Tips For Public Meeting Coverage: Part II

By Matt Baron

As a veteran of thousands of hours of public meeting coverage for local and regional newspapers, I’ve learned a few things that have helped me along. In a previous column, I touched on some of those tips.

In this column, I’ll provide a condensed refresher of those tips, as well as three others.

To recap the prior tips:

Anticipate the News

After reviewing the agenda—as well as background information, if the government body provides it in advance—think ahead of time about stories that could flow from the meeting.

Show Up Early, Be The Last To Leave

This is a simple formula, with a simply amazing return on the time investment.

Skip Press Row

Mix with the general public: you get a clearer pulse of reaction, it encourages interaction with this rich variety of sources, and you gain better “pursuit angles” as you seek to question those who have just addressed the public body.

And here are the additional tips:

Bring an Audio Recording Device

Until a few years ago, I rarely recorded meetings. I relied solely on my ability to follow the give-and-take of meetings, some of which dragged on longer than extra-inning baseball games. I disdained recorders for dread of the time-consuming task of re-living the tedious proceedings in search of a detail here or a notable quote there.

But there’s a happy medium: bring a recorder and turn it on only when things start heating up or discussion of a confusing or complex topic arises. In your notebook, jot down the recorder’s time counter for quick reference later.

Continue taking hand-written notes as best as possible—the recorder may not adequately capture the discussion and even if it does, playing it back can bring a small return on your time investment.

Highly recommended: if you’ve not already done so, begin using a digital recording device. You can transfer the recording onto your computer desktop and quickly scroll in search of the relevant material. It behooves you to create multiple tracks to ease the review process. I try to keep mine under 10 minutes, with some less than 60 seconds.

Here’s another recording benefit: it allows you to leave the room while you tend to other business, whether it’s interviewing someone in the hallway, phoning an editor or taking a bathroom break. The key is to trust that people around you will not meddle with or swipe your recorder. And it’s no match for being present, so use it only in emergency.

Remember: You are an ambassador!

To many people, you personify your publication because they have no direct contact with anyone else from your paper. So be prepared to field criticism about coverage, about circulation, about things over which you have absolutely no control.

Be gracious, get individuals’ contact information and assure them that you will convey their concern to the appropriate person within your company. And be sure to follow through on that promise! You want people to continue approaching you—take the “bad” now so you can also get the “good” later.

Even when something goofy happens, keep a poker face—don’t make faces, laugh, groan, roll your eyes or mutter. You want to maintain an even-keel, as it promotes your reputation for even-handedness in reporting stories. Save your reactions for newsroom colleagues or friends, far away from the public spotlight.

Be Presentable

Dress one notch up from your usual newsroom wardrobe. Sloppy dress suggests sloppy reporting. Leave the running shoes at home, and pretend you are going to a semi-formal event.

Along these same lines, practice good hygiene. Remember, you’re going to be chatting with many people for the first time as you “work the room” and you want to make a positive first impression.

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A freelance writer for the Chicago Tribune and owner of Inside Edge: Public Relations & Media Services, Matt resides in Oak Park, Illinois. He delivers workshops and seminars on a variety of communications-related topics to corporations and associations. You can reach him at matt@mattbaron.com or 888-713-6589. He is online at www.mattbaron.com.

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A matter of perspective

By John Foust
Raleigh, NC

There's an old story about an advertiser who wanted to buy a billboard to promote his business. After studying a map of available locations, he pointed and said, "That's the one I want."

The billboard sales person expressed her concern. "You may want to consider another location. There's a low traffic count on that street. And that sign is on the left side of the road, which means that drivers have to look across the other lanes of traffic to read it."

"But that's the one I want."

The sales person persisted. "I'd really like to help you make the right decision. There are plenty of locations which can give you better exposure."

He jabbed his finger on the map. "That's the only one I'm interested in."

In a moment of insight, the sales person smiled and said, "Okay, we'll be happy to reserve that sign for you. But do you mind if I ask why you like that particular location?"

