The Crisis Management Memo

Dealing with the changing news media

Dealing with the news media has never been more of a challenge than it is today.

For starters, exactly what media are you dealing with? Is it the traditional media, the new media, the social media? Will it be television (cable or broadcast)? Will it be newspaper (print or web site)? Will it be radio (broadcast, satellite or internet)? Or, in stratospherically rising popularity of the internet, will it be a reporter from a web site you’ve never even heard of before?

In the past very few years, the news media have gone through more of a transformation than ever before. Newspapers, the one-time most powerful form of media on the planet, may still have some power, but there are fewer of them and even fewer people reading them as a primary source of news.

Television, according to most recent polls, remains the primary source of news for the majority of Americans. Newspapers, based on most polling information, aren’t even a close second.

The internet is where more and more Americans are getting their news. And it is growing as a primary source of news for more Americans every day.

“All I know is what I read in the newspaper,” the late humorist Will Rogers is quoted as saying back in the mid-20 Century. If he were alive today, he’d be in an absolute minority.

Newspapers, although declining in circulation, size and numbers; are still out there. And so is television, both broadcast and the 24-7 cable news outlets.

But it is the internet that may be creating tomorrow’s news media nightmare, particularly for the unsuspecting and unprepared business spokesperson.

Take the “twitterverse,” for instance. That’s the term used for the community of Twitter and their collective voice. Remember the “Tea Party” demonstration in Washington? Well, think what would happen if a “twittermob” of upset customers appeared in front of your corporate headquarters? A mob organized and activated entirely via Twitter.

The blogosphere is growing in numbers, popularity and power. Some internet news organizations rival their traditional print and broadcast competition today, both in staff size as well as the number of people who depend upon them for news.

What does all this mean for the corporate crisis manager or company spokesperson today? Primarily, it means they need to be aware of the changing news media and they need to be prepared to deal with it.

They need to know not all reporters work for traditional media outlets. They need to know which outlets they need to monitor and which outlets they need to communicate with in times of crisis.

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