Quick Tips for Dealing With Media

From Rick Naczi, CEO, American Dairy Association and Dairy Council

• Formulate up to three key messages, keep them short and simple, memorize them and repeat them throughout a media interview.
  
• Clearly state your key messages early in an interview. This helps you control the interview from the beginning. Don’t waiver from your messages.
  
• Stick to your agenda, control the interview and bridge to your key message in every answer (e.g., I can’t predict the future, but what I do know is …)
  
• Use your communication skills. Be lively and articulate and, during crisis times, show empathy.
  
• Use short sentences and be direct.
  
• Always make positive statements and don’t repeat the negative.
  
• If you don’t know the answer to a question offer to check on it and get back with the correct information.
  
• Always welcome an interview; it’s your opportunity to tell your side of the story. From Monica Novelle Coleman, director of communications for Dairylea Cooperative, Inc.
  
• When you don’t cooperate with a story, remember that the story will still be printed. So use the opportunity as a teaching moment to educate your neighbors, the public and the reporter.
  
• When you say “no comment” to a reporter, you lost an opportunity to educate. Plus the article will still be written, just without your ideas.
  
• Don’t apologize. For example, a reporter may say that neighbors find the smell of manure from your dairy farm unpleasant. Don’t apologize. Instead, welcome the reporter to your farm, and explain the money you spend to determine when to spread manure and how to spread it. Don’t close the interview without conveying that information.
  
• If a reporter asks an unrelated question or about another farmer, reply, “I can’t speak to that, but I can tell you my product is safe. We have …”
  
• Remember that you are never off the record. When talking to a reporter, never let your guard down, even after the camera is turned off.

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This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Financial Partner magazine. You can receive this FREE publication by clicking here.

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