How To Manage Your Bad News
Journalists love a bad news story. Let’s be honest, as a journalist myself I don’t mind saying that reporters get a much bigger kick out of investigating and writing up a bad news story than a good news story.
I recall the intense lack of excitement as a trainee journalist (a long time ago) being asked to cover a community garden fate during a stint at the Nottingham Evening Post, however the thrill of visiting a prison to interview the warden after his dopey staff had let one of their inmates walk out of the gates was amazing, especially as that trip included a photo shoot at Lincoln Railway station posing as said escaped convict while sucking a Solero.
So, when a journalist gets a bad news story about your agency – be it a high profile client loss, a senior member of staff leaving your agency or your agency facing severe financial difficulties – the chances are it’ll get far more column inches, analysis and attract more reader comments than if you win a new client, appoint a great new member of staff or expand your business.
So, why is this? Well as a journalist who’s worked on The Drum since 1998 I can tell you, that being the first to break a story and get new information out into the marketplace that particular people don’t want out there is the ultimate thrill and why these types of stories get so much more space than other stories.
So, what can agency owners and managers do to limit the damage of media coverage when something goes pear-shaped at their agency?
The answer is frighteningly easy. Tell the journalist about it before they find out about it themselves.
By simply picking up the telephone and telling the journalist what is happening you are retaining control of the story. By doing this the journalist will not feel that it is their story as they haven’t found out the information through a tip off and haven’t come to you with it.
Taking the bull by the horns is the key to managing a bad news story, not simply burying your head and hoping it goes away. In an industry as incestuous as this one, chances are it won’t and eventually it will make its way through the grapevine to a journalist eager to prove to his editor that he’s worth his salary. I know it’s a lot easier said than done – nobody really likes to talk to a relative stranger about why things have gone so badly wrong - but it works by taking the heat out of what could potentially be a damaging story for your business.
I know that during my time working at The Drum agency owners who have spoken to me when there has been bad news to write have always been given the opportunity to put their side of the story over and have therefore been given more sensitive coverage – unless they were complete scoundrels, of course.
Also, another tip, if you are contacted by a journalist who has a bad news story about you always try to make a comment about it. There is nothing worse an agency owner can do than allow a journalist to write “the MD was unavailable to comment” in a news story. That simply allows the journalist to speculate about the possible problem and also gives readers the opportunity to make up their own minds and, worse still, post their thoughts in the comments section.
By being open and honest about things then you have the opportunity to retain control of the story and maintain an open channel of communications with the media to put your side of the story across. Why so many agency owners try to hide bad news is beyond me. It seldom works and it is very hard to keep secrets in an industry as incestuous as this.
So, if you are an agency owner and you have some bad news - talk about it. Chances are it’ll get out anyway and then it’ll look like you were covering something up. It’s a little like when as a teenager I crashed my father’s car while trying to drive while eating fish and chips. Actually, in hindsight, it’s nothing like that at all. I just went to bed and hoped he wouldn't notice. Needless to say in the morning he noticed and the shit really hit the fan.