Should PR be taught in with business not media classes?

ABC TV Tim Minchin Opera House Broadcast Fail

March 27, 2011 By Matthew Gain 3 Comments

The post below has been brought about by what I believe was very poor broadcasting by ABC 2 during tonight’s screening of Tim Minchin’s concert at The Sydney Opera House.

Now before I start, I want to communicate that it is my rule for myself, and anyone else that asks my advice, to not to be negative online. I simply feel it rarely solves anything. However tonight I am going to break my own rule. Tonight’s management of the Tim Minchin concert by ABC TV 2, was very bad in my opinion.

The situation:

At 8.30 pm ABC 2 started broadcast of Tim Minchin’s one off performance at Sydney’s Opera House. A highly publicised event, evidence in the fact that as you can see above it was the most prominent promotion on the ABC 2 website.

Around 20 minutes into the broadcast problems started. At first I wasn’t sure if the problems were my TV, or if it was part of the show. But a quick look at Twitter suggested others were experiencing the same issues. Being an avid watcher of MediaWatch I thus assumed that the ABC was having yet again more problems with its broadcast.

At about 9.00 pm, ABC 2 screened a pre-recorded message from Tim Minchin that explained a ship passing by the Sydney Opera House, may cause issues with the broadcast. At this time ABC 2 switched to a previous Tim Minchin concert. I believe at around 9.30 pm ABC2 returned again to the start of the scheduled Sydney Opera House performance, commencing again from the start. Though I cannot be sure of this as I had turned the volume on my TV down by then and moved onto something else.

Why I think ABC2 Failed:

I understand shit happens. Having worked in PR for some time now, I have managed crisis situations for a range of brands and clients. Whilst this instance is far from a crisis, one truth about any potential issue is; the way an organisation handles the problem has a massive impact on the public perception of how big the issue is.

Based on the broadcast and especially the pre-record, tonight’s failure was not something that was unexpected by the ABC. It seems it was such a real possibility that the broadcaster thought it prudent to create a pre-recorded message from Tim Minchin explaining the issue.

The pre-record begs the question; if the likelihood of broadcast failure was so great why had did it not warn the audience? And further more, if failure was so likely, why did it take around ten minutes for the broadcaster to screen its message acknowledging the failure and next steps on the resolution?

I assume there was not a simple technical solution:

I have absolutely no background in broadcast television, but I assume the ABC explored all options to direct the outside broadcast to another aerial that would not be obstructed by the passing of a large ship by the Opera House. I also assume the ABC had no control over shipping through the harbour during the broadcast. Thus one can assume there was nothing done wrong in this respect.

What I think the ABC could have done better:

Provide a warning and set expectations?

Again, I am not a broadcaster, but I think we can assume that the ABC could have screened a warning at the start of the program stating there was the potential the broadcast of the concert could be interrupted.

A simple message at the start of the broadcast communicating something like:

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the ABC would like to warn viewers our broadcast of tonight’s Tim Minchin’s concert may be interrupted. In the occurrence of such an event the concert will be replayed in full at the soonest possible time. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience that may be caused due to technical difficulties.

Had the program not been interrupted nobody would have given it a second thought. In the instance of interruption, which did occur, people would have at least been pre-warned and expectations set.

Moved to resolve the issue more quickly:

I think we can also assume that the ABC could have moved more quickly switched to the pre-recorded message and the pre-recorded concert. If so why not? The ABC obviously knew there was the very real potential of broadcast failure. Why did it take ten minutes for the broadcaster to respond to the issue? Why weren’t ABC staff watching the broadcast ready to instigate the pre-recorded message and concert more quickly? Again a quick resolution to the problem would have resulted in less audience confusion and less negative reaction.

Conclusion:

As I stated above, an issue is all about how you handle it and in my experience people react well to negative situations when expectations are set accordingly. Had the ABC pre-warned the audience, and acted more quickly to instigate its response I suspect the public’s reaction would have been supportive. As they didn’t, the reaction I observed on Twitter was highly negative. I also suspect their switchboard was jammed with complaints.

Of course this is a very first world problem. Nobody lost an eye, but still it erks me when simple things are not put in place to solve issues.

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Filed Under: Media, PR, Professional Posts Tagged With: ABC, Australia, Australian, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Broadcast, Broadcast. Concert, Crisis Management, Fail, Failure, Issue Management, PR, Ship, Sydney Opera House, Technical Issues, Tim Minchin

Forget #PRFail, what about #Journofail?

May 17, 2010 By Matthew Gain 20 Comments

Image by Greekadman - http://bit.ly/aqw05t

The title of this post was a bit of a link bait exercise, I don’t advocate the use of a #journofail hash tag, but I do think those of us in the PR industry need to end our fear of criticising journalists.

Tiffany Farrington, an Australian PR veteran and someone I respect a lot, recently published a post listing things that PRs dislike about journalists. The post contained a collection of anonymous irks PR people had sent in and was a good read. The post was not a rant, came on the back of a post which asked journalists what they disliked about PRs and was created with the desire of creating harmony amongst the community of PRs and journalists.

