After a short stay at this URL, Sports PR Blog has moved to its own domain.
I didn’t want to buy my own domain until I decided I had enough time to keep it updated on a consistent basis. I have enjoyed discussing sports PR so much that I have moved it to its own domain and gave it a fresh re-design as well. Please switch it in your RSS feed reader and I look forward to seeing you there!
Yesterday, I highlighted the negative impact that newspaper staffing cuts are having on the NHL. Well, a new policy this season regarding the disclosure of player injury information has been agreed upon by the league’s general managers in their June meeting. Unfortunately, PR personnel from across the league had no say in the matter and a former VP of media relations for the NY Islanders, Chris Botta, is unhappy with the results of the GM vote.
Another one: commentators will wonder why the National Football League does full disclosure on injuries, but the NHL can’t.
Just wait til a major market writer decides to use a reliable source to make his own season-ending injury announcement about a star player. Oh, I pray the confrontation is in a locker room hallway where I’m standing.
From a PR perspective, this is a bad move that will only help frustrate the fans and media. Jamie, a commenter at NYI Point Blank, responded to Chris’ comments with the following (and I couldn’t agree more):
This is NOT helpful to the PR pros out there, who, in my experience usually are the ones lobbying the coach / GM / Doctors to give the ok to servicing the media. I get the whole injury thing, but there are ways to help the media tell the story without painting a target on a guy. This is just going to strain media relationships for a league that NEEDS some media coverage.
The Newsday blog also makes some valid arguments on this policy including one that acknowledges it’s not a very fan friendly policy at that.
He was smiling, but general manager Garth Snow’s policy forbids discussing injuries in detail, and NHL general managers apparently have endorsed this policy. The idea is to prevent the opposition from knowing an opponent’s injuries, and it also allows GMs to hide injuries when they are trying to trade a player. The downside for the player, in addition to being forced to be less than honest with reporters, is that fans don’t know when a player is struggling to play through an injury. For instance, Mike Comrie was listed with the flu for one game last season when he actually was out with a hip injury that required surgery.
Chris Botta thinks that the GMs will have to revisit this policy by Christmas. As fans of the game, let’s hope he’s right. At the very least, make sure that fans know if the injury is enough to keep a player out of the game. They deserve to know who is healthy enough for the line-up and this policy could drive fantasy hockey players mad.
Almost two weeks ago, I blogged about the decline in print media and how that would impact sports PR professionals. Soon thereafter, word came out about how the troubled economy was affecting coverage of the NHL.
Greg over at Puck Daddy argues that the biggest concern should not be whether the LA Times just cut its only staffer who covered a certain team, but the column inch space that the team receives. His reasoning is as follows:
Pick up a local paper in any city and look at the bylines. Many mid-sized dailies are regurgitating wire copy for game stories for many sports, to go along with the opinion pieces people are picking up the paper to read.
The NHL should be more concerned with its real estate in the sports section than whether someone local is flying from Miami to Vancouver for a game story, or if someone from the local paper is staying for both days of the draft. There needs to be stories covering these events. That’s essential.
If there isn’t an AP story and a photo for every Panthers game in the Palm Beach Post … well, that’s reason for concern. It’s the same concern that should be felt if the local news stops showing highlights.
And who decides the amount of newspaper ink dedicated to a certain team? The editor. Take the Philadelphia Inquirer for example.
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s long-time hockey writer, Tim Panaccio, accepted a buyout after he was taken off the Flyers beat and assigned to cover the Philadelphia Eagles. Panaccio says he was told by the newspaper’s sports editor, Jim Cohen, that hockey was “an irrelevant sport” and that in Philadelphia, the Eagles “far outweighed anything else.”
Panaccio was replaced on the Flyers beat by a former high school sports reporter who was the Philadelphia Phillies’ backup reporter.
Philadelphia is among the NHL’s leading U.S. markets.
If that’s not enough, the LA Times will only have one beat reporter covering the LA Kings AND the Anaheim Ducks. Plus, this reporter will be unable to regularly attend either teams’ road games.
A recent Portfolio blog post explains how the NHL could be the league of the Internet and in my humble opinion, they need to be. They are seemingly on the losing end of the newspaper staff and coverage cuts and former NY Islanders VP of Media Relations even calls it a crisis. The Portfolio bloggers proposal? Allow fans to view NHL games streaming online for free, but with ads. He even adds that the games should be stored like Hulu so that if a fan misses the game or the first 30 minutes of a game, they can watch it online. While that’s not going to happen right away, it does appear that the NHL is taking steps in the right direction.