The advertiser leaned back in his chair and said, "That's the road I drive to work every morning."

It's all a matter of perspective. Henry Ford said, "If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view, and see things from that angle as well as your own."

More recently, Stephen Covey wrote, "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

One of the biggest mistakes a sales person can make is to assume that all prospects have the same view of the world. Ann Landers once wrote about two people sitting on opposite sides of a table. In the middle was a large number, which appeared as a "9" to one person, but as a "6" to the other.

If the first person said, "Look at that number nine on the table," we wouldn't be surprised to hear the second person say, "A nine? That's not a nine. Anyone can see that it's a six."

"Six? What's wrong with you? That's a nine if I've ever seen one." And so it goes, around and around. Two people stubbornly refusing to see things from the other side of the table.

This self-centered, "I am right, and you are wrong" approach rarely works. If a sales person doesn't see things from his or her customer's perspective, it usually leads to frustration and lost business.

In reality, it doesn't take any special ability to see things from our own point of view. Even a fool can do that. However, it takes skill to see things from the other person's perspective. In the billboard example, the sales person put herself in position to positively influence future decisions – by understanding her client's motivation.

People who sell advertising – in our case, newspaper advertising – have an double-edged challenge. First, we have to see things from our advertiser's side of the table. Then we have to help them understand their audience's perspective. The result will be better advertising. And more business for everybody.

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(c)Copyright 2007 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad departments: jfoust@mindspring.com

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‘To do what is right’ focus of global survey

By Randy Hines

A recent global survey revealed more consumer trust in business than in media or government. The largest-ever Edelman Trust Barometer indicates an all-time high of 53 percent of U.S. respondents trust business “to do what is right.”

“I think there is a perception that business is beginning to step up to the plate to take more direct action on issues like climate change and community relief,” explains Nancy Ruscheinski, president of Edelman’s U.S. Midwest region. “And people are starting to take notice.”

In the U.S., media earned a 43 percent trust score, beating only the government with its 38 percent. Among the other three options, non-governmental organizations had the best response with 57 percent, followed closely by 56 percent for religious institutions and 53 percent for business.

For news about a company, American business magazines retained their rank as the most credible. All other U.S. media sources dropped from the 2006 rankings: newspapers at 37 percent, down from 44 percent; television news at 35 percent, down from 38 percent; and radio news at 39 percent, down from 48 percent.

The highest media trust percentages came from China (68), Brazil (62), Mexico (61), Netherlands (55) and India (55).

Only 19 percent of the United Kingdom respondents, on the other hand, trust their media to do the right thing. Media also pulled in low scores in France (27), Germany (29), Sweden (29), Italy (33) and Canada (34).

The 2007 study of 3,100 college-educated, 35- to 64-year-olds also showed a growing division between developed and developing countries. For example, media in general had a 56 percent score to do what is right in developing countries, but only 37 percent in developed ones.

Articles in business magazines are typically viewed as the most credible sources of information. In 11 of the 18 countries in the Edelman study, business mags are the most or second-most trusted supplier of information about companies.

“In much the same way that business has adapted to globalization, business magazines have succeeded in reflecting the complexity of the world,” observed Frederick Kempe, former editor and associate publisher of The Wall Street Journal Europe. They strive to be accurate, tough-minded and smart. I would think that is the reason the survey shows them at the top as credible news sources, while the rest of journalism has grown sloppier with the 24x7 news cycle.”

In the U.S., business publications ranked first, followed by industry analysts and news coverage on the radio. However, in Japan, newspapers are the most credible. Newspapers overall were considered highly credible in Spain (65 percent), but the opposite was true in France (20 percent). China ranked its television stations first.

Technology ranked at the top overall within the business rankings, and was the only universally trusted industry. However, bloggers face a difficult time. Consider the question: “If you heard information from each of these sources, how credible would the information be?” Bloggers came in dead last among 13 choices. Only 16 percent of citizens in developing nations and only 13 percent in developed countries opted for the blogger as a credible supplier of information.

