Archive for the ‘crisis communications’ Category

West Virginia journalist Ken Ward, Jr. asks, through the Nieman Foundation’s Web site: Why is it OK for the coal industry to break the law?

Among his points:

• “Federal officials are saying the mine hasn’t had any serious “roof falls” since 1998. But a roof fall is different from a “bump” such as the one that collapsed the Crandall Canyon Mine roof. Has the mine reported recent bumps? What is the history of bumps in this part of the Utah coalfields? And what role has “pulling pillars” played in bumps in the past?
• The mine’s maps indicate that Crandall Canyon used longwall mining to remove large amounts of coal on either side of its main entry tunnels. After this was done, the roof would have collapsed, as longwall mining leaves no coal pillars to hold it up. Once Bob Murray bought the mine, his company proposed to go in and get coal from the pillars that were holding up the roof in that central set of tunnels.
• What sort of analysis did the company do to determine that this was safe, and would not lead to a bump? What sort of review of that analysis did federal or state regulators perform?
• What sort of review of such things is typically done nationwide?
• Are the engineers who review such things for the government understaffed? What sort of follow-up inspections of the pillar removal were being done?
• When Murray told the audience that his mine was absolutely not using this mining method – despite a paper trail that suggests otherwise – federal Mine Safety and Health Administration officials stood by and watched, letting the misinformation go unchallenged.
• That brings me to my final point. Maybe it made for great television, and correspondent Gary Tuchman was certainly pleased with himself. But pretty much everybody I’ve talked to in the coal industry thinks that the stunt of taking CNN cameras into the mine while six miners were still unaccounted for was irresponsible and dangerous. It remains unclear to me if MSHA approved this little show or not, despite an existing order that required any activity in the mine to receive the agency’s specific authorization.

This is not a board of directors meeting, or a congressional hearing. Grandstanding has no place here. And it’s beginning to appear, from my far remove, like the US government is managing this event about as well as Katrina. My heart goes out to the families.

Have a good weekend,

Bob.

The saga of Crandall Canyon continues, and the journalists are starting to get riled. Viz, one Rebecca Walsh, columnist with the Salt Lake City Tribune.

• Her advice: “This is not about the politics of coal; it’s about six guys trapped 1,500 feet underground. Shut up. Hire a public relations consultant. And soon.”
• Walsh also points to the ‘silent partner’ in the disaster, the Intermountain Power Agency. The IPA is a government owned corporation (or cooperative), and apparently they are committed to saying absolutely nothing. Walsh writes “There are better minds on this,” a spokesman said. “We’re deferring all comments to these other individuals for now.” And while IPA has a Web site, it is far from a paragon of transparency. There are no e-mail links, no media contacts, not even any information on which member of the agency’s management is the designated spokesperson.

In the meantime, it appears that a US law is being defied by Murray. In the wake of the Sago disaster, the Mine Safety and Health Administration was designated to lead all communications in these sorts of situations. A long discussion of this has been posted at The Pump Handle.

The short version: Section 7 of the MINER Act states:

The Secretary of Labor shall establish a policy that–
(1) requires the temporary assignment of an individual Department of Labor official to be a liaison between the Department and the families of victims of mine tragedies involving multiple deaths;
(2) requires the Mine Safety and Health Administration to be as responsive as possible to requests from the families of mine accident victims for information relating to mine accidents; and
(3) requires that in such accidents, that the Mine Safety and Health Administration shall serve as the primary communicator with the operator, miners’ families, the press and the public.

Does section 3 sound like what’s happening?

Bob.

Back from a MUCH-needed weekend with very close friends that was totally media free. No TV, no radio, and (ack!) no Blackberry — its battery died Friday evening with no apparent reason.

In any case, I have been looking at some of the coverage — both packaged journalism and raw footage — of the ongoing tragedy in Utah, where the Crandall mine has collapsed (why is a matter of some dispute), and where some truly bizarre communications is going on.

KUTV is hosting large amounts of both news reports and press conference footage, and while I am neither a mine expert nor tremendously familiar with the specifics of what’s happening at the Crandall Canyon mine.

There appears to be no web site for that mine. Ohio Valley Coal’s web site appears to have been frozen in 2001. The Murray Energy Group, the company that is the parent of both Ohio Valley and Crandall Canyon, doesn’t have a Web site.

And Murray appears erratic and combative in his long news conferences. I’ve seen him talk about global warming, about how coal is necessary for cheap energy, joust about whether or not an earthquake caused the collapse of the mine… If I had to guess, he’s either winging this or he has ignored whatever advice his crisis comms people are giving him.

In the meantime, everyone from the UMWA to some members of Congress have been after him. And he has a history of provocative statements. For example, see this Salt Lake Tribune article:

During an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto in May, Robert Murray responded to a comment from Clinton, who asked a crowd whether they were ready for a president who is “pro-labor and will appoint people who actually care about workers’ rights and workers’ safety.”

“Bob, do you view this rhetoric as pro-labor, anti-business, what?” Cavuto asked Murray.

“Absolutely not,” Murray responded. “I view it as anti-American.”

I come from a mining community, where every June 11 is a holiday to commemmorate those lost in mine disasters. I fear that needless pain is going to be caused throughout this drama because of bad communication.

It’s tragic enough, without mistakes and anger heightening the pain. I wrote about this back in 2006 when Sago happened.

Ciao,
Bob.

Home with some strep throat today, but can’t avoid posting on the horrifying news coming out of Virginia today.

According to news reports, more than 20 people are dead after a gunman went on a rampage at Virginia Tech. My heart goes out to the families of those who are dead and to the injured and their families.

I spent 6 years in PR at a university, so this sort of story still hits home to me.

