Related Content
•
CoSIDA.com/CoSIDA360 Archive
This story is part of our October 2021 CoSIDA 360 package, to view more stories,
click here.
Perspective from Outside the Profession: Avoiding PR Nightmares
by Gail Sideman | @gpublicity1
Athletic department leaders can learn from game show Jeopardy’s national PR debacle. We talk about the importance of every college athletic program having a crisis communications plan, reviewed and updated regularly. Here’s one reason — your on-going hiring process when looking to fill positions, especially those of coaches and administrators — why it’s essential to keep your crisis communications strategies updated and shared.
Imagine your school hires an athletic director whose background check pops with red flags.
This is pretty much the way Sony Pictures Television went about its business when it announced the late, legendary Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek would be replaced by its executive producer. Within hours of Mike Richards being tabbed as Trebek’s successor, he was gone. The PR hits kept coming, however, because it took more than two weeks after that to relieve Richards, who was recorded spewing racist and sexually inappropriate comments, of his gameshow roles. His public shaming which led to an ill-informed hire were avoidable had anyone taken accusations against him seriously.
How can your university leaders be sure their next big hire, whether an AD, coach or other forward-facing leader, be public relations positive and not a {bleep} show like Jeopardy’s? To be sure, we’ve seen similar scenes with questionable coaching hires through the years.
First and most obvious, don’t ignore — willfully or otherwise — red flags or rumors about your candidate. Nine times out of nine-and-a-half, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. It’s on the selection committee to uncover the tiniest of crumbs. If there’s any doubt, move on. We’ve seen how long stories live, even if they don’t breathe every day.
Following are a few other suggestions to help avoid an PR hire nightmare and how athletic communicators can contribute essentially to the crisis communications process:
- Before you enjoy your next cup of coffee, review your school’s and athletic department’s crisis communications plans (do it at least twice each year, regardless). We hope they won’t be needed, but general timelines and points of contact should be in place for the just-in-case factor. This suggestion to do regular reviews is important, whether or not you are in a hiring mode.
- Encourage your university’s leadership to include athletic communications/sports information and an independent PR representative to participate in the selection process. An outside source can objectively review the situation because we trust she or he is not emotionally invested in the program. Support PR codes of conduct and respect input, even if it hurts.
- Prioritize transparency with your community, alumni, students and media.
- If your school publicly announces a hire and transgressions float to the surface like an egg in salt water (yes, that’s a thing), strongly suggest that your administration admit its error and refocus on a new candidate.
- Strongly advise that your leadership hire an independent firm to perform background checks. Several search outfits promote thorough searches into candidates’ pasts, but we know their best interests are to land a hire and collect commission, each which may upend the “thorough” part.
In Richards’ case, stepping down from Jeopardy! was the right thing — the only thing — for him to do. Sony Corporation made it worse when it went along with the hire, especially when his past was easily searchable.
Like Jeopardy!, your school has a reputation as a landing spot for smart people. Replacing a coach or administrator, especially an icon, is never easy, but it doesn’t have to be a PR nightmare.
About the author: Gail Sideman is a former member of the SID community. Today she consults and works with sports at all levels to prepare and manage their publicity. She further consults with college athletes about how to maximize their NIL opportunities and advises athletics administrations how they benefit from NIL as well. Visit
gpublicity.com, Twitter
@gpublicity1 or contact Gail by email at
gsideman@gpublicity.com
Talk about these stories on the CoSIDA Slack Community.