By Dr. Ray Begovich
Ray Begovich, EdD, is a veteran public relations professional and a former newspaper reporter. He is an Assistant Professor in the Pulliam School of Journalism at Franklin College.
Coaching Management, 9.7, October 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0907/press.htm
More than ever before, softball coaches at all levels must be media savvy. Because promoting the sport, your school, and your athletes has become increasingly important, knowing how to work with the media has become one more part of a coach's job description.
But how do you get more media coverage? And how do you get your positive message across to journalists? The following lists nine "drills", to ensure that you rack up media relations victories with every softball game win.
Drill 1: It's My Job
The first concept to embrace is this simple truth: Working with the media is part of my job. It's not some bizarre extra hassle that is occasionally and unfairly thrust upon me.
As with any part of your job, working with the media will have its ups and downs. There will be times when media coverage of your success will make you positively glow. Other times, however, you will wish you had a normal job that allowed your not-so-successful days to remain outside the public spotlight.
Coaching is not easy. There are many challenges that go along with the rewards. These days, coaches need to accept the fact that the challenges and rewards of working with the media simply go with the territory.
Drill 2: Lower the Frustration
Many coaches feel that sports journalists should only report what a coach wants to have reported--and, of course, always portray the coach and team in a positive light. This is unrealistic. The truth is: it's not a journalist's job to make you look good.
In journalism lingo, you are a news "source." As a source, you should rightfully expect and politely demand accuracy, fairness, and objectivity from a journalist--and that's it. A journalist's primary loyalty is not to a news source, but to readers (newspapers and magazines), viewers (television), or listeners (radio). And that means journalists sometimes report things they feel are important for their audiences to know, but that anger, disappoint, or even sadden news sources. You'll never lower your frustration level if you expect journalists to do only positive stories or to be cheerleaders.
Drill 3: Know Your Message
In political campaigns, public relations professionals exhort their candidates to "stay on message,"whether it's a message for a particular week or for an entire campaign. Coaches, too, should "stay on message"as much as possible.
Each time you deal with the media, you should have a message to share with the various "publics"you hope to inform. Such publics may include players, parents, administrators, fellow coaches and teachers, opposing teams, and fans. Remember that the media is not the real target of your message. The media is simply a conduit to your intended public audiences.
Coaches have to take time to develop the messages they wish to communicate to their publics. If you don't have a message ready when you do an interview for the local paper's game-preview story, you've missed your chance to get your message to thousands of people.
Now, what kind of message do you need to develop? As a coach, your message probably will vary from week to week, depending on how the season is going. Maybe it's a confidence-boosting message. Maybe it's a reality-check message. Maybe it's a rebuilding message. Maybe it's a things-aren't-as-bad-as-they-look message.
The particular message doesn't matter. What matters is that you work that message into the interview. Too often, interviewees think they have to wait for a reporter to ask the right question. And too often, that question never comes--in which case the door is closed on getting your message across.
Of course you can't be assured that the reporter will highlight your "message"or even include it in the story. But nine times out of 10, if you preface a statement with, "And what I feel most important is ..."you'll see it in tomorrow's story.
Drill 4: Keep Composure
I remember interviewing a basketball coach in a locker room just minutes after his team suffered a heart-breaking loss. He was crying, hard. The loss hurt. No doubt about it, his tears were justified. They could have become part of my story, and that would have been a justifiable, acceptable service to my readers.
I chose not to report that he was crying in the locker room. I felt that, in this particular situation, it didn't add any depth to the story and would simply have been humiliating to the coach. However, not all reporters would have looked at it the same way--another writer could easily have made the coach's tears part of the story.
Now, does his crying make him any less of a coach, any less of a man? Of course not. The point is that the crying coach lost a bit of control over what he was giving the media to report on.
The drill, here, is to practice getting and keeping your composure in tough situations. It will help ensure that the media reports on your words and message, and not on extraneous things about you, such as crying, slamming doors, or throwing clipboards.
The composure drill will come in handy not only after tough losses, but also in dealing with what you deem to be belligerent, unfair questions by a reporter. The best thing to do in such cases is to set the record straight, but not get mad. Be the cool, confident coach who is the epitome of a "class act."
Drill 5: No Whining
This drill is short and simple. It requires telling yourself over and over again that in media interviews, you will not blame your losses and misfortunes on anyone or anything. Not the officials. Not injuries. Not the crowd. Not the grueling schedule the wicked athletic director concocted. And especially, not on negative media coverage.
Drill 6: Be Accessible
For the "be accessible"drill, tell yourself this at least once a month: The five o'clock news goes on at five o'clock every night, with me or without me. I want it to be with me.
Journalism is a deadline-driven business. As a news source, you have to be willing to play the deadline game. It's a game with only one rule: A news source must be accessible to a journalist in the journalist's time frame, not the source's time frame. You, as a news source, want to come through for a journalist so that he or she has as much time as possible to meet a deadline.
Whenever I'm writing an article on a topic I've written about before, I remember those sources who came through for me on my previous deadlines. They are the most likely to get called again by me and the most likely to get coverage for themselves and their organizations. Sources who didn't come through for me on deadline are toast. I'll never try using them again unless I absolutely have to.
Being accessible also means giving journalists more than one way to reach you. It's generally a good idea for the reporter on your beat to have your home phone number and your cell phone number. This doesn't mean that you allow journalists to call you at all hours of the day or night. It's simply a recognition on your part that journalists do their work after most of the rest of the world has done its work. Journalists appreciate sources who provide after-hours access.
