Great article on handling a communications crisis by Abigail Kesner, a senior associate at SE2, a Colorado-based mass communications firm. I met Abigail earlier this month during a business trip to Denver. We discovered that both of us had worked for CNN, although not at the same time.
This section addresses a fundamental principal of crisis PR that companies sometimes forget:
“When responding to the media, be forthcoming, particularly with ‘bad’ news. You should deal with a crisis like you pull off a bandage: quickly. Suppressing information that will later come to light will jeopardize your relationship with the professional media and will ultimately be a negative. This is particularly true in today’s technology-driven 24-hour media cycle where not only traditional reporters, but also bloggers and citizen journalists will have access to distribution of information on a large scale.”
It’s a fast read and hits the mark!
