p. 1

[close]

p. 2

working with public information officers a supplement to explaining research how to reach key audiences to advance your work dennis meredith www.explainingresearch.com glyphus llc

[close]

p. 3

copyright 2010 by dennis meredith published by glyphus llc 4159 summit road purlear nc 28665 www.glyphus.com all rights reserved no part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise without the prior permission of glyphus llc meredith dennis working with public information officers isbn 978-0-9818848-4-4 1 communication 2 science 3 research to order additional copies visit www.workingwithpios.com

[close]

p. 4

contents 1 a sales rep or a pio/journalist 1 5 5 6 7 9 13 13 15 16 17 19 20 21 23 26 2 pios in different institutions face different issues academic pios enjoy the most freedom federal laboratory pios work within a bureaucracy government agency pios cope with politics well duh corporate pios work within a business mission 3 how pios can help you as an editorial and media relations expert as an institutional ambassador as an educator as a hard questioner 4 get to know your pio questions to ask a pio questions not to ask a pio 5 how to help your pio make hard news releases easy

[close]

p. 5

iv working with public information officers bring the feature story to life understand the difference between media relations and public relations take no for an answer advocate for your pio build communications into your budget commend your pio involve pios in administrative meetings propose communications training embed your pio 6 work with pios outside your institution 28 29 30 30 31 31 31 32 32 35 35 37 40 42 45 47 48 48 pios at journal publishers and scientific societies pios at your funding agency pios with companies and commercial agencies when pios synergize to publicize 7 understand embargoes pro and con make sure internal media observe the embargo avoid arbitrary embargoes do post-embargo releases references available online at www.workingwithpios.com

[close]

p. 6

1 a sales rep or a pio/journalist public information officers pios can be invaluable allies in your communication efforts they can offer expert help and give you access to the communications machinery to reach the media and other important audiences this guide aims to help you develop the most productive relationships with pios whether they are in your institution at a journal in a scientific society or in your funding agency pios come in two basic models the sales rep pio and the pio/journalist although any particular pio might have characteristics of both the pio/journalist is far more effective and credible than the sales rep pio so understanding the difference between the two is important because it affects the credibility of your research communication to the media and your other audiences a sales rep pio like other salesmen hawks his or her product your research with little consideration of its true substance or appropriate audiences the sales rep pio usually concentrates more on pitching stories indiscriminately to media and less on thoroughly understanding and explaining your research and targeting communications a sales rep s news releases tend to be essentially advertisements peppered with subjective terms like breakthrough and major discovery as a result they have less credibility with all your audiences and not just the media 1

[close]

p. 7

2 working with public information officers the sales rep also believes that the media are by far the most important if not the only targets for news releases however as is discussed in chapter 2 of explaining research a news release has a multitude of uses as internal communications as statements of record as alerts to other researchers and so on sometimes media are really secondary targets of news releases you will recognize when a sales rep pio enters your laboratory when he or she shows only a rudimentary knowledge of your research the sales rep pio will talk more about the media pitches for your story than the substance of your work he or she will talk of placing stories as if salesmanship rather than the quality of the news generates media coverage you might also hear the thud of name-dropping when the sales rep talks about top reporters or major media he or she will target sales rep pios are notorious for spamming reporters with news releases that do not interest them says new york times science writer sandra blakeslee science writers are bombarded by information most of which can be deleted or tossed in the waste basket the detritus is staggering despite all efforts to convince them otherwise many public information officers still send news of promotions campus news badly written press releases or story ideas on subjects completely uninteresting to you some are pests they send regular reminders that they sent you something months ago and wonder if you are still interested some are vaguely shmoozey just checking in to see what kinds of stories you might be looking for such spamming in fact reduces the chances that legitimate stories from your institution will be seen by journalists the sales rep pio often fails to realistically assess the significance of research from his or her institution pitching it relentlessly to media regardless of its importance or even legitimacy tom siegfried editor of science news and long-time newspaper journalist recalls how sales rep pios from one unnamed university notoriously repeatedly would complain to higher-ups in the newspaper that coverage wasn t what they expected it to be from not having it on the front page when it should have been to not putting three different titles for a researcher in the story [who has multiple affi liations such harassment is guaranteed to alienate not only science journalists but their editors sales rep pios love the telephone they especially aggravate reporters by telephoning them to pitch stories or to ask whether the reporter has received a release most journalists intensely dislike such calls unless they are about a truly important breaking story that the journalist might otherwise miss they

