What to do about bad news
Something bad has happened, but the news media doesn’t know about it yet. If the word gets out, your company’s reputation could take a big hit. Should your company be proactive about releasing the news or wait to see if someone calls?
This is a difficult question. The answer is entirely up to you, your culture, and your confidence in working with the news media. The following decision tree will help you make a better assessment:
The first consideration is how likely the bad news will get out. If you consider all the possible ways the news could get out and decide that all are very unlikely, then your chances of negative media coverage are slim and you may opt not to communicate the news proactively.
The scenario changes when it is very likely the news will get out. Since you have a high suspicion the news will get out, you have to consider whether to use a proactive response or a reactive response. Proactive means that you release the news in a controlled way. Reactive means that you wait until the news breaks and then respond.
This decision is ultimately driven by many factors, particularly the likely tone (neutral, somewhat negative, or highly negative) of the news coverage. The proactive response has a greater likelihood of generating a neutral or somewhat negative article. By contrast, the reactive response has less likelihood of generating a neutral article or somewhat negative article since you are responding to the other side of a story that is already out.
There is neither a single nor a simple answer for these situations. Knowing how to assess them properly can improve your overall response.
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