Let’s dive straight in.

Does your organisation have a media manager join your athletes and coaches (or other spokespeople) for every remote media interview?

If so, that’s a practice that will be done with really good intentions, including to:

• control the interview process
• support all parties 
• be across what’s said

But keep in mind that, when it comes to telling the stories of your organisation, you’re now pumping the brakes at the same time as trying to push the accelerator. 

The brakes are being hit hard because: 

• a third party being present greatly restricts when any interview can happen (as three schedules now need to align)
• only one interview (per media manager) can happen at a time, and 
• conversations are stifled (due to what’s been described to me as the presence of the ‘creep in the corner’)

 

The challenges of aligning schedules are really significant. For example, if only two parties need to be present for an interview, rather than three, the chances of finding a common available time skyrockets by 700%. (And that's based on the generous assumption of everyone having three hours of their day available). 

So, however good the intentions, such a system is fundamentally restrictive. 

And a restrictive system not only soaks up a lot of everyone’s time but it stifles storytelling.

 

Another approach to getting the job done

Because of the downsides of a restrictive approach, a number of high performance organisations went down a very different path. 

It’s taken them to the complete opposite end of the spectrum from restrictiveness, though. And they’ve ended up with media interview practices that are reckless. 

A reckless system is one where a communications representative isn’t present for media interviews, but circulates the personal contact details (such as mobile numbers) of athletes and other spokespeople throughout the media to ensure interviews happen. 

Again, this practice is full of good intentions, including to:

• provide smoother access for the media
• let communications reps get out of the way
• get more stories told

 

But the downsides are massive including that: 

• your spokespeople are now effectively on-call to the media 24/7 
• the personal contact details of your spokespeople are saved to media company databases and can be easily shared around
• organisations often have no record of whether interviews have happened or what’s been said 

 

On top of that, your organisation’s behaviour also now risks breaching privacy laws. 

That’s because to circulate the personal contact information of the people in your duty of care you must have their informed consent. But most people would not consent if they were informed.

Governments are advising everyone to tread very carefully in this space. And they’re heavily fining companies not meeting new standards. 

For example, in Australia, fines for privacy breaches are up to A$50m. (That’s following changes in national privacy laws after a data breach, by the telco Optus in September 2022, that impacted a third of the population).

GDPR has similarly altered the rules in Europe. 

And good intentions can’t override the downsides of a reckless system. 

That’s because reckless systems fundamentally can’t be controlled. 

 

A fresh take on promotion and protection

Now, if you were starting with a blank piece of paper, I suspect you'd be unlikely to design something like either of those systems above.

They both have clear and major downsides.

But they're highly likely to be what your communications department has inherited.

I inherited a reckless system at New Zealand Rugby League.

Because a group of us were so frustrated by the limitations of existing solutions, we set about creating a third option. One that would mean we could say goodbye to both restrictive and reckless practices.

We wanted to be able to easily get our stories told and take care of everyone involved.

You can hear from some of the communications departments that are operating with newfound confidence and control using that system here.

(They include reps from US Women’s Soccer, Port Adelaide Power, Tennessee Athletics, Cardiff City FC, Melbourne Victory and the New Zealand Police… )