I loved the post and left a comment stating:

Thanks Tiff, refreshing to see the PRs’ side of this story told.

Whilst we may not work for the same side, our industries are undeniably intertwined. Over the years I have learnt lots about what to do and what not to do by paying attention to journalists in their articles, blog posts and presentations about how PRs should interact with them.

I hope journalists can benefit in a similar way from this post.

Frustratingly however, this was the only comment from someone in the PR industry on the post. Based on her high profile I assume Tiff’s blog is well visited, the blog was linked to from Mumbrella driving even more traffic, there were journalists that commented on it, so surely PRs were also reading it. Why then had none of my colleagues felt compelled to comment? My only assumption is that PR people are so concerned about the implications of criticising a journalist that it kept them silent.

The non willingness of my colleagues to speak up is not healthy in my mind. As I stated in my comment on Tiffany’s blog, whilst we have different drivers and objectives in our roles, the PR and journalism industries across many sectors (note I am not saying all) are undeniably intertwined. If those of us on the PR side are too scared to provide constructive criticism on how our industries can work better together then we rightly deserve to be treated in a subservient manner by journalists and continue to be frustrated by their actions.

I am not suggesting that en mass PRs should start airing their gripes with their journalist contacts, but when we experience mistakes, or poor practice (and this does happen), these should be addressed in a constructive manner. If we don’t, we risk a gap forming between our industries and a growing frustration on both sides.

In this spirit, my advice to journalists is to keep the mistakes us PR people make in perspective. PR agencies on the whole are filled with really smart, passionate and hard working people. PRs, like you, often work long hours in stressful environments with many demands. Sometimes this results in mistakes that frustrate you. Rather than launching into a tirade on Twitter, or elsewhere, when this happens, why not contact the person in question, or one of their colleagues you have a relationship with. Outline why their actions are causing you frustration and how they can avoid doing that again. I know you’re busy, we all are, but you might be surprised at how this small investment saves wasted time down the track and may even help you better achieve your objectives.

Of course I realise that in many cases what I am advocating above is the norm and there are countless examples of good relationships built on mutual respect between the PR and journalism industries. I am simply writing this post in the hope that we can increase these types of relationships and decrease the negatives ones.

I’d love to hear from PRs or journalists on reactions to this post.

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Filed Under: Media, PR, Professional Posts Tagged With: #journofail, #PRFail, Australia, Digital PR, journalism, journalist, PR, PRs, Public Relations, vs

Australia’s ABC ranks high in Twitter ranks

January 15, 2010 By Matthew Gain 4 Comments

Teqnolog has prepared a whole heap of charts tracking the number of Tweets individuals and organisations are making across the globe. Within the charts it was interesting to see the ABC right up there in the top Twitter organisations globally.

Of course numbers of Tweets don’t mean much and don’t suggest conversation or engagement, but interesting in my mind none the less.
I doubt very much that the ABC is the world’s most productive news organisation – i.e. only four other news organisations create more stories than the ABC. As such this suggests they are pushing heavy into this territory more so than other organisations.

But on the other hand this stat tells us nothing about the value of the messages being tweeted or the way the ABC is using the medium to engage with its audience.

The ABC has a handy list of its Twitter accounts, but reviewing the majority of these the follwing counts are much lower than the follower counts and most push rather than converse. There are of course exceptions and ones that do provide conversation, but these appear to be in the minority.

Personally I have not really engaged with the ABC Tweets (but that may be my failure?) unlike I have with othe rmedia people like Renai LeMay (ZDNet Australia) and Jack Schofield (Guardian) who mix their tweets that drive to stories with conversation, opinion and true engagement.

What do you think? Have you engaged with the ABC online? Is the organisation using it effectively?

HT to Trevor Young who directed me to the Teqnoblog post.

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Filed Under: Media, Professional Posts Tagged With: ABC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Teqnolog, Twitter

The death of regional newspapers does not necessarily signal the death of local news

March 24, 2009 By Matthew Gain 4 Comments

A cacophony of noise on the web and elsewhere is heralding the death of local news as more and more regional newspapers go out of business. But does the death of regional newspapers necessarily signal the death of local news? I think not.

This post was prompted by the reading of two different texts. The first a book by the media consultant and blogger Jeff Jarvis – What Would Google Do. The second an article I read on Saturday on The Guardian.

Much has been written about What Would Google Do, so I won’t dwell too much on it, other than to say that Jarvis presents a very pessimistic future for print media unless publishers embrace the internet 2.0 era.

The Guardian article, authored by Ian Jack, on the other hand, laments the passing of regional media and puts forward the opinion that without local newspapers there will be nobody to scrutinise proceedings. Thus the public will only be left with the official version (read PR media release version) of events.

