Kind of a strange post today that takes us to a world of public relations we never see. Last month I had a meeting with some of my staff to figure out ways to make our press presentation packages look better. We have outstanding brochures and flyers, but were lacking in ways to present customized materials.
Both in the Department, and in my regular job, budgets continue to get crunched so there is not much latitude to be creative if it increases cost. The big brainstorm was to get a machine that allows us to do spiral binding of presentation folders.
SnapStream Media is hosting a free live webinar on Thursday, June 3 at 12:30 pacific time. The main presenter will be SGT Tim Schmidt the PIO for the Anaheim Police Department.
Like in the movie Groundhog Day I have a situation that happens over and over again, in the same manner each June. My department hands out a number of scholarships to deserving students at the high school, I take pictures, submit them to the local paper and they never get printed.
There is an old adage in baseball that an umpire explaining his job once said “I calls em as I sees em.” Well it appears to me that if Justin Pizzi, a reporter at WCAU, the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia, was calling balls and strikes his career as an umpire would be over before it began.
I made an error. I sent releases to three community papers this past week about my recent department installation. I normally receive my subscription copies of these publications today.
We held our 102nd Installation of Officers this past Saturday night. I wrote a post on public perception of installations a few days ago. Contrary to popular belief we did not have to tap the nuclear arsenal to quell any disturbances in the community from rampaging firefighters.
What is it about blue lights? In New York State a blue light can be used by a firefighter responding to an alarm, but it serves strictly as an indication for another driver’s courtesy. The public does not have to yield. It seems blue lights have this hypnotic, mezmorizing effect that causes most motorists to become totally oblivious to your attempt to get to the fire house as quickly as possible while staying within the speed limit and rules of the road. Many doesn’t know exactly what to do, a number of sadistic drivers intentionally slow down, while a few good citizens actually yield.
I had the opportunity a few years back to visit Microsoft’s Home of the Future at their headquarters in Seattle. The “house” features what technology could possibly look like in the year 2019. It as very cool and I was privileged to be invited.
Towards the top of my “to do” list is a push to increase the number of generic photos in my files. Generic shots would include all of our apparatus, photos of Chiefs, training and fireground shots etc.
I was on the phone yesterday with a college president I know who asked me if I or anyone in my Fire Department ever encountered an “Ambush” journalist at the firehouse front door. She had been confronted by a TV consumer complaint investigative reporter who does a segment a few times a week about viewer problems. The reporter and camera crew were waiting for the president to arrive at work.
When most of us write incident report press releases for consumption by the public they are fact based with very little latitude for creative license. One way I “spice” up a release for the media is by offering quotes. I do this in a number of ways – by adding quotes into the body of the release, offering a number of quotes separate from the release at the bottom of the page or prepare a separate page to go along with the release that just contains lead-ins with the relevant quotes.
One of the areas on my Department website that I am not satisfied with is the Media Pressroom tab. I had information in the Pressroom, but was never really satisfied with the way it was presented. So, on this Monday, I present you with some of the items I will place on my retooled media area and look in return for your suggestions on administering a Pressroom on your website.
I wrote a post a few weeks’ backs about whether we, as PIO’s, are carrying the heavy load for the media in regard to supplying them with information from incident scenes. 
I have nothing against the late actor Cory Haim. I guess he was a soul tormented by substance abuses that lead to his premature death last week at age 38. Haim was Canadian, from Toronto, and his remains were brought back to the city of his birth for burial.
I often write in my posts about using photo captions or cutline’s to briefly explain a bigger story whether it is for your website or materials you are sending to the media. Often I prefer to send the media a captioned photo over a full release. Obviously for a significant incident a full release is warranted, but for many other activities such as Fire Prevention Day, citations, school visits etc., a captioned photo is effective and more likely to receive placement.
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.
There are many cycles when I am constantly sending releases and news to the media. If my department has a particularly busy run schedule, newsworthy assessment of the incidents quickly follow. There are other cycles though when alarms settle down and the flow of information to the media takes a brief hiatus. To avoid being out of sight, out of mind, I make sure that my department, especially in the local community newspapers, has placement at least twice a month. One way I do this is with news “fillers.”
A few months ago a fire took place in Smithtown, NY where I serve as the fire departments PIO. It was as routine as a small working fire could be. A heavy rainstorm caused a neon sign in the window of a nail salon to catch fire after water leaked through the plate glass seal. The fire was quickly knocked down and we headed for home.
When I speak to the media at an incident scene I have learned to push home my key points by being overly repetitive to a reporter’s questions. I learned this technique several years ago at Connections Day, a conference run every year by the Fair Media Council on Long Island, from a utility company public affairs executive I was having lunch with.
Every profession has their own jargon. If we can use “deuce and a half,” set of irons,” “knock down” and “job” why can’t television newsrooms use “VOSOT” and “VOSOTVO?”
Yesterday I reported on the story out of Las Vegas where public discontent was directed at the Fire Department due to citizen observation of full apparatus crews with their rigs parked in front of area health clubs. Firefighters, backed by current regulations, are required to workout 90 minutes a day. Department members can either work out with limited equipment in quarters or pay for their own membership and use a public gym. It is an interesting story that I will continue to follow.
