They used to call it “Public Relations”…now it’s “Media Relations”….I’m applying for a new category, “Player Relations”…
In this age of social media and sites like The Players Tribune, it seems as if the people that work for the team as liaisons with the press wind up spending more time putting out fires with the players first running interference, if you will…Once the primary source of information about what was going on within a team, these PR/Media Relations people have, in many cases become teachers, advisers, and yes, babysitters…
Laura Verillo of the New York Mets and Bill Wanless from the Pawtucket Red Sox were guests at our Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar Series most recently and after spending minor league time in Idaho, Iowa and New Mexico, Verillo has learned that it’s much easier for her to be proactive with the players before the (public comment) fire even starts; “If you don’t want to be asked about something by a reporter later and have to elaborate further than just your 140 characters, it’s best to just leave it alone.”…She’s referring to the player’s new found freedom of putting their message and opinions out in the open but perhaps not fully realizing there are consequences….Those consequences, in turn, have become her job…
No team wants to find themselves listed on any internet site of “5 Most Heated Locker-room Incidents”, no matter how much, we as fans, like to watch….Sometimes it just happens…
And then there’s Boogie Cousins…
Unhappy about a reporter injecting his family into a story, Cousins made it quite clear how he felt and it turned into some long hours for the Sacramento Kings Media staff…..Like him as a player, or not, Cousins has a point, to a point…He, and to an argued extent, his D-League brother, are public figures…They should expect scrutiny…But it doesn’t men he has to like it…
Young reporters have to tread lightly as they wind their way into the work place…none more so than a professional locker-room…
Wanless, related a story about a veteran ESPN reporter who has adopted a practical approach to going about his job…Now granted, ESPN doesn’t always work on a deadline but it still seems to work for this guy; “They (the players) have a pressurized job, a hectic schedule…instead of saying hey, I need to do this story now, say to them, “would you have some time tomorrow maybe that we can sit down and talk, I have a story idea, I only need 5, 10 minutes of your time” and that works wonders”…As I said, it’s great if your doing a feature but in the end it still puts you in a better position than the Sacramento Bee…
Like much of what happens in professional sports, it’s a “player’s league”…people pay top dollar to see the players, not the coaches, not the referees, certainly not the PR/Media staff…So, there’s a huge amount of fawning…
“Build that relationship, build that trust” stressed Wanless…Verillo stated, “Do your homework, know people’s faces, know their names”…
It sounds simple but in reality, it’s so much more…I always see this seminar as a great way for students to learn from the people they are going to interact with…It’s always great when I learn something too…
Next week, Play by Play…
10 Comments
Shelby Reardon posted on February 21, 2017 at 2:00 pm
The W Column Episode 2: Media Relations https://soundcloud.com/user-128935005/sports-women-media-pawtucket-mets
Daniel Choi posted on February 22, 2017 at 12:18 pm
When details of the trade between the Sacramento Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans surfaced, I silently raged against the Kings with an utterly irrational passion. “What? Really? No…come on. That was the best you could do? Really?! Maybe we now have an answer to the chicken-or-egg question: organizational dysfunction fueled Boogie’s outbursts, not the other way around.” (The more grounded viewpoint: they work in tandem).
But after cooling down with a morning cup of O.J. and minding my own business for a few days, wonder has replaced “hot take” criticism. I wonder how much Boogie’s notorious relationship with press and media depreciated his trade value.
Despite posting career averages of 21.1 points and 10.1 rebounds – leading the Kings in both categories for four-plus consecutive seasons – the severing of ties between the Kings and Cousins is not much of a surprise. For several years, speculative trade chatter blanketed evidential reels of Cousins’ outstanding on-court talent and productivity. His teams floundered while he experienced individual success – Cousins has yet to log a minute in the playoffs. With the passing of each disappointing season, Cousins’ discontent became more apparent through his words and behavior on and off the court, and the Kings became more receptive to a future without Cousins. The obvious disconnection, however, likely stripped some leverage from the Kings in trade negotiations. Buyers are at an advantage when sellers are desperate. And lingering questions concerning a player’s character or attitude or maturity – etcetera – don’t exactly bode well for the selling team.
Recalling insight provided by our guest speakers, I wonder if Cousins was surrounded by experienced figures, whether from the coaching staff or the roster, who would provide mentorship. Aside from public relations personnel, would anyone pull Cousins aside to give advice on how to interact and relate with press and media?
