Have you swum in the sea this summer?
Despite Sunderland’s 2-1 loss today against Chelsea, we can’t help but wonder if Paolo Di Canio has gotten away lightly? The Comms team at Sunderland must be relieved that news of measles, tax and missiles overshadowed the media storm that seemed to be brewing following Tuesday’s press conference (marking his arrival at the club). Here in this short blog, Media First’s Sharon Francis takes a look at what went wrong.
There was a mild rumble that his first press conference wasn’t going to be completely plain sailing when David Miliband resigned from Sunderland’s board in light of Paolo’s alleged fascist beliefs. That’s Mr Milband’s personal decision you may think – no big deal. But, oh dear, it’s now become headline stuff following yesterday’s disastrous press conference. Di Canio chose to ignore the first rule of managing a rather boisterous room of journalists – don’t ignore the question. Dan Roan from the BBC asked him 3 times to clarify his position about whether he did hold fascist beliefs and 3 times Mr Di Canio refused to answer. The situation was compounded by Sunderland’s media officer present who struggled to prevent question after question about the new manager’s right wing leanings. In the end the embattled media person called time and ended the Q and A session rather abruptly. Just to add to the icing on the cake, Di Canio decided that rather than making a quick exit, he would continue to argue with the press pack as he was ushered out.
So dear reader, if you haven’t realised by now, this is NOT the way to go about handling your very first press conference. First of all you have to have a media officer who takes control from the start, not who pitches in half way through saying what the journalists can and cannot ask. Secondly, whoever the spokesperson is, they need to be well versed in what line they should take and stick to it. Plus, if they do get taken off message by those rather cheeky journalists it’s imperative that they know how to get the conversation back on track.
At Media First, because all our tutors are current working journalists, they know how to stretch your delegates, but in a safe training environment. We can put them through their paces so they know exactly what to expect, how to remain calm and yet still get the right message across. As the journalists kept asking Di Canio, you need to clarify your position straight away. They just wanted a clear message then they would have moved on to what the club probably really wanted the press conference to be about – football. Clarity, Consistency and Control are the watch words whenever your spokespeople have to deal with a press conference. It’s not rocket science but the key is to remember that the audience is not the journalists sitting right in front of you; it’s the viewers and listeners at home. It’s not worth picking an argument with them, much better to use them to communicate and connect with the world outside the room. This story could have been done and dusted in a couple of hours, instead it will now run and run for all the wrong reasons. Hopefully the rest of the comms team in the Sunderland press office have had a whip round for the beleaguered press officer and she is now surrounded by a mountain of chocolate!
