Michelle Ubben

Emergency responders call the first 60 minutes after a life threatening injury occurs “the golden hour.” The quality of the response in these critical first minutes will make the difference between life and death. 

Fast and effective response not only determines survival for victims of gunshot, cardiac arrest and stroke. It also dictates the life or death of corporations or organizations in the throes of a different kind of emergency that is no less deadly – a media crisis.

Whether struggling to survive a self-inflicted shot in the foot, a collision with a disgruntled employee, or the pain of a bad corporate decision, the triage is the same.

And like first responders on an accident scene, corporate or organizational victims need to act within hours after bad news breaks to limit the damage.

Unfortunately, naturally defensive organizational instincts can get in the way of a swift, effective response to a media emergency. Beware if you detect any of these common knee jerk responses in the wake of a media emergency:

•“We don’t know enough to talk to the media.”

Chances are you won’t have all the answers about what went wrong for days, weeks or even months. If you wait until all the facts are in, you will miss the chance to tell your story and others will tell it for you – with information that is incomplete or just plain wrong. Just like a paramedic must assess a victim’s injuries immediately and act quickly, you must gather all the facts you can and determine what you can tell the media.

Initially, your comments may express an attitude more than information: A commitment to find out what went wrong or cooperate fully with any investigation, concern about the wellbeing of victims, determination to make sure what went wrong never happens again.

•“Let’s say nothing and wait for it to blow over.”

Saying nothing is almost never the best response. The viewer or reader of the story will assume you said nothing because you have something to hide. If it’s a big enough crisis, chances are it won’t be over after the first story is written or aired. It is in your best survival interests to shorten the duration of the story cycle by getting all the bad news out at once, if you can. Sometimes called “the Big Dump,” releasing all the bad news at once may allow you to limit the damage from five or six (or more) bad stories to one, and will give you a better chance to manage how the story plays.

•“Get off my property!”

While it’s important to be assertive in telling your side of the story to the media, outright aggression is counterproductive and will backfire against you. If you have a hot head on your team, keep him or her away from the media. Assign someone to manage the media who is comfortable with reporters. Provide regular updates to the media so they know you will be a reliable information source.

More than ever, the media operates in an environment of immediacy: Stories break on media Web sites within hours after they happen, not in newspapers a day later. The news cycle is immediate and continuous. To prevent damage to your organizational reputation in this fast-moving environment:

• Get the facts quickly
  
• Compose a compelling, credible, sympathetic message
  
• Establish a spokesperson and regular lines of communication with the media
  
• Share your own bad news, put it in context and move on to the solution
  
• Tell your story quickly and assertively (not aggressively or defensively)
  
• Keep key constituents informed (employees, customers, allies, public officials)

You can survive a media crisis that threatens the very lifeblood of your organization, but only if you treat it like the time-sensitive emergency that it is and put the precious golden hours after a crisis to work for you.

Michelle Ubben is the chief operating officer at Ron Sachs Communications. She can be contacted at mubben@ronsachs.com or (850) 222-1996.