Some players stand out as plausible candidates, like Rudy Gay, Carl Landry, and Samuel Dalembert. But standing taller is the number of coaching changes during Cousins’ stint with the Kings: FIVE (5). A total of six head coaches through five coaching changes in seven seasons. That’s an alarmingly high turnover rate for the head coach position. Head coaches wield influence with their playbooks. But just as importantly, they instill team culture. I wonder if the nearly annual rotation of head coaches sowed rotten seeds, producing toxins from which no one in the locker room is immune. Not the veterans. Not the new coach. Not Cousins. And not even local press and media. Nobody. It’s quite an exaggeration, but imagine walking into that locker room for seven consecutive years. Do you see an upbeat group? Do you hear more questions about victories than losses? And do the players sound more hopeful than disappointed in their answers?
Note: Ownership of the Kings changed hands in 2013. So in the past seven years, Cousins had a lengthier association with the Kings than its prior and current owners.
The relationship between athletes and press affects fan interest, ticket sales, television viewership, merchandise sales, and so on. But it also touches on front-office issues. Are we going to offer a max contract to a player whose leadership qualities are in question? How much should we give up in a trade for a uber-talented player who might adversely affect our team culture? What will be the reaction of our fans?
I fully support athletes who choose direct channels of communication to reach audiences, whether through the Player’s Tribune or social media. But I also recognize the valid interests of organizations in managing what, how, and when information is leaked. Poor public relations for individual players can paint damaging marks on organizations.
Jarett Leonard and Chris Picher posted on February 22, 2017 at 2:54 pm
Seminar Strategists Episode 3: https://soundcloud.com/jarett-leonard/seminar-strategists-episode-3
Jake Reiser posted on February 22, 2017 at 5:22 pm
Another week, another episode of To Be Frank!
https://youtu.be/dD9YrOY7ggA
Dylan Jones posted on February 22, 2017 at 10:22 pm
Boogie Cousins is a great example for how to not handle player relations, on both sides for that matter. Cousins, for all his talent, is a notorious hothead, as evidenced by his propensity for controversy and league leading 17 technical fouls this season. There has been numerous occasions where he has been uncooperative with not only the media, but with teammates, coaches and management, and generally just being a pain in the rear. Yet, in the instance with the reporter, Andy Furillo of the Sacramento Bee, I agree with Cousins. Going back to our previous seminar on the athlete-reporter relationship, there is a definite line depending on the player, and Cousins’ might be less than others, yet he should’ve known bringing up past issues would incite Cousins. Especially if you look at how outspoken Furillo had been previously in regards to his opinions of Cousins.
We’re in a time where athletes, especially in light of the political firestorm before us, have many avenues to voice their opinions, with no shortage of demand to hear them. This makes the role of someone within media relations that much harder, and Wanless and Verillo gave significant insight in regards to how to handle it.
Wanless, with his vast experience in the field, has a firm understanding on how to deal with media relations, particularly in the minor leagues. His anecdotes about having to deal with reporters prematurely speculating over player call-ups highlighted both the unique circumstances of working in the minor leagues, as well as the limits of marketing to fans, seeing how your best player can get called up at any time.
In Verillo’s case, it was interesting to hear how most of her job is limiting the fires that social media generates before they even start. It makes sense, especially given the attention famous figures generate with each tweet or photo. Being in the big leagues, they have more regulations and restrictions on who can cover the team, which helps prevent some of these incidents, restricting access to players to those who have experience covering them, and thus, are less likely to cross the line.
In both cases, they realize their job is to in a way shelter the athletes from unnecessary attention and controversy, to make their lives easier and let them focus on doing their jobs. Of course it varies, the media attention in New York won’t be the same as it is in Iowa, yet the goal is the same. I agree with the assessment that ‘media relations’ is effectively ‘player relations’. They are the faces of not only the franchise, but seeing how they’re on banners, billboards, posters all around where they play, they’re the faces of their community. If one of them says something controversial and puts themselves in an awkward position, it not only makes them look bad, but it makes the team and the city look bad. With that in mind, while you can’t blame players wanting to voice their uncensored, unaltered opinions, you can’t blame PR people for being frustrated over it either. They’re just trying to do their job after all.
