Monday, June 07, 2010
Herding Wildebeests
Managing news or media coverage for a major international medical research meeting, and looking at the event from the point of view of the natural history of news, could be compared to herding a migration of wildebeest.
Just to be perfectly clear, we’re not suggesting that any journalist resembles the gnu, (another name for the wildebeest and pronounced /ˈnuː/ noo or /ˈnjuː/ nyoo); we’re being metaphorical about stories as gnus.
For a medical society, its national meeting represents a great opportunity, but turning the opportunity into results requires mastering the herding of wildebeests, or transmigrating gnus to news.
Take the American Thoracic Society (ATS) as an example. For their annual meeting in New Orleans, May 14-19, 2010, Keely Savoie, ATS science writer, wrote more than 30 news releases, and 29 of these were research results. She started working on these in February. It required months of work to identify and write the news releases.
As May 14 approached, her “herd” of stories created fast and furious activity involving the management of the distribution of news releases to journalists. “Timing is critical, especially with lots of embargoed stories, the deadline of the meeting, and the travel situation. I posted the stories May 9, and the peak of calls came the May 14, when I was flying to New Orleans.”
Savoie helped to manage this potential chaos by uploading her stories to Â鶹´«Ã½ for distribution to 5000+ journalists on May 10 via a News Meeting Wire.
“We received quite a number of Â鶹´«Ã½ Wire follow-up calls,” Savoie explained. “Most lead to stories by reporters. The wire aggregated the stories into one email, and reporters appreciate this organization. A significant portion of response from reporters came from Â鶹´«Ã½ via the ATS meeting wire. That was a huge outreach. However, it’s still important to call and reach out to reporters via telephone.”
“The meeting generated a lot of public awareness and helps us brand ourselves,” said Savoie. “There was a smaller press attendance this year than previous years, possibly due to the economy and being in New Orleans. But we also got a lot of attention from reporters at places such as CNN, the Washington Post, LA Times, although they did not attend.”
Savoie also really appreciates the dynamics of a national meeting. “Actually gathering all the reporters and society members (attendance more than 13,000) into one physical space creates a powerful event,” Savoie said. “I’d hate to see the end to the era of meetings.”
“When we sent out the wire, within 2 hours we received 6 calls, including NPR and New York Times,” said Brian Kell, ATS Communications and Marketing Director. “All were interested in about six stories. Mostly the inquiries by reporters via Â鶹´«Ã½ came from the non-trade press. We have continual relationship with the trade press, and they cover us constantly, but Â鶹´«Ã½ helps us reach beyond these.
“I would urge every PR person to use both Â鶹´«Ã½ and Eurekalert,” Kell suggested. “There is probably some overlap, but for a modest investment, you receive a lot; one story on NPR is worth the cost. I like the Â鶹´«Ã½ wire. We know that we get calls from reporters right after the wires are distributed.”
So, while it is a lot of work herding the gnus, the final outcome reaped tremendous benefit to the American Thoracic Society (ATS). First, the entire process of creating 29 research news releases and distributing them to journalists in a way that pleased the journalists, both with the content and the packaging, enhanced ATS’ long-term relationship with journalists.
“Journalists are happy with the ATS stories and like the consolidation into a simple, easy to manage node,” said Savoie. “Furthermore they are on an embargo-protected site. It helps that I know that journalists subscribing to Â鶹´«Ã½ have explicitly agreed to abide by embargo policies. Â鶹´«Ã½ also helped me identify the media in my email and respond quickly because the subject header said, ‘Â鶹´«Ã½ media follow-up’.”
Second, they generated a massive volume of stories across many media outlets. “Our society officers and members were thrilled,” Savoie added, “especially with the big name media placements.”
ATS received an extensive amount of media coverage, and the following list of stories and clip counts (ATS clips summary) represents only a fraction of the online coverage.
# clips New Release Title
135 High-Fat Meals a No-No For Asthma Patients
43 CPAP Use Reduces Incidence of Cardiovascular Events and Hypertension ...
12 Gene Therapy May Be Effective in Treating PAH
7 Formation of Plexiform Lesions in Experimental Severe Pulmonary…
25 At-Home Sleep Testing Equal to Overnight in a Sleep Lab in Treatment…
6 Early vs. Late Tracheotomy Does Not Reduce Mortality in ICU Patients
35 Heavy Exercise May Produce Asthma-Like Symptoms Even in Healthy Children
15 Hope for Patients with Mild Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
8 EMS Can Prevent Limb and Respiratory Muscle Weakness in ICU Patients
19 Health Insurance Status Linked to Mortality Risk in PA ICUs
12 Stem Cells Restore Tissue Affected By ALI
9 ICU Infection Rates Not a Good Measure of Mortality Risk
8 Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Reduces Muscle Atrophy in COPD
17 Lung Disease May Be Genetic, Despite Lack of Family History
9 High School Student Presents Research Challenging the Use of Routine…
72 Google Flu Trends Estimates Off
11 DFA Unreliable in H1N1 Testing in Critically Ill Patients
22 Sleep Apnea May Increase Insulin Resistance
18 Estrogen May Reduce Airway Constriction in Women Patients with Asthma
30 Internet Monitoring Strategy for Severe Asthma Patients Shown to be…
34 Children with Severe Asthma at Increased Risk of Developing COPD
24 False Positives in TB Diagnosis Lead to Real Negatives for HIV Patients
18 MP-376 Safe and Effective for Treatment of P. aeruginosa in CF Patients
60 Long-Term Use of Vitamin E May Decrease COPD Risk
32 A More Active Lifestyle Crucial for Day-to-Day Function in COPD Patients
134 Higher Blood Pressure Found in People Living in Urban Areas
47 Pulmonary Rehabilitation Effective for Both Obese and Slim COPD patients
60 Statins Decrease Risk of Clot-Related Diseases
38 New Technique May Quickly Distinguish between Active and Latent TB
________
One of these news releases, “High-Fat Meals a No-No For Asthma Patients,” provides a more thorough clips report.
ATS was branded in this process. For example, ATS was cited in almost all of these stories. In contrast ATS has 3 journals, and the one most often cited is the “American Journal of Critical Care Medicine, for which ATS is often not mentioned in clips.
Finally, the “outcomes were all positive, nothing negative,” said Savoie.
So, with the transmigration of gnus to news, ATS was branded, and with no negative outcomes. That is a model lesson in the natural history of news.
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