Now the Guardian piece makes a compelling argument, but I believe Jack has made assumptions that limit his ability to look at the alternatives to a printed local newspaper. I believe the false assumptions he made are:

That it is not possible to report on local news unless you are in the locality itself;
That only trained journalists are capable of writing copy that fulfils the obligation of providing an alternative to the official version;
That individuals will only engage and trust information about their local area if it is printed in a newspaper format; and finally
That an online news outlet is not capable of making comparable profits to that of a print publication.

Like Jarvis, I believe the future for local news will be online and that the current practice of employing a full time team of journalists to deliver local news is no-longer economically sustainable.

As I mentioned above, Jeff Jarvis devotes a large portion of his book (and also his blog), to recommendations for newspaper companies on how they should be adapting to the new landscape. Below I have paraphrased that advice and added my own take in a few bullets:

Local news organisations need to focus on what they can do alone; that is report on hyper local news such as local court proceedings, local police rounds, council proceedings and other local specific items. This content is not covered by other news organisations and is of interest to the local community;
Don’t employ journalists to write news that isn’t focused on your local area. Why employ a movie/music reviewer to review new releases when there are countless other reviews of this online already? Likewise, don’t cover national and international news or say motor reviews. If it has resonance outside of your local community, odds are that it has already been reported elsewhere, so simply link to it;
Identify those people within your local community that are topic experts and are already creating content on their own blogs or sites. If they are passionate about their topic and writing already (be they a professional journalist or not) odds are they are creating better content on that topic than the general news journalists you employ. Don’t see them as competitors, rather partner with them and provide editing advice where required. Finally link to their site, drive traffic there and share the advertising revenues that result;
Where partnerships don’t already exist, look to similiar news organisations in nearby towns to build relationships. Consolidate your advertising teams and benefit from the economies of scale that will arrive because of this. Also investigate the advantages of employing automated ad services such as Google Adwords to outsource and automate the sale of media; and finally
Look to big established media players, the likes of MSN.com (disclosure – owned by my current employer), The Guardian or Daily Mail. How could you enhance their offering by providing local specific information online. Make a partnership and share the revenue that results.

Without a doubt, employing the advice Jarvis suggests will result in a fundamental shake up of how the local newspaper organisations operate. And undoubtedly there will be people that lose their jobs, but doing nothing will mean the end for many local news organisations, which will ultimately result in the loss of all jobs.

So will newspapers die? Yes I would expect so. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that local news will die with it. Food for thought perhaps.

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Filed Under: Media, Professional Posts Tagged With: Buzz Machine, Death of newspapers, Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do

Marie Claire editor to star in marketing created reality TV show

February 22, 2009 By Matthew Gain Leave a Comment

There was an article in today’s Observer about how the British born Marie Claire editor, Joanna Coles is to star in an American reality TV series about working at the magazine. Following in the wake of The Devil Wears Prada, a movie about working at a US fashion magazine, and Ugly Betty, a TV series on the same topic, there is no doubt that there is an appeal for this type of content and is likely to be a success.

In my mind this is a perfect example of a media company extending beyond its traditional channel to build an audience and advertising stream in another medium. As the credit crunch bites and advertising dollars become more scarce, will this out of the box thinking give Marie Claire on its competitors? Time will tell.

Image borrowed from here.

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Filed Under: Advertising/Marketing, Media, Professional Posts

Telegraph Media outsources production to Sydney Australia

January 10, 2009 By Matthew Gain Leave a Comment

In a move reported by the SMH The Telegraph Media Group publisher of the UK’s Daily Telegraph is outsourcing the production (subbing, layout etc) of some of its sections to Sydney’s AAP owned Pagemasters.

Pagemasters is set to produce the Telegraph’s travel, motoring and money pages and parts of The Sunday Telegraph according to the article.

Good for Australia – not so good for journos based here in London.

It reminds me of the term ‘Mexicans with mobiles’, used in the 90s in reference to Australian film crews who could produce Hollywood funded films more cheaply than their yank colleagues.

Hearing of this got me to wondering how long it is until they start creating the copy for these sections offshore? Is it essential that a travel journalist writing for the UK market is based in the UK? Perhaps not. Then assuming this, how long will it be until Australian PR agencies will have UK based clients interested in targeting UK journalists based in Sydney? Food for thought perhaps.

Technorati Tags: PR,Journalism

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Filed Under: Media, Professional Posts Tagged With: Daily Telegraph, Telegraph Media

Should PR be taught in with business not media classes?

December 31, 2008 By Matthew Gain Leave a Comment

I have been working in PR for some 7 or so years now, but before that I studied a Bachelor of Arts (Communication) at The University of Newcastle. I really enjoyed my degree and got a lot out of it, but reading this post on The Good, The Bad, The Spin, a US based PR blog, makes some really good points.

Basically the post makes the point that PR is a business function and has much more to do with marketing, sales and target audiences than it does with journalism – so then why is the basis of a degree in PR journalism and not business?

Were I to have my time over again I would take a business/marketing degree over a PR degree – much more useful in my life as a PR than understanding how to lay a page out for a magazine.

Technorati Tags: PR,Journalism

Filed Under: Media, PR, Professional Posts