Additionally, the NHL seems to have more blogger-friendly teams. However, the league has incredibly blogger-friendly teams with developed policies and then other teams that ignore blogs like they don’t exist. While the NHL can’t force teams (to my knowledge) to provide press pass access to bloggers, it would be a good idea for the league to encourage teams to foster relationships with team bloggers. Now some popular teams don’t have room in the press box for bloggers, I understand that. But perhaps bloggers could be added to the press release e-mail list for starters or allowed to attend press conferences and practices. It doesn’t have to be crazy if your team is pleased with its press coverage, but it can’t hurt to reach out to the hockey blogosphere because down the road your team may wish they had already done so.
According to a recent article in the Calgary Herald, forward Craig Conroy is the media’s go-to guy when it comes to the Calgary Flames. His first television interview apparently wasn’t go so hot in high school, but he has since matured and is now known for being willing to talk whether it’s after a loss or a win. The reporters appreciate his bluntness and the fact that he tends to avoid the typical hockey post-game cliches and actually offers up something unique and noteworthy for their article.
So, as one of the poster boys for media relations, what, pray tell, is his philosophy?
“You guys are doing a job,” says the 37-year-old.
“Sometimes you write bad things about me, sometimes good things, but that’s what it is. It’s your job. And I know when I play bad. I’ve never had a problem with the media. I don’t take anything personally. I don’t feel that anyone’s out to get me.
“I just come in and I try to tell the truth, whether I’m in favour of something or not. As long as everything’s fair, then I’m comfortable with it.”
So it’s not surprising then that in the required media training for NHL youngsters, Conroy is used as an example. Specifically, it’s his minute and a half post-game remarks following a Game 7 win in 2004 in Vancouver. Oh, he also had a “mouthful of stitches.”
“Ah, I was too excited in that interview — it was too long,” says Conroy, chuckling. “I was pretty excited, I was rambling as usual. Just very, very excited about that whole game. The highs and lows of it.”
But that clip — which is still a treat to watch — contains a valuable lesson.
“It’s OK to show emotion. It’s OK to be happy,” he says. “Rather than just going” — he affects a comically uncharacteristic monotone — ” ‘Oh, that was a great game.’ I was smiling and having a good time. I really enjoyed it. People can feel that.”
From a PR perspective, you want to make your beat reporters happy and having a go-to media guy makes your job easier. And as Conroy says, it’s totally fine to show emotion. Just because you’re a hockey player doesn’t mean you have to give the same answers in the same vocal tone day in and day out. If a player can inject some of his personality into his quotes, you’ll find his remarks making the articles. And while the athlete may not understand it, having a visible personality can help build his personal brand.
I know when Sidney Crosby came to Detroit for the Stanley Cup Finals last season, he had a press conference after every practice and game. No other player did that. He didn’t have to and it had to be a pain in the butt for him. But as the face of the team and even the league, he did it to better the sport and the reporters appreciated that. Now I’m not saying Crosby is the most personable interviewee, but at least he makes himself available.
Conroy is the media go-to guy because he’s not only available, but honest and shows some emotion. It makes the athlete more real and less robotic, which is what readers want to see in the sports section. I know it’s hard for players to commit to doing things to help the team outside of playing hockey. They don’t get a lot of time at home and when they are at home, they don’t want to be doing odds and ends for the team. That being said, being a tad more open and even emotional would do wonders in assisting reporters after a game and it doesn’t add more time/responsibilities to their day. Sometimes I feel bad for the beat reporters as they face an impending deadline and they were given quotes saying the same old basic remarks they’ve literally heard hundreds of times. Note to players: open up a bit!
Thanks to former Procter & Gamble brand manager Darcy Raymond, the Tampa Bay Rays have been given a makeover this season and it appears to be working. He has used P&G brand mantras like the five critical brand pillars and other philosophies to help turn the team brand around.
So what changes did they make? First, they removed Devil from the team name and created a new logo including a color change (from green to blue). The team then used focus-group research to make a list of 30 consumer touch points that they can use to measure consumer satisfaction (known as fan experience in the sport business). As the VP of branding and fan experience, measuring the consumer’s satisfaction is crucial so these touch points are essential to his work. It also doesn’t hurt that the team has made a significant jump in the MLB standings. After finishing last in the league, the team improved largely thanks to the efforts of its young players and made the playoffs.
Rays executives said past “worst-to-first” teams have also experienced a one-year lag effect between when a team improves dramatically and when ticket sales follow suit. “With consumer package goods, you can pretty much dictate everything about the product,” said Darcy Raymond, the team’s VP-branding and fan experience, who joined the franchise as a consultant in 2006, shortly after it was acquired by former Goldman Sachs managing partner Stuart Sternberg. “But in this world, the media controls so much of what gets said, so it’s a little different.”
