By Andrew Blum*
Government may seem boring to some. But when you look at national, state and local levels with agencies galore and then politics, it might be one of the most exciting PR jobs and news media beats today.
Government is a non-stop machine and it is constantly getting news media and social media attention. Throw in politics and elections and you truly have a 24-hour news and PR cycle that can last months. Look at the 2016 election for instance.
With federal government news and PR dominating Washington, DC, it’s almost easy to forget the 50 state capitals and governors who come with a PR staff and a nearby press corps. And there are the mayor’s offices in big and small cities. In some big cities, PR staff comes to press conference and events with a ‘”mult box” to allow press covering the mayor to hook in its broadcast link for a consistent feed. PR hint: don’t forget the mult box for broadcast media.
And yes, there’s the hum drum of daily government goings-on, which can sometimes be tedious for PR people and media. But then there are the crises to deal with on both sides of the PR and media aisle. When a boat hit the construction site of the Tappan Zee Bridge in suburban New York recently, there were two news conferences – one by Governor Andrew Cuomo and one by Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino – opponents in the last governor’s election.
So besides the news of the accident, there was politics involved there.
On national politics, who could have foreseen the 2016 election with the Trump effect and the Clinton-Sanders battle? It’s been a busy time for government PR and media.
In 2017, we’ll have a bunch of new people in government and the PR/news cycle starts all over again. Get ready!
*Andrew Blum is a PR consultant and media trainer and principal of AJB Communications. He has directed PR for professional services and financial services firms, NGOs, agencies and other clients. On government/political issues, he handled PR for former NY Gov. George Pataki for six years. As a PR executive, and formerly as a journalist, he has been involved on both sides of the media aisle in some of the most media intensive crises of the past 25 years. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @ajbcomms.
