An interesting incident took place at work late yesterday afternoon. I was sitting at my desk reading a copy of MEDIAWEEK when a colleague came into the office to report on a meeting he had attended. He asked if I had time to chat with him and I told him I was reading an article and could he shoot back in ten minutes. He gave me the strangest look and then I realized that I had committed the most heinous workplace crime of all – reading while on the job.
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During my quick trip to Las Vegas, I’m glad someone was on fire watch at The Fire PIO desk. I want to thank Bill Carey at Fire EMS Blogs who does such fantastic work managing these blogs as well as well as websites for FirefighterNation.com/ Fire Rescue Magazine /JEMS.connect/JEMS.com LawOfficerConnect/LawOfficer.com.
The first piece Bill brought to my attention was written by Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post. It is about stressed newroom budgets and how reporters must multi task to get a story out.
As a PIO I always look for opportunity to educate the public as the result of a specific incident that my department responds to. When we have the first chimney fire of the year in the fall I usually float out to the media a story on chimney safety. Similar lessons to be learned are sent to the media after CO incidents, MVA’s, electrical fires etc. It’s a great way to let the public know about an incident and ultimately how it can be avoided.
I have recently read a number of articles about whether hard copy print materials should be distributed as freely as in the past. The volume of printed materials distributed by public service organizations is massive. Just think about how many department newsletters, brochures, and flyers go out to your community.
The question is if all this paper is really necessary? I think an assessment of your outreach materials is a good start. A summary of some of the tips I have culled are as follows -
