Media24: now the PR really starts

Not that all this softens the blow much – but it is a good start in crisis management terms.

Now its objective must be to not let up one bit, to maintain the current level of transparency and for senior management, irrespective of whether they will be found to have been involved or not, to give absolute priority to backing their ad sales team in terms of patching up relationships and publicly doing as much as possible to make sure that this never happens again. They might well get away with it once – but not twice.

Go the extra mile

It may well be that Media24 will have to elect to not only comply with ABC regulations in terms of sales disclosures but to go well beyond and to publish everything it does from now on to ensure that anyone who logs on to its website will be able to see chapter and verse, every document, every "I" and every "T" of anything even remotely to do with its sales figures.

Its big challenge now is not to fix the reality – that will be relatively straight-forward and logical – but rather to deal with the complexities of perceptions caused by this disaster. Particularly among advertisers, marketers and even media buyers who might not have had the time to follow last week's proceedings in detail and in spite of the transparency of it all, whenever they hear the word Media24, they will think "crooks".

Fixing perception is not easy and demands considerable resources and time.

Perceptions

Equally the ABC needs to look at perceptions rather than reality.

ABC deputy president Gordon Paterson, speaking on radio on Sunday, 7 October 2007, was quite right when he said that the ABC had come out of this very well indeed – and that because of its reports going quarterly and a huge increase in checks and balances in the past two years.

In reality and again in the eyes of those who have followed things closely and who are aware of what the ABC does and how it does it, the ABC has indeed come out of this smelling like roses.

But, can the ABC assume that is the majority? Again, like Media24, surely it dares not take the chance particularly in view of the media and marketing industry's penchant for wrong perceptions and not understanding the intricate mechanism of media.

After all, media buying organisations have often admitted that some of their junior staff often don't understand the complexities of their trade and end up planning through perception and not fact.

Come a long way

The ABC has come a long way in the past year or two but it cannot just sit back and assume that everyone is applauding it, because they aren't. Too many marketers see the Media24 debacle not as an example of ABC efficiency, but as a shortcoming.

And that perception cannot be left to fester because the ABC, above all other forms of media data, is the one we are supposed to be able to trust implicitly.

For more:

• MPASA condemns Media24's magazine circulation irregularities [article]
  
• Caxton weighs in on the circulation saga [article]
  
• The ABC of crisis management… [blog]
  
• MPASA stands behind Scholtemeyer [breaking news]
  
• ABC objects to ‘spurious‘ criticism [article]
  
• Media24: now the PR really starts [article]
  
• [No Comment] ‘Mayhem at Media Park' [blog]
  
• Is Media24 the only culprit? [article]
  
• Media24: profit and performance pressure cooker [article]
  
• ABC routine audit checks on all publishers [article]
  
• Zoopy interviews Hein Brand, Steven Powell and Di Paice [blog]
  
• Thursday's Media24 press conf in CT [Zoopy videos] [blog]
  
• Potential criminal charges in Media24 scandal [article]
  
• How did it all go wrong at Media24? [article]
  
• Touchline MD faces disciplinary action [article]
  
• "My heart bleeds for the editors" [article]
  
• Touchline Media lied about circulation figures [article]
  
• Notes on a scandal [article]
  
• Wednesday is D-Day for Media24 [blog]
  
• Media24: media agencies take up the fight [article]
  
• Are the Picas at risk? [blog]
  
• Touchline under scrutiny [snippet]
  
• Media24 staff responsible for circulation irregularities [article]
  
• Media24 restates certain ABC figures [article]
  
• Patricia Scholtemeyer honoured for job creation [article]
  
• Scholtemeyer, Lowe Morna: Vodacom Women in The Media finalists [article]

• Video coverage on the Thursday, 4 October 2007, Media24 press conference in Cape Town:

  • Zoopy interviews Hein Brand, Steven Powell and Di Paice [blog]

  • Thursday's Media24 press conf in CT [Zoopy videos] [blog]

• Breaking news blog for coverage of the Wednesday, 3 October 2007, Media24 press conference in Johannesburg: http://blog.bizcommunity.com [blog]