Not that anyone should need another reason to do this, but — if you don’t have a crisis plan for your organization, you need one. Now. Crazed scumbags don’t usually provide a few days’ warning for you to prepare.

It’s not just about damage control. It’s about being able to work effectively with the media, with your clients, and all your other audiences.

Ciao,
Bob.

Today’s column on CBC Radio’s “The Business Network” dealt with the Menu Foods pet food recall. Here’s the script, but if you want to hear my column, go to the show’s Web site. And you can listen to the last year of PR columns in their archives.

“There’s a certain irony in the fact that my last column dealt with rats at a restaurant, and that this column is about pet food contaminated with rat poison. The massive recall of pet food produced by Canadian company Menu Foods is one of the largest in history. And for many pet lovers, this has been a stressful and tragic time. Reports of over 2,000 pet deaths in Canada and the US as a result of the tainted food are circulating.

So let’s take this opportunity to think about some of the aspects of crisis communications this brings up. First, Menu seems to be doing some of the right things. They set up toll-free numbers and posted information on their web site. They also hired a seasoned public relations professional to manage their communications.

But the response appears to have fallen short on several levels. A New York Times story quoted both pet owners and veterinarians who were frustrated with their inability to get through to Menu or the companies it manufactures food for. Menu has said that it will take responsibility for vet bills related to the recall. But that hasn’t stopped at least six class-action lawsuits are being prepared.

So what can be learned from this? Number one, think about the emotional attachment of your customers to your product or service. The last big product recall was for notebook computer batteries. If my battery dies, I would be unlikely to cry. But if my cat Mia were killed by tainted food, I’d be OUTRAGED.

It’s important to remember what role emotion will play in a reaction to any crisis your company might be involved in.

Second, be prepared. A recent discussion among colleagues revealed that a number of PR companies offering crisis communications among their suite of services don’t, ironically enough, offer a 24-7 line for immediate assistance on their web sites. So your business should have crisis contacts already in place.

Third, you need to be ready for crises that are not only your company’s, but crises that begin with a supplier or a business partner. If your business does a lot of partnering or relies on suppliers or subcontractors, ensuring that those businesses have adequate crisis plans in place just might help you sleep at night.”

Ciao,
Bob.

Now here’s an interesting way to promote yourself as a young communicator in training. Omar Ha-Redeye, a student at Centennial College in Ontario hooked up with me via Facebook after attending PodCamp Toronto in February, and pointed me to this really good paper on crisis communications that he posted to the Centennial College group blog.

Good paper, and good networking too. Well done Omar.

Ciao,
Bob.

Here’s the column that’s running Monday morning on CBC Radio’s “The Business Network”.

“My last column talked about the brave new world of social media, and how companies can engage in podcasting, blogging, wikis and the like. But you know, it doesn’t always go well, and I’ve got a couple of recent examples of how things can go wrong and how to respond to them.

KFC and Taco Bell have … or had … a restaurant in Greenwich Village. At least, they did until a couple of weeks ago, when the world saw video footage of the restaurant teeming with big rats. The footage ended up, not surprisingly, on YouTube.

I will give Yum brands, the owner of KFC and Taco Bell, credit. The corporation issued news releases quickly and tried to keep communicating. But the crisis response didn’t fully take into account that millions of people around the world were watching the video and shuddering. Yum brands thought of it as a local problem, and it quickly spun out of control.

During this crisis, the company’s share price went from over $62 to under $56. Coincidence? I don’t think so. And given that Taco Bell had endured an e coli crisis last fall, you would think preparedness would have been higher.

Meanwhile, a Valentine’s Day snowstorm stranded thousands of US travelers. Lots of airlines were hit with trouble, but JetBlue, an airline not unlike WestJet here in Canada, got hit extra hard. They cancelled nearly a third of their flights, and poor communication left customers more than a little cranky.

How did JetBlue respond? With tons of vouchers for customers and apologies. No surprises there. But what was innovative was a video apology to its customers from CEO David Neeleman on YouTube. Neeleman was already a blogger, but this was new.

As the airline got back up to speed from the crisis, it issued a new customer bill of rights, and prominently featured it on its front page. It’s still there, with another link to information about the February 14-19 storm and a comprehensive set of phone numbers and links for customers to “speak up.”

So JetBlue didn’t get a perfect score for its crisis response. And Yum! Brands didn’t do everything wrong.

But when you balance the two corporations, you can see that JetBlue used new media to its advantage and reacted quickly; Yum! Reacted with a 1980s communications strategy and paid a price. There’s lots of links and information on my blog if you want to read more about either case or do some research of your own.

For the business network, I’m Bob LeDrew in Ottawa.“

So here are some handy-dandy links to the issues that column brings up, and to some resources that you might want to check out as you prepare yourself for crisis.

Remember, what this all comes down to is that crisis response has become even more important, and the pace of response has quickened even more. You have to be ready in a YouTube world in an INSTANT.

• Jonathan Bernstein is the owner of Bernstein Crisis Management, and if you ever find yourself in a crisis, you WILL need someone as good as him to help you manage it. There are other companies (like this one), but I know Jonathan and would recommend him.
• Here’s an interesting article on the JetBlue case.
• Some coverage of the KFC / Taco Bell incident here, here, here, here and here.
• And some blogs you need to watch:
• Project Disaster
• ALA links on crisis response

If there are people out there with questions or requests for information or referrals, comment to me and I’d be happy to try to help.

But it may take a day or two. It’s budget day on Monday in Canada, and for all I know we could be in an election campaign by the end of the day.

Ciao,
Bob.

1. All press is not good press
2. Perception is reality
3. Create a brand
4. The truth seeks its own level
5. Energize a base
6. Get your messages out (perhaps IW may want to skip this one)
7. Go where the media is
8. The medium is still the message
9. You can go home again
10. They’re only building you up to knock you down.