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MEDIA RELATIONS STRATEGIES DURING EMERGENCIES
A CRISIS COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT WORKBOOK
(Volume IV)
By James E. Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA

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This volume is a guide to media relations strategy that provides insight, tools, techniques,
tips, tactics, and suggested language for conducting media relations during emergencies,
crises, and disasters.

Chapter topics include: Managing the media, understanding journalists, preparing
spokespersons, question identification, attributes of good answers, special circumstances
(such as being a news source), the crisis news conference, managing the massive
event/response, and managing media relations strategies.

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PREFACE: THE EXPERIENCE THIS BOOK REFLECTS
Excerpted from Media Relations Strategies During Emergencies: A Crisis
Communication Management Guide

“A successful strategy requires intense, purposeful preparation. No matter what the situation
or scenario, when it comes to working with the news media there are common principles and
approaches. Most are learned situation by situation, problem by problem, often interview by
interview. Media relations is a skill that is enhanced by ongoing, relentless practice.

“This Guide focuses primarily on the fundamentals of getting ready to meet the news media
when emergencies occur. The emphasis is on understanding who the media are and how
they work, but from the client's perspective rather than from the media's point of view.

“This knowledge comes from a dozen years in business, sales, and sales management plus
more than a quarter century of advising senior managers in a broad range of crisis and
urgent public relations areas including:

- Activist Counteraction
- Coaching and Training for Executives and Managers
- Community Relations & Grassroots Campaigns
- Corporate Relations
- Crisis Communication Management & Simulations
- Employee Relationship Building
- Ethics/Integrity/Compliance Communications
- Litigation Communication Management
- Management Communication
- Media Relations Strategy & Analysis
- Public Affairs & Exposure Management
- Strategy

“The process of strategy is about who you are and what you intend or need to accomplish.
While it's useful to know, as background, who the media are, their points of view or agendas,
and how they behave, you or those you represent are going to be in the news. The success
of any media relations effort is virtually never the media's responsibility. It's yours.

“Know yourself; know what has to be done. Make sure there's something the media can do.
Develop a strategy, and then go do it - now.”

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HOW TO USE THIS CRISIS COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT GUIDE
EXCERPTED FROM Media Relations Strategies During Emergencies: A Crisis
Communication Management Guide

“Media relations skill, strategy, and execution are often the difference between uncontrolled,
explosive visibility and more managed, less dramatic visibility.

“This Guide's purpose is to help organizations achieve the ultimate and most important facet
of emergency media relations strategy - novel, powerful, positive emergency media
response approaches:
- “This Guide can serve as your training tool or as a model for a customized version
that
fits your specific needs exactly.
- “Sections of this Guide can be adapted as appropriate or simply transported
directly
into the emergency media relations preparation training process. The experience you gain
from working with the Guide will help you develop better procedures and plans, no matter
what the situation.
- “This Guide can be used as the basis for structuring plans and implementation
strategy.
The Lukaszewski Group provides seminar programs along these lines using this Guide and
other parts of the Executive Action(r) Crisis Communication Management System as its
teaching tools. So can you.

“There is no reason or appropriate excuse for lack of preparation. Commitment of people,
dollars, and mental energy is all that stands between being ready when a crisis occurs and
being at the mercy of events. This Executive Action(r) Crisis Communication Management
Guide and the other books in the Executive Action(r)Crisis Communication Management
System [available from The Rothstein Catalog on Disaster Recovery, www.rothstein.com]
are designed to facilitate effective emergency media relations preparation.”

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CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE ACTION CRISIS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CONTENTS

PREFACE

FOREWORD

HOW TO USE THIS CRISIS COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT GUIDE

INTRODUCTION: REMEMBER WHO YOU WORK FOR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CHAPTER 1 MANAGING THE MEDIA
A. Basic Media Relations Strategy
B. What News Is
C. News Is an Emotional Business
D. Facts
E. What to Do Before Reporters Call
F. What to Do When Reporters Call
G. What to Do Before Reporters Arrive
H. What to Do While Reporters Are With You
I. When Can Media Visit the Site?
J. What to Do as the Media Come and Go
K. Assessing News Stories
L. Assess the News Story's Credibility and Believability
M. Bad News: How to Assess the Damage
N. Do's and Avoids of Emergency Communication (Including Interviews)
O. Surviving 60 Minutes and the Other News Magazine Shows

CHAPTER 2 UNDERSTANDING JOURNALISTS
A. Where Reporters Come From
B. Reporters and Ethics
C. Reporters and Emergencies
D. The Big Three: Lying, Deception, Unnamed Sources
E. How to Establish a Professional Relationship With Reporters
F. Notes From Senior Correspondents

CHAPTER 3 PREPARING SPOKESPERSONS
A. Good Stories Are the Spokesperson's Responsibility
B. Pre-Interview Coaching and Briefings
C. Executive Action® Media Interview Preparation Guide
D. Tips for the Interview Coach or Media Trainer

CHAPTER 4 QUESTION IDENTIFICATION
A. Just Tell the Truth
B. Question Types
C. Where Do Questions Come From
D. Anticipating the Questions
E. How Reporters Formulate Questions

CHAPTER 5 ATTRIBUTES OF GOOD ANSWERS
A. Answers: The Essence of the Interview
B. The Attributes of Good Answers
C. Avoiding Answer Construction Problems

CHAPTER 6 SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
A. Introduction
B. Being a News Source

CHAPTER 7 THE CRISIS NEWS CONFERENCE
A. Introduction
B. Go/No Go News Conference Decision Checklist
C. Types of News Conferences
D. Techniques
E. News Conference Checklist
F. Checklist for Calling and Concluding News Conferences
G. Execution
H. Tips and Tactics for Spokespersons
I. Handling Disruptions

