Image Credit: (7News/Scott Abraham)
“Run It Like a Newsroom” was the first communications philosophy I named and then lived by after leaving the Channel 7 newsroom in Washington, DC for a police headquarters media relations office in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
The concept is simple – share your police department’s news much the same way a newsroom shares news with the public: Strive to be first, accurate, informative and when appropriate, engaging.
When we host our crisis communications training courses (like this one) or become a short-term or long-term communications consultant with a government agency, we advise leadership and lead communicators to follow the “Run It Like a Newsroom” philosophy. It’s easier said than done, but when it’s done right, it’s highly effective.
What does all of this have to do with a particular NFL team? The Washington Commanders have been dealing with multiple, significant public relations challenges in recent years. This isn’t news to any sports fan and even to many non-sports fans. The NFL is everywhere and news about a team or player tends to dominate the social media and traditional media landscape. In this case, when their attempt to do something good to pay tribute to a beloved player who was murdered 15 years ago became their latest PR problem.
Here’s where I’ll bring in my friend, a police public information officer in South Carolina who also happens to love the team. He sent me this article after we had a Twitter conversation over the Sean Taylor memorial this weekend.
Adam Myrick writes:
The Commanders got this one right. That’s a rarely used phrase in recent years. As a lifelong and passionate fan of the team, I’ve witnessed its blunders on the field. As a communication professional, I’ve cringed at some of its missteps off the field. This organization sent out a statement about a previous statement a few weeks ago. Never seen that before. But the Commanders were right all along on the Sean Taylor memorial, at least in what to call it. Weeks ago, the team said it would unveil a memorial installation to the late player. While the term “memorial installation” is clunky and nonsensical, it’s an admirable way of avoiding calling it a “statue.” I give the team credit for coining one term to avoid another. The tribute to Taylor is not a statue. It was never intended to be a statue. But a number of Washington-area reporters mistook “memorial installation” as “statue” and ran with it. The Commanders Wire article recaps what I saw brewing all along. Expectations weren’t matching up with terminology. I spent much of the day Sunday replying to people on Twitter with, “The team never said statue.” It was relieving to finally be able to point to something the team did right.
The Commanders were the source of their news. The media got it wrong, people on Twitter got it wrong, but the team had the accurate information out there in the public domain. It’s incumbent upon those who consume news and those who retweet it and repost it to check the true source first. As we advise government agencies to do, share your news consistently and accurately and become a trusted source of news.