[close]

p. 8

a sales rep or a pio/journalist 3 prefer that pios selectively email them releases that are reliably significant and well-written so they know that such releases are worth reading so you know you are working with a sales rep pio if he or she boasts of extensively phone-pitching your release or widely distributing a routine release on your grant or promotion unfortunately media-naïve administrators tend to find sales rep pios appealing because of their aggressive indiscriminate pitching the administrators perceive sales reps as effective and dynamic whereas journalists pejoratively dub them flacks in contrast says uc san diego pio kim mcdonald the pio/journalist rather than being a pitchman for the institution aims to be more of a resource for the journalists and let them make their own conclusions about the stature of your institution not shove it down their throats by saying look how great we are we have done this and this if you act like a reporter within your institution you understand exactly what is going on and you know the kinds of stories that would interest news media then you can become more effective long-term a pio/journalist concentrates on the substance of your research he or she will show up in your laboratory having studied the background material on your work formulated cogent questions and with plans to do a comprehensive story that fulfi lls all the communications objectives of a news release the best pio/journalists will have a substantive general knowledge of the fields he or she covers so while a pio/journalist might ask you to explain a particular technical point about your work he or she will know the basics of your field however a pio/journalist will remain strategically dumb says catherine foster formerly media relations manager at the argonne national laboratory that is the pio/journalist will ask leading questions aimed at eliciting the most effective lay-level explanation of your work if you keep pushing scientists to answer `what does that mean `how do you know you do get a better story says foster a pio/journalist will skillfully manage an interview to use your time efficiently and to get you talking says johns hopkins pio joann rodgers a veteran journalist i never walk into the company of a scientist like the high school kid who calls up the newspaper reporter and says i have to do a term paper on x can you tell me everything you know about

[close]

p. 9

4 working with public information officers that i always have a purpose i tell them what i am after and i have a hypothesis scientists like hypotheses as a journalist i learned that even if my hypothesis is dead wrong it gets the conversation started besides knowing your work a pio/journalist understands the work of the other researchers in his or her institution and how it fits into the field such knowledge gives the pio/journalist an authority with media that pays off for example san francisco chronicle science editor david perlman cites uc berkeley s robert sanders as an example of a savvy pio/journalist if i call up bob and ask who i should talk to about space or any other topic and if he tells me who i should talk to i damn well talk to them certainly a good pio/journalist will have a touch of the sales rep he or she will develop a strategy to pitch your story to reporters but in a realistic professional way says perlman they know what really makes a story for either general reporters or any specific reporter with whom they are engaged in trying to peddle a story they know the particular reporters and what their interests are if they do know that there is a major breakthrough for the year then they need to know how not to oversell it but to let you know that this a lot more important than you may think for example perlman cites university of colorado s jim scott as a pio journalist who knows how to pitch maybe a couple of times a month he will call me because they have a press release that is going to be emailed to me and i might be interested in it he never once [called me about a press release that isn t a story he is impeccable that way what s more a good pio/journalist keeps track of the hottest media topics of the moment says perlman anybody who has a good yarn that requires the use of the word `evolution i ll fall for it every time that is because it is a cause now the woeful problem of teaching evolution in schools with the rise of intelligent design and creationists a fi nal hallmark of a pio/journalist is membership in the national association of science writers or the american medical writers association to encourage pio/journalism those associations publish newsletters and organize conferences that promulgate good communications practices.

[close]

p. 10

2 pios in different institutions face different issues all pio/journalists share the same professionalism however they may function differently depending on the type of institution they are in universities national laboratories government agencies or corporations some examples of those differences academic pios enjoy the most freedom pios at universities and at academic-type institutions such as nih typically have more latitude to cover research than do those at the national laboratories or corporations they can usually choose the people and stories based on their significance and interest to audiences this basic freedom arises in part because although university pios answer to their vice presidents those vice presidents ultimately answer to the faculty however university pios sometimes face political pressures to concentrate on a particular research program department school or laboratory because the administration decides it needs to be covered a research program might be at a critical funding juncture or an administrator might want coverage 5

