If you ask most organizations whether they're prepared to deal with the media, they'll give you a quick 'Yes' and, while they wouldn't necessarily be wrong, the chances they're as prepared as they need to be are slim.

Many have at least one or two spokespeople who have experience delivering your traditional PR interviews about things like product announcements, marketing campaigns, or new company initiatives, and that's a great start.

However, what often comes as a realization while your standard spokesperson is caught like a deer in headlights giving the entirely wrong answers is a reporter covering a "good news" story is a completely different beast from the one you'll see if you wind up at the center of a true crisis.

Crisis interviews call for a different set of skills, and a higher level of performance under stress, than your day-to-day media relations.

If you don't have your spokespeople practicing delivering terrible news, learning to bridging from dangerous topics to critical key messages, and ensuring they know how to take control of an interview when faced with a seasoned and aggressive reporter then they simply aren't media-ready.

Erik Bernstein
erik@bernsteincrisismanagement.com / www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com