CHAPTER 8 MANAGING THE MASSIVE EVENT/RESPONSE
A. Introduction
B. Response Strategy
C. Simple, Effective Crisis Media Relations Tools
D. Managing Large Telephone Call Volumes: The Emergency Media Relations
Phone Kit
E. Manage the Victims; Manage the Trauma
F. Develop Crisis Response Web Site for the Media and Other Interested Outsiders,
Including Government
G. The Crisis War Room
H. Software
I. First Response: Simple Direct Approaches to Gather, Manage, and Confirm
Information
and Then Respond Promptly

CHAPTER 9 MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS STRATEGIES: A SHORT COURSE
A. A Few Closing Remarks
B. What Is a Crisis?
C. How Do We Prepare?
D. How Do We Win and Maintain Management Support?
E. How Do We Control the Media?
F. How Do We Manage Difficult Situations and Issues?
G. What Do We Do When It's Over?

INDEX

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JAMES E. LUKASZEWSKI, APR, FELLOW PRSA

“James E. Lukaszewski (loo-ka-SHEV-skee) advises, coaches, and counsels the men and
women who run very large corporations and organizations. The bulk of his practice is in the
Western Hemisphere, although he has clients from most parts of the world. He believes that
the communications problems they face can be solved through superior personal leadership
skills combined with positive, strategic communication.

“He is a specialist in trouble-shooting tough, touchy, sensitive corporate communications
issues. He provides counsel to companies facing serious internal and external problems
involving: activist counteraction; community relations and grassroots campaigns; corporate
relations failures; reputational threats; crisis communication management; employee
relationship building; ethics/integrity/compliance; litigation visibility management;
management communication strategies; media relations strategy and analysis; public
affairs/exposure management; strategic Web site construction; Web-based attacks; and
strategy. His broad-based experience ranges from media-initiated investigations to product
recalls and plant closings, from criminal litigation to takeovers. He is frequently retained by
senior management to directly intervene and manage the resolution of corporate problems
and bad news. The situations he helps resolve often involve conflict, controversy, community
action or activist opposition. The fastest growing portion of his practice involves civil and
criminal litigation.

“He helps prepare spokespersons for crucial public appearances, local and network news
interviews including 20-20, 60 Minutes, Dateline NBC, and Nightline, financial analyst
meetings, legislative and congressional testimony; and personal coaching for executives in
trouble or facing career-defining problems.

“He is a prolific author (several books, more than 130 articles), lecturer (corporate, college
and university), trainer, counselor, and public speaker. He is quoted in publications such as
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald, the Harvard Business
Review, and industry trade journals. He authors the quarterly column strategy for pr reporter,
is a member of the editorial board for Ragan's Public Relations Journal, a contributing editor
to Public Relations Quarterly, a contributing columnist to PR News, and was the first crisis
columnist for the PRSA's member publication, PR Tactics. His book Influencing Public
Attitudes: Strategies that Reduce the Media's Power was published in December 1992 by
the Issue Action Press. The Public Relations Society of America released fully revised
editions his Executive Action(r) Crisis Communication Management System in September
2000: War Stories and Crisis Communication Strategies, An Anthology; Crisis
Communication Planning Strategies, A Workbook; and Media Relations During
Emergencies, A Guide. He published 19 unabridged monographs on critical communication
subjects since 1994, three based on chapters he authored in books published by Gale
Research, Exxon Valdez: The Great Crisis Management Paradox; McGraw-Hill, Building
Quality Community Relationships: A Planning Model to Gain and Maintain Public Consent;
and the Public Relations Society of America, The Newest Discipline: Managing Legally
Driven Issues.

“His clients will tell you that he is a pragmatist and straight shooter. He has won a reputation
for doing as well as thinking. He is a teacher, thinker, coach, and friend with the unique ability
to help executives look at problems from a variety of principled perspectives, to think through
and strategize in new ways and to take appropriate, highly focused, ethically appropriate
action. He has personally counseled, coached, and guided thousands of executives in
organizations large and small across the U.S. and from many cultures representing
government; the military and defense industry; the agriculture, banking, computer, financial,
food processing, health care, insurance, paper, real estate development and
telecommunications industries; cooperatives; trade and professional associations; and
non-profit agencies. He is one of the few who can and truly does coach CEOs.

“An accredited member (APR) of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and a
member of its College of Fellows (Fellow PRSA), Mr. Lukaszewski is a member of the
PRSA's Board of Ethics & Professional Standards and is active in the Counselors
Academy, the Corporate, Employee Relations, and Public Affairs/Government Sections and
the New York City Chapter. He is also a member of the Center for the Study of the
Presidency, the International Churchill Society, and The Issue Management Council. He is an
Adjunct Associate Professor of Communications at New York University's School of
Continuing and Professional Studies and has served as a civilian advisor to the United
States Marine Corps and several federal agencies. He lectures annually at the U.S. Marine
Corp's East Coast Commander's Media Training Symposium and is an internationally
recognized speaker on crisis management, ethics, media relations, public affairs, and
reputation preservation and restoration.

“Lukaszewski received his B.A. degree in 1974 from Metropolitan State University in
Minnesota. He is a former deputy commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Economic
Development and assistant press secretary to former Minnesota Governor Wendell
Anderson. He founded Minnesota-based Media Information Systems Corporation in 1978.
Prior to founding The Lukaszewski Group Inc. in 1989 he was senior vice president and
director of Executive Communication Programs for Georgeson & Company and a partner
with Chester Burger Company, both in New York City.”
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SPECIAL OFFER!
See Order #DR753 for a special price on the complete, 4-volume set.
- - - - - - -
See DR501 for Volume I, DR502 for Volume II, and DR752 for Volume III.
- - - - - - -

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2000, 212 pages. Order #DR504.
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