I left a message last week for the director of communications at a B.C. professional agency. It was about a policy matter I was hoping to have explained.
Six days later, I left another message. This time, she called back with an apology that she’d mistakenly crossed me off her list.
This brings to mind the effectiveness with which public and quasi-public agencies communicate. You might not care whether somebody returns a call from a newspaper guy, but these are people whose job is telling the public — including the press — what’s going on.
Far and away the best communicators on the planet are the folks at Thompson Rivers University. The worst, in per capita terms, are those who inhabit the prodigiously populated PR department at the Interior Health Authority.
TRU communicates almost to a fault. On a slow news day, or even a fast one, local media can rest assured TRU will come through with a press release, or two or three.
The university churns out public information like linguini through a pasta maker. The slightest event will find its way into a media advisory. And, if the local media can’t work it into their schedules, not to worry — the TRU publicity machine will provide text and pictures.
We’ve even been assured that, if we’re working on a story involving TRU, the institution will collect quotes from appropriate sources if we wish.
Then we have the IHA. It’s a pretty good day when you can get hold of a top-level administrator on an important issue. In large part, its communications department is a filter.
It’s a truism that the job of public information departments is often to keep information from the public rather than provide it. We see it in government almost every day.
Which brings us to the City of Kamloops. The City is in second place behind TRU in actively communicating with the public. Eleven years ago, the City was strictly reactive. If a controversy arose, the City would defend itself. The good-news stories weren’t being told. Nowadays, City Hall produces information not quite at the rate of TRU, but within respectable shouting distance.
While the creation of a public-information department has helped the City, it isn’t always the key (as per the IHA) to good communications.
School District 73 doesn’t have a PR director, nor does it fire out much in the way of press releases, yet reporters praise the administration for its willingness to talk to them, whether it be to promptly return calls or pick up the phone when they dial.
The local RCMP detachment went the civilian public-information officer route for awhile but it wasn’t of much benefit.
On the other hand, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District hired one a few months ago and it seems to be making a positive difference in the flow of information.
One group that could definitely use a PR officer is the Tk’emlups Indian Band, one of the toughest to get information out of. I mentioned last week that the new CEO, John O’Fee, could make his mark by encouraging a new era of openness there.
All local agencies, though, would do well to use TRU as the benchmark.
THE PRESS STOPPED for the last time at 12:06 a.m. Friday night as daytime staffers joined press and mailroom crews for a farewell. Pressroom supervisor Leland Harmon gave me the “honour” of shouting “Stop the press” a final time. At 1:16 a.m., the mailroom inserter was turned off, completing the shutdown. Though it was a sad night, the professionalism with which the pressroom and mailroom crews handled it was simply amazing, and they should be as proud of themselves as we are proud of them.
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