Eric Getzoff posted on February 22, 2017 at 11:06 pm
Laura Verillo and Bill Wanless brought a different point of view of the sports journalism industry during last week’s seminar class. The first two classes featured writers or television personalities (or athletes!), all of whom are with a media organization and report from an unbiased viewpoint. They tell the story how it is.
Last week’s seminar was different. Laura and Bill are both in Public Relations (or Media Relations), which in layman’s terms means they try to generate positive press for their organization (or in the case of this class, sports team).
The most important thing I learned from this class is to approach your job as a Journalist professionally, and more importantly, with courtesy. As Laura said, instead of asking a player about the tough game they just had, start out the interview asking the player about the baby his wife just had. This will gain you more respect among the player and they’ll understand that you’re treating them as a person rather than as the mythical athlete who you idolized growing up. Additionally, you’ll gain respect from the media relations’ team. The more respect they have of you and the greater working relationship there is between the two of you, the better the chances are that they come to you with an inside scoop which turns into a great story idea. And isn’t that the whole point of being a Journalist? To get the inside scoop?
Bob also had really great points that I learned from, particularly about starting out as a young Journalist. He said that he allows young reporters to come to a game and the PR team sees how professional that reporters is, which goes into deciding if the PR staff will allow him/her back for another game. This got me thinking about what I would do if I were to cover the Redsox for a blog, for instance, and was at my first game. How would I go about my work? Would I want to stand out, blend in, ask questions? The conclusion I came to was that I would just be myself – less outspoken, of course – and lay a little bit lower than usual. My approach would be to ease into asking questions at the postgame press conference, observe the players and how they go about their pre-game rituals, and be aware of which player is in a positive mood that day and would want to talk. Take things slow and get to know the players and the media relations’ team. After starting off with the basics, I would have a foundation to work off of and relationships to build upon.
I learned a lot from this session. Most importantly it’s that I don’t want to work in Public Relations. BU’s Journalism program taught me that as a Journalist you work for your readers, viewers or listeners. You’re responsible for delivering them the news, and getting the truth – for telling them what happened. The responsibility of somebody in Public Relations is to make their organization look the best. It’s not for me.
Channing Curtis posted on February 22, 2017 at 11:10 pm
The relationship between journalists and media relations personnel is a pretty interesting one. When you think about it, each would have a hard time doing their job properly without the other one. Like Laura Verillo said, a media relations person can tell you which player is in a bad mood, when it is best to catch them, or even certain topics to steer away from. For a new journalist, establishing a good relationship with the media relations department for any team you’re covering is invaluable. In undergrad my campus radio station had passes to cover the Dallas Mavericks. We would take turns covering certain games. When it was my turn to cover the game, I made sure to introduce myself to the woman who was over the media relations department for the team and sent her a copy of my story (since it was for school) afterwards. After then, I could easily get media credentials to games just by emailing her. If I hadn’t established that relationship, I would have missed out on a lot of good stories. It has to be hard for media relations people to determine which journalists they allow to have access to their players. In a major way, they are the gate keepers for their respective teams. They have the power to keep certain media outlets out of the locker rooms and can pretty much hinder their coverage of the team. One interesting thing that both speakers talked about was the process that journalists have to go through in order to get press credentials in order to cover their teams. While both of them mentioned that they don’t usually allow students or bloggers to cover the teams (with some exceptions) I wonder if and when this will change. With the evolution of journalism moving more and more to the online sphere, it’s only a matter of time before they have to cave a bit on their rules.
Cassidy Kelly posted on February 22, 2017 at 11:37 pm
As an advertising major and someone who is interested in sports event planning, this seminar was extremely interesting and important. While I interned for the Bruins, I was able to work closely with the media relations, marketing and PR teams, which was a great experience. Like Laura mentioned during the seminar, they sit down with all of the players and emphasize the importance of what they promote on social media, and the same goes for anyone who works there. She mentioned that no staff person is supposed to talk about political views, as that can bring the organization under fire with misrepresentation. We were told the same thing as interns at the Bruins, which is crazy to think that that sort of message needs to be trickled down even to that level.