Sports and politics are known for generating passion in its fans and even the reporters themselves. Unlike most brands, teams have fans that are willing to paint themselves for games and even get tattoos with the team’s logo. As a result, it is certainly a lot harder to have a say in the discourse about your brand. From a PR perspective, I would suggest that the team continues to reach out to publications like Advertising Age to get coverage on this change in brand image resulting in increased business sales. Publications such as BrandWeek and Sports Business Journal may be interested outlets.
InternshipRatings.com recently posted some comments from Paige Novack, a PR specialist with Major League Baseball. She briefly discussed being a female in what is usually shown as a male dominated field and what to work on in your sports PR internship.
At Major League Baseball, a strong interest in the field you are applying in, solid organizational skills, and the ability to juggle multiple projects at once are all qualities we value in an intern. As an intern, you are there not only to assist with projects as needed, but you are there to gain a basic understanding of the business and learn where your strengths and passions lie. During your months as an intern, you should also take time to carefully observe the atmosphere and working culture within your company, and throughout the industry. When choosing your career path it is important not only to consider if you will feel passionate and invigorated by your job, but it is also equally as important to consider if you will be content and fulfilled by the lifestyle that career will bring.
Newspapers are struggling. They are laying off hundreds of reporters, cutting pages, and losing advertising dollars. Just earlier this month, the NY Times announced that they are merging the Business and Sports sections on Tuesdays through Thursdays. The paper says that the actual coverage will not be cut and that this move is just to reduce printing costs. While the NYT may not be cutting sports coverage yet, other print properties are and that has teams and leagues scrambling for ways to keep their property in the media spotlight.
Not only are papers shrinking in size, but papers can no longer afford to send sports reporters and columnists to the big events each year. Instead, they have to rely on wire services or newspaper groups will send just one reporter to an event and use his/her work for all the papers within the group. These developments have sports PR departments everywhere adjusting to how they operate whether it’s reaching out to bloggers, improving offerings on team/league websites, assisting with travel costs, etc.
According to a recent Sports Business Journal article, NASCAR officials are trying to make it easier for reporters to cover their events without actually being in attendance. Their media website includes video interviews with drivers after weekly races and offers conference calls with its drivers every Tuesday.
The NHL is another league that really understands the digital realm and has been the first league to partner up with unique digital ventures like Slingshot and a fantasy hockey league with Yahoo! Sports. So I wasn’t surprised to read the following quote in the article:
“There is a new universe in news coverage – the people who used to be able to write one story if they were lucky can blog 20 times per day,” said Frank Brown, group vice president of media relations at the NHL and a former reporter for the New York Daily News. “You can make the argument that the fan is being better served and more currently served in real time by te evolution and the [Web] coverage.”
I think the two most important things leagues and teams can do to boost their media coverage, especially those smaller leagues, is (1) reach out to bloggers and (2) increase their offerings on their media website to make it easier on reporters. For example, transcribing post-game scrum interviews and quickly providing them to reporters on-site and posting them to the media website would certainly help reporters and bloggers with their work. When you’re in a locker room, you only have a certain amount of time to talk to players. What if you missed a key quote from a player who you didn’t get to talk to? An interview transcription would help ease reporters’ concerns that they missed something important.
People are continually turning to the Internet for its news and sports are a large portion of that. Whether it’s visiting ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, Deadspin, AOL FanHouse, or a smaller blog, sports fans are increasingly turning to digital offerings for their sports news. If you are a team or league that is noticing a decrease in print coverage, turn to those who are talking about you online. For example, the Washington Capitals were unhappy with the amount of print articles they were getting in local papers so they developed a blogging policy and extended invitations to Caps bloggers to cover their team from the press box. I’m not suggesting that you allow every interested blogger access to your team’s media site or the players after the game. I think if you open your team or league up to the right digital websites and blogs, you will get the coverage you want and it’s by people who have already demonstrated an interest in you!
As the New York Giants and Mets recently learned, public vetting is needed before signing a naming rights deal with any company. Not only have past deals harmed a team’s PR (think Enron and the Houston Astros), but the possibility of a potential naming rights deal with Allianz, a German-based insurer, understandably angered fans and the deal was dead later that week.
An article in the Sports Business Journal compared a naming-rights deal to that of selecting a vice presidential running mate. And what are the two key rules? Do no harm and “nothing vets like the process.” Well, the NY Times reported the possible deal in an NFL notes column on September 1. Perhaps that information was leaked before the Giants and Jets had time to properly vet Allianz, but we just don’t know.