[close]

p. 11

6 working with public information officers of a school or department to mollify a dean or department chair who complains of neglect pios in medical centers compared to their university counterparts operate under more formal restrictions for one thing the health insurance portability and accountability act hipaa severely restricts public disclosure of information about patients and in communicating their animal research medical centers must take into account the threat of destructive actions by animal rights extremists thus medical centers have rigorous policies governing how animal research can be publicized federal laboratory pios work within a bureaucracy pios at the federal laboratories work within a more complex bureaucracy than do those at universities for example news releases from federal laboratories must usually be approved up a chain of command all the way to the nationallevel administration such approvals can sometimes be complex catherine foster recalls the approval situation at argonne national laboratory where she was media relations manager argonne is under the doe office of science but if we had a research project funded by the office of energy efficiency renewable energy also part of the doe we had to get approval from both offices for a release an adept federal laboratory pio/journalist can navigate such political mazes in order to do justice to good research so if your pio is sympathetic to your cause strategize with him or her about the best way to work the system to communicate your research bureaucratic interference with a government pio s function can do more damage than simply complicating news release approval for example national public radio science reporter joe palca recalls when the reagan administration instituted a stunningly restrictive rule on press contacts in the mid-80s the reagan administration had put in a policy that said no nih scientist could talk to the national media without approval not from nih but from hhs headquarters recalls palca nih pio ann thomas `was apoplectic because in the world we work in you pick up the phone and you talk with the researcher he says thomas considered a consummate professional did the best she could to lessen the rule s impact she admitted it was a completely indefensible policy and they would pass through requests as quickly as possible she said `this is the way things are right now and we are frustrated this is a bad time for us but this is the policy that candor and display of journalistic understanding ultimately worked in

[close]

p. 12

pios in different institutions face different issues 7 nih s favor says palca we said `god bless you and in my opinion she won all the credibility she needed at that moment in some cases federal laboratory pios will take significant risks to buck such interference foster recalls when a doe press secretary instituted a rule requiring media calls to any doe laboratory to be cleared through her a major headache considering the number of laboratories and the volume of calls we all ignored it and she didn t like it but we took the mindset that we will be here after you are gone our relationships with the reporters with whom we work with are more important to us than whatever power you have right now that was a very risky attitude to take but it was one we had to take and fortunately we took it unanimously government agency pios cope with politics well duh pios at many government agencies in washington d.c work within an even more restrictive communications environment they are often required to clear all media requests for interviews up a sometimes torturous and politicized chain of command they typically sit in on media interviews an unusual practice at universities and they work under policies that can change with each change in leadership leah young is a veteran journalist and government pio whose career included extensive service at the substance abuse mental health services administration samsha she recalls the political complexities of government agencies a pio or a scientist coming into an agency really has to know what he is going to be allowed to say whether he is going to be able to speak his mind within normal limits or whether he will be tightly controlled government agencies may be staffed with politically-appointed pios who have little or no journalistic experience says young thus scientists in such agencies should develop their own media relations skills political-appointee pios may unfortunately promulgate a cult of personality around the director who appointed them sometimes to the detriment of the agency for example the pio may try to sell journalists on interviewing the agency director on a story even when researchers are the real experts on the topic young recalls one such instance when samsha was working with hbo on a series on drug abuse my boss insisted that they were only going to talk to the administrator not the head of the center for substance abuse treatment who was an m.d j.d m.p.h and really knew his stuff on treatment

[close]

p. 13

8 working with public information officers however because the director did not contribute any significant insights his interview was cut from the documentary which instead featured experts from other federal drug abuse research and treatment agencies so we totally missed the opportunity because there was this determination that they should only interview the administrator says young such political interference with media relations can mean more than lost media opportunities it can also block the flow of critical information to the public christopher jensen of the new york times reported an egregious example of such interference at the national highway traffic safety administration in 2007 nhtsa administrator nicole r nason a political appointee decreed that without special permission nhtsa officials were forbidden to provide information to reporters except on a background basis as a result of this stricture jensen was not allowed to talk to an nhtsa safety official on the record in fact jensen was told that instead he could interview only nason on the record i declined failing to see how her appointment as administrator she was trained as a lawyer made her an expert in that subject wrote jensen the agency s new policy effectively means that some of the world s top safety researchers are no longer allowed to talk to reporters or to be freely quoted about automotive safety issues that affect pretty much everybody another notorious example of such political interference was the efforts of nasa s public affairs office under the george w bush administration to distort and suppress scientific information on global warming an investigation by nasa s inspector general s office found that the public affairs office suppressed news releases on global warming and limited the media access of prominent climatologist james hansen the nasa inspector general s office s report concluded that our investigation found that during the fall of 2004 through early 2006 the nasa headquarters office of public affairs managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced marginalized or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public through those particular media despite such political roadblocks says young pio/journalists at government agencies are nevertheless motivated to help the media both for the good of their own agency and for the good of the public it is important especially for agencies that are not well known to get the name of your organization out to give taxpayers a reason to want to fund you also many times when i was at samsha the reporter calling me would be the crime reporter and not the health reporter to me it was extremely important for that reporter to understand

