THIS is for media managers, Press officers, etc, especially when involved in a rolling story or campaign, involving potentially several exchanges with the media, including the sending out of media releases and responding to requests for quotes and information.
Keep a log.
Not necessarily anything complicated but, nevertheless, a handy record of who in your organisation said what to whom and when.
Note the date and time of these exchanges with the media, including which journalists, who they were representing and what are their contact details? What were they asking for? What did they subsequently report?
How did the media use your media releases and statements?
What time did a media request come and how quickly did you respond, if at all?
If it is considered necessary to formally record your exchanges with the media, perhaps using a voice recorder and as a guard against possible misrepresentation, how is the recording being kept and filed for future reference?
It’s really just a question of drawing up a pro forma that covers, at the very least, dates, times, names, contact details and what was said.
The alternative is to rely on what might soon become vague recollection, which would make it hard to confidently ‘hand the baton on’ to another media manager.
Plus make it difficult to conduct any meaningful post-mortem.