Okay, so why is Allianz such a bad idea for these New York teams? As NY Times‘ Richard Sandomir wrote:
“Allianz insured facilities and personnel at concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau. Kurt Schmitt, its chief executive in the 1930s, served as Hitler’s second economics minister and can be seen in a photograph from a rally wearing an SS-Oberfuhrer’s uniform and delivering the Nazi salute with Hitler standing in front of him. Like other insurers in Germany at the time, Allianz followed anti-Semitic policies by terminating o refusing to pay off the life insurance policies of Jews, and sent cash that was due beneficiaries and survivors to the Nazis. It also became the insurer of Jewish valuables taken by the Nazis.”
An editor at Forbes blogged about this very issue and ponders why Allianz was such a big deal when other companies could be seen to have similar historical implications.
But the boycott and death of the Allianz sponsorship begs the question: What about other sports related deals with companies that have ties to governments that have committed atrocities in the past? …
Why stop at stadium naming rights?
Mercedes-Benz, a huge part of the Hitler war machine, sponsors the NBA, NFL and PGA golf tournaments. Should the auto maker be given the boot? There is a lot in a name—both money and emotion—when it comes attached to a property that will be given enormous attention. But shouldn’t the rules be applied evenly?
As this Forbes’ article discusses, naming-rights are big money for teams and help pay for these expensive new stadiums. Team executives need to not only consider if the financial deal is worthwhile, but they also need to consider any potential negative PR implications.
I mentioned in an earlier post that the Orlando Magic were no longer offering hard copy media guides to their season ticketholders. Well, just a few weeks ago the NHL modified its media guide policy effective immediately. In the past, each team had to send X number of their guides to the league and each of the other teams. Now that will all be done electronically. Each team will still be able to determine whether they want to print media guides for their press boxes and/or selling them to fans.
Greg over at Puck Daddy argues that NHL teams waste paper on things worse than media guides. One idea he mentioned is reducing the press box releases. I can say firsthand, it’s amazing how much paper teams go through every game day between printed press releases, statistics, game notes, etc.
From personal experience, I can say that it was nice for team staffers to have all of the NHL teams’ media guides when we needed to get information. That being said, we also had a closet full of team media guides, many of which went unused. There was great demand for our team’s guides and our opponents in the playoffs, but we had guides for teams that we didn’t even play so I agree with the NHL that there are reasonable ways to cut down on paper waste. However, I know that team media guides are quite popular among fans so I don’t really predict many NHL teams will stop producing print media guides for fans to purchase.
Over the past two years, the Washington Capitals PR staff led by Nate Ewell has received the Dick Dillman Award, which is given yearly to the best media relations team in the Eastern Conference as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association (PHWA). They were the first team that I know of to work with a well-established hockey blogger, Eric McErlain at Off Wing Opinion, and draft a blogger policy to help fairly decide which hockey bloggers qualified for a spot in the press box at games. This is just one example of their innovative thinking. The PHWA members vote based on numerous factors including the quality of the media guide, willingness to help facilitate interviews, and the cooperation, efficiency, fairness, accuracy and presentation of media notes. It’s safe to say that the Caps run a top-line PR department.
So it doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that the Caps’ PR staff hosted a media fantasy camp nearly two weeks ago at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. A variety of media participated including print and electronic media from different levels of coverage. What did it ential? First, they watched video on power play strategy. The media contingent then took the ice where they participated in tutorial sessions in skating, shooting, stickhandling, and even fighting with enforcer Donald Brashear. Afterwards, they played in a scrimmage providing plenty of fodder for trash talk among the media members. All in all, it appears that the media enjoyed their time and even helped Baltimore Sun columnist Peter Schmuck better appreciate the skill required by hockey players (he is known for his baseball writings).
Personally, I think it was an absolutely fantastic original idea that captures the core reason of why the Caps’ PR staff is so successful. They think outside the box and came away with another successful idea. The Caps are a team on the rise as we saw with their playoff appearance last season. They have a superstar on their hands who the media loves and they are seeing season ticket sales skyrocket. In July, team officials stated that the sales were on target to reach 12,000 season ticket holders, which would be a 40% increase from last year. Even with all of this great news for the team, print media coverage is still low in the D.C. market, which is why this was a great event to raise interest among a variety of reporters from ESPN radio and ESPN the Magazine to local print and television. Hopefully, the Caps will see an increase in coverage from both local and national outlets on a rising team in the NHL.
2 Comments