[close]

p. 14

pios in different institutions face different issues 9 that substance abuse in itself is not criminal behavior it is a disease and it is a mission at samsha to get that across because preventing the spread of substance abuse can be most effective if it is treated as a public health issue and to get that across the people who are able to speak to the press have to be the experts corporate pios work within a business mission ideally pios at corporations are deeply integrated into the business goals of the company says seema kumar vice president of global r&d communications at johnson johnson pharmaceutical research and development what i find truly fascinating about the corporate environment is how communications objectives are driven by the strategic objectives of the organization she says of corporate communications such an orientation profoundly affects how pios communicate science communications within the pharmaceutical industry is more focused and lower volume than the science communications that is done in academe says kumar whose experience has included work at newspapers universities government and research institutes in contrast to academe or government where all published research results and advances are communicated says kumar science communications in corporations focuses on research that is translational and aligned with the corporate strategy and goals for example in the early discovery phase of drug research more can be openly discussed she says but as the drug progresses through early and late development we have to be careful with how much information we can disclose due to business considerations such as the protection of intellectual property and competitive information and regulatory restrictions on claims we can make or market disclosure requirements also by nature research and development pipelines are capricious compounds fall in and out of the pipeline and you are accountable for any expectations you set about a compound s promise however early you don t want to over-promise and under-deliver additionally the pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated and we have to stay within certain parameters although in academia we could speculate and predict what a basic science discovery or a new finding on a compound could mean for a particular disease we cannot make unsubstantiated claims in the corporate environment and we have to calibrate anything new we say against past information we have shared with reporters analysts investors and the public

[close]

p. 15

10 working with public information officers even with such strategic restrictions an effective corporate pio/journalist knows how to highlight the company s research says kumar in r&d communications we are less likely to tell stories about the `gene of the week and more likely to tell stories about trends we may tell stories about whether personalized medicine is hype or hope about the changing landscape of clinical trials or about scientific innovation taking place in emerging regions corporate pios provide their researchers more substantial communications guidance and support than is usual in universities or federal laboratories says kumar for example she says it is not enough for a corporate researcher to know just how to explain complex science in understandable terms or how to handle tough questions that is necessary but not sufficient says kumar corporate researchers must also know how to manage the sensitive questions about related topics such as pricing cost reimbursement and policy for example and to ensure the researchers are prepared corporate pios provide more substantial media training and speaker training to help researchers cope with the controversies they are likely to encounter especially in the pharmaceutical industry the pharmaceutical industry has faced many challenges over the years the science is often very complex the timelines are long and there are multiple regulatory restrictions about what is communicated when and how thus says kumar corporate media training has to do with ensuring that what a researcher says about his or her work is characterized correctly that statements are appropriately balanced that he or she is able to talk around regulatory and legal restrictions without sounding evasive and that the researcher is prepared for questions about the benefit-risk ratio pricing access or the safety and side effects of compounds importantly says kumar corporate pios help researchers with executive coaching on internal as well as external communications carefully considered internal communication can enhance employee morale maintain motivation among researchers and promote the internal transparency that is critical to problem solving when you have an organization of 8,000 people you need to ensure that all employees feel committed to the overall mission and vision and that they are all moving in the same direction this is particularly important in the r&d world says kumar because scientists typically are not the type to `toe the party line and you need not only to win their hearts but their minds you have to articulate a compelling strategy for what we want to accomplish and let the scientists figure out the best scientific way to meet that strategy she says that ensuring that there is an environment that encourages scientific creativity and innovation while channeling that creativity to an overall grand challenge like curing cancer or aids that every scientist

[close]