piece is published or broadcast (or if it is clear pre-publication/pre-broadcast that the attention is going to be negative), then you will need to bring in experienced media lawyers to complain about the treatment the company has received in relation to issues such as accuracy of the piece, failure to give the company’s side of the story, privacy of employees or libellous statements. An advantage of the two-pronged approach is that the PR advisers are able to preserve their good relationships with the journalists and distance themselves from the contentious work being done by the lawyers, while the company through the lawyers is able fully to assert its rights and send out warning flares in relation to future reporting.

Always complain

A consistent approach should be adopted in relation to complaints; whenever a company’s rights have been infringed, the company should complain, politely and firmly in writing.

A proportionate response should be employed – with retractions and apologies only sought for serious issues and damaging lies. Once the inaccuracies in the article or broadcast have been pointed out, it is most important for the company to seek assurances about future conduct from the editor, and/or the legal department at the publishing house or broadcaster, not to repeat the offending words. The company should always insist on these assurances being honoured. The editor/legal department of the publishing house or broadcaster should always be taken to task if and when they break their promises. Although the complaint should always be made in writing, it should be followed up with conversations with the editor/legal department to make it clear that the company will not tolerate poor treatment and that it will insist on being treated properly in future. Simply writing a letter is not always sufficient to achieve long-term objectives.

Maintain your own Database

It can be helpful for companies who feature regularly in the media to maintain their own database of publishing houses and their titles, editors, legal departments and journalists dealing with the issues. Records of each complaint should be kept in the database, and offending publications linked by publishing house, as well as individual titles. If a company wishes to show that an inaccuracy has been repeated, it will be in a stronger position if it can refer back to previous correspondence in which the publication was put on notice of the inaccuracy.

The Publishers’ Cuttings Database

It is important to seek to influence future content by obtaining assurances regarding the linking of offending articles in a database to any letter of complaint. In time it may be possible to obtain undertakings from publishing houses to maintain pop-up warnings for all journalists using the in-house search engine for information about the company and/or its issues.

Trade Press/Journalists

The tabloids, broadsheets, locals and free publications, and the broadcasters will all feed off each other, favouring sensational, scare mongering and bad news stories. Very few of their journalists will have any in depth knowledge of your industry and your issues, and they are unlikely to have time to learn it.

On the other hand, your specialist press/journalists will have the detailed knowledge, and are the cornerstone on which you can start building responsible and fair reporting. The other journalists feed from the trade press when news is slow and/or for easy access to more in-depth information. Therefore, making sure that you are fairly treated by your trade press is fundamentally important to achieving fairer treatment from the rest of the media.

Conclusion

All forms of investigative journalism, in the print and broadcast media, have been increasing and this increase looks set to continue. However, if a company puts in place an effective media strategy and adopts a long term approach to influencing media attention, the company will stand the best chance of protecting its reputation and its brands.

This article first appeared in our food industry law bulletin March 2006. To view this publication, please click here to open a new window.