If a journalist does call you at home at a bad time to check a few facts for a story, just deal with it. However, if the call is a request for comments and quotes on a certain situation, it's okay to tell the reporter you're busy and that you'll call him or her back later. That will buy you a little time to get your thoughts together and develop some appropriate responses to likely questions. Then you can call the reporter back and, in most cases, still meet the deadline. The cardinal rule: If you promise to call a journalist back, do it.
Some coaches simply aren't going to get coverage for their teams unless they take the initiative to contact their local media with scores and game reports. Let's say you're at an away game. You've lost. It's late. You're tired. You don't feel like finding a phone and calling your local newspaper. But remember, it's part of the job. And you should want coverage, even after a loss. More important, you are maintaining a good relationship with your local reporters. They appreciate sources they can rely on.
Drill 7: Take Charge
The big problem you have in dealing with the media is that you're trained as an educator and coach, not a media spokesperson. The big advantage you have in dealing with the media is that you're trained as an educator and coach, not a media spokesperson.
As an educator and coach, you've already developed the communication skills you need to work well with the media: the ability to get your points across quickly and clearly; the ability to break complex subjects down into brief, cogent phrases; the ability to use analogies and examples to illustrate meaning. In other words, just be yourself during an interview--be a teacher, be a good communicator.
You also need to harness those skills as best you can to take charge of an interview. Yes, journalists always have the upper hand in this situation--you can't really control what they report or how they report it. But you can influence it.
You influence reporting by drawing attention to your key points in an interview and by providing your own context for questions or interpretations offered by the reporter. For example, to draw attention to your key points, you can say something like: "Well, I think the three important factors that affected the outcome of the game are ... "To provide your own context to a reporter's question or interpretation, you can say something like, "A more accurate way to look at it is ... "
Drill 8: Know the Journalist
Just as a journalist works to get to know as much as possible about a news source, you should learn as much as possible about a journalist who is interviewing you or covering your game. If you're lucky enough to have a reporter who covers you regularly as part of a beat, then you probably already know a lot about how the reporter does his or her work. The drill is to remind yourself to use that knowledge to your advantage.
For example, does the reporter who regularly covers you tend to misquote you? If so, then work on getting your message across to this particular journalist more clearly and carefully. (It is fair game to tell a reporter if you think you've been misquoted, but do so politely. Ask for a correction only when it's really important.)
Perhaps a certain journalist tends to call on very tight deadlines, possibly even while a story is half written and the deadline just minutes away. In this case, your knowledge of this journalist's practices will lead you to develop messages and quotes to keep handy--like an Old West gunslinger would keep a six-gun always ready for the quick draw.
If you have to deal with a reporter you don't know, try to find out something about him or her. One way is to recall if you've seen or read the reporter's work. What impression did that work give you? Maybe a coaching colleague has dealt with the reporter and can give you a few pointers.
Drill 9: Take It Easy on Yourself
One final, but important, drill is to always remember not to be too hard on yourself about how you perform in media interviews. Sometimes, you will make mistakes. You will say things that don't quite convey what you really mean. You will see things printed in the paper that you said, but really wish you hadn't.
Lighten up. Don't expect yourself to be perfect every time. Perfection doesn't happen in sports and it doesn't happen in media relations either. But, just as in sports, knowledge of the rules of the game and constant drilling on the fundamentals of how to work with the press will lead to more enjoyment of the process, more confidence in your performance, and more media relations wins for you.
A version of this story has also appeared in our sister publications, Coaching Management-Basketball, Coaching Management-Volleyball, and Coaching Management-Baseball.
sidebar one:
Extra Hints for Print
Some coaches read articles about their teams and are disappointed to find they were either quoted incorrectly or not enough. Those individuals will be happy to know that when it comes to giving a print interview, there are things you can do to help ensure your comments are reflected in black and white.
First, when conducting a print interview, consider altering your speech patterns to assist the reporter. For instance, slow down so that the reporter can take accurate notes. Journalists generally can write pretty fast, but they're not stenographers. You can help make stories accurate by talking slowly and clearly.
Second, make sure you pause if you think you've gotten off a phrase that you would particularly like to see quoted in the paper. If the journalist can't get the whole quotation down accurately, it won't appear in the story. Don't worry about awkward pauses in a print interview--after all, it's an interview, not a first date.
In addition, don't get nervous if a print reporter pulls out a tape recorder. Be glad. With a tape recorder, the reporter is more likely to quote you accurately.
sidebar two:
Extra Hints for TV
Here are some specific tips for coming across well on the tube:
€ Always look at the reporter, not the camera. The old saying is that only news anchors and used car salesmen are allowed to look directly into the camera.
€ Speak in brief, meaningful sentences--and, if at all possible, make time to practice what you want to say. If you make a mistake, correct yourself.
€ Be sure to work your main point into your first answer. If you wait for the reporter to ask you the right question, it may never come.
€ Control your body language and your demeanor. Be cordial, calm, confident--but not cocky.
€ Dress for message success. Don't wear clothing, makeup or jewelry that distracts a viewer from what you're saying and makes the viewer think, "Look at those huge earrings!"
€ Assume that any microphone anywhere near you is on and recording your words. Don't say anything before, during, or after an interview that you don't want broadcast on TV.