One other part of the seminar that stuck with me was the question of whether you would necessarily want to be PR for a team with an incredibly famous player like Tom Brady. Working at the Patriots, it is definitely an interesting perspective as I am lucky enough to be in the community relations field which utilizes having players like him and Gronkowski to our advantage. Whenever we have a high-profile event taking place, we are able to generate buzz and press coverage simply by mentioning these recognizable names. Each player has their own social media, though, and that leaves the team with no real control (which isn’t always the best for the player or the team). One blunder that was mentioned during the seminar was Edelman’s snapchat incident from a few years ago. I can imagine that working through that from a team PR standpoint is a challenge, but it’s also important to understand that with the way the internet and social media is now, you can really only control the full team-driven accounts.
From an events stance, I enjoyed talking to Laura after the seminar to hear her thoughts on game day responsibilities. So many details go into planning just one game, that it’s crazy to think of how long the baseball season is with so many more games than most other sports. As I look to hopefully transition from community relations into events, hearing more about what the job entails was very beneficial for me.
Stephanie Schalago posted on February 23, 2017 at 12:26 pm
As a Broadcast Journalism major, I have had a lot of experience with social media for my internships, and my current job. While I do not work in sports, the entertainment industry is very similar. For my job, I had to go through a social media training about what I can and can not post. As Laura mentioned in the seminar, they sit the players down and emphasize what they promote on social media, and I had a similar experience for my own job.
I find the relationship between Journalists and Media Relations interesting because I report on what those in media relationships post on social media. Since I work for a radio station, I am always on Twitter waiting for the next thing a celebrity will post that we can turn into a story. I remember when Tom Brady made an Instagram and that was the headlining news for the day. I had to go and refresh his page to see how many posts he would make. It’s interesting to think that he was coached on what to post. He may have even been told when he should make one.
The relationship between journalists and media relations goes deeper than what we report, however. As journalists, we need to treat the players as if they are people. If we report something that could be seen as rude or intrusive, that looks bad on the reporter. It then could be brought to the attention of social media, and suddenly the journalists are the news. Professor Shorr mentioned two of his past students entered a Twitter war which only looks bad on them. Overall, the use of social media in sports and journalism is tricky. Everyone needs to be careful of what they post because it could come back to them in a bad way. As someone who has never been in Media Relations, I found this seminar surprisingly relatable. I didn’t realize how many things overlap for athletes and journalists. We all need to be cognizant of what we post, so that we don’t have to face the consequences.
Curtis Stoychoff posted on February 23, 2017 at 4:47 pm
This week’s seminar featured guests from a different side of sports that many of us probably weren’t accustomed to. Bill and Laura brought the viewpoint of the people who journalists need to work directly with in order to execute their job. I thought it was really beneficial especially because Laura and Bill, within the world of Public/Media Relations, have such different experiences from each other. So it allowed us to see and start to understand that world in a larger sense than say, if we had two people who were both from Major League Teams. Laura being with the Mets and Bill with the Paw Sox, allowed us to see the differences between Media Relations at the different levels of sports.
I think you’re right about Boogie Cousins when you say that he’s a public figure and should expect scrutiny, even if he doesn’t like it. At the same time, just because he doesn’t like it, I have a hard time accepting that it’s appropriate for him to act the way he did in the video. When any athlete in the United States makes it to the big time, whether that be in the MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL, they know (or at least absolutely should know) what they’re signing up for in terms of exposure and privacy. No, maybe the reporter shouldn’t have included his brother in the story, or should have at least asked first, but at the same time he is just trying to do his job. The same way playing basketball is Cousins’ job, reporting on Cousins and the people and things associated with him is that reporters job. Also, halfway through the video Cousins refusing to speak until the reporter from Cowbell Kingdom leaves the locker room is a bit much. I’m assuming this isn’t the same reporter who wrote the column about him, especially since he asks who the reporter is with, so for him to refuse to speak just because he doesn’t like the publication seems silly to me. Maybe I need more info on the topic regarding this specific reporter or who he works for, but that’s how I feel for the time being.
I thought this was an extremely important seminar for all of us to be a part of. These are the people that those of us who go into sports journalism are going to have to deal with on a daily basis. It’s great that we got a chance to talk to them and ask questions about the proper way for us to do things in their eyes before we are actually out in the field working as full time journalists. Hopefully that’ll allow us to make less silly rookie mistakes when it comes to etiquette in the locker room and interacting with athletes and PR people in general.