Their fate, in fact, was a major topic of debate during June’s New Media Academic Summit 2007 in New York City’s Harvard Club. Sponsored by Edelman and PRWeek, the event gathered journalists, bloggers, communication professionals and academics for two days to discuss the changing media environment.

Although bloggers are often characterized as teenagers ranting about their weekend activities, many of them are legitimate citizen journalists. Under those situations, most of those in attendance agreed such bloggers deserve shield law protection.

Blogging has higher credibility, based on research, when it originates with employees or industry analysts. Guidelines need to be established for blogs, starting at the university level. According to the leading blog research firm, Technorati, 39 percent of all blog posts are in English and 33 percent are in Japanese. Another 10 percent are in Chinese.

Technology blogs were the first to report on the exploding laptop batteries, prompting Sony’s massive recall. Does your Utah newspaper have a blogging policy?

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Dr. Randy Hines teaches in the Department of Communications at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA 17870. He can be reached at (570) 372-4079 or randyhinesapr@yahoo.com.

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All we have to do is…keep talking

By Ed Henninger

THERE’S A LINE in a Pink Floyd song that you might want to place on your newsroom wall: “It doesn’t have to be like this. All we need to do…is make sure…we keep talking.”

Yeah…right.

The ad sales rep doesn’t let you know there’s a late ad on the way. So that means you’re going to have to redo two pages: The first to fit the ad and the second to place stories the ad bounced.

The photographer never mentions that he had to ditch your cooking feature assignment because of that triple-fatal out on Route 5. So now, what do you do for your home page lead?

The sports editor forgets to tell his designer that his column is going to run longer than usual. So the designer has to go into an already-cleared page to place the story bumped by the longer column.

The frightening irony is that we are in the business of communicating—and yet we do it so badly ourselves.

Even more frightening is that many of us don’t seem to care to fix it. Where there’s a misunderstanding, a miscommunication or even a downright lack of communication, we often seem to toss that off as a one-time occurrence and go on blithely about our business—until it happens again.

Let’s stop that—now.

When I worked in a newsroom, I would occasionally drive others nuts with my mantra: “If there’s a problem with the way things work, let’s fix the way things work.”

And failure to communicate properly is a problem with the way things work.

And here are some examples for fixes:

• Set an understanding that editors will know by a certain time of the day that there will be no additional ads. Anything after that deadline requires the prior approval of the publisher. No ad rep is going to abuse that policy without the publisher knowing about it. And, yes, if I were the publisher I’d want to know.

• Keep a photographer log in the newsroom so all your editors will know at any moment what assignment is going to be pushed back when an urgent story occurs.

• Give your sports designer the authority to cut a piece—yes, even the sports editor’s column—when it’s just too long to handle on deadline without changes to other pages.

And what does all of this have to do with design? I’ll answer that question with a question: How can we possibly do a good job of page design when the pieces of the puzzle keep appearing, disappearing and morphing into different shapes? Many, many pages have turned from winners to wheezers because of a lack of communications.

To be sure, there are other ways for things to become confused than in the few examples I’ve presented. We’re not going to be able to cure them all at once. And human nature will dictate that we still forget occasionally—we’re all busy and we’re all deadline-motivated.

But when we can find a way to fix things, well, why wouldn’t we want to do that?

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IF THIS COLUMN has been helpful, you’ll find more help in Ed’s new book, Henninger on Design. With the help of Henninger on Design, you’ll become a better designer because you’ll become a thinking designer. Find out more about Henninger on Design by visiting Ed’s web site: www.henningerconsulting.com

ED HENNINGER is an independent newspaper consultant and the Director of Henninger Consulting. Offering comprehensive newspaper design services including redesigns, workshops, training and evaluations. E-mail: edh@henningerconsulting.com. On the web: www.henningerconsulting.com. Phone: 803-327-3322.

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