Articles

BRUTALITY AND BOUILLABASE
By Terence Fane-Saunders
Chairman and Chief Executive, Chelgate Ltd

We had a "brutal moments" session over lunch last weekend. Three battle-scarred survivors of more PR nightmares than make for gentle reading, each comparing the most memorable "brutal moment" in his or her career.

Mine - and I still shudder - was the great "off-the-record horror". It was all long ago, and I was still very much a beginner, but I was delighted and surprised to find myself at a lunch meeting between the newly appointed chief executive of one of the country's best known companies, and a well-known business journalist.

The lunch went wonderfully well. The chief executive was witty, eloquent and expansive. The journalist was a picture of courteous charm, hanging on every word, laughing at every joke. The perfect audience.

The wine flowed. The brandy and cigars followed. And the chief executive grew ever more witty, eloquent and expansive. And indiscreet.

I felt privileged. Cocooned in cigar smoke and soft lights, here I was sharing the intimate secrets of the rich and famous. So this was power lunching!

"Of course, old man", said the chief executive, waving his cigar at the journalist "all this has to stay off the record".

"I'm afraid not", said the scribe. "If those were the ground rules, you should have said so at the outset".

All hell, as they say, broke loose. Calls were placed to the editor, to the publisher, to the corporate lawyers. Threats were made, enticements offered. But the process was remorseless. Three days later the article appeared, and anecdote by anecdote, indiscretion by indiscretion, a career was destroyed. He remained in the job a few more months, but the moment the article appeared, the end loomed.

To this day one memory of the occasion is burnt vividly into my memory: the chief executive's face when he realised what he had done. Sudden, simple, almost child-like panic.

The whole area of off-the-record and non-attributable briefings is a minefield to be entered only with the greatest caution.

First, of course, it's vital that the ground rules are clearly laid out, understood and accepted by both sides, before a single word is uttered. Is it off-the-record? Or merely non-attributable?

Off the record means that the information given will not be used. Non-attributable means that it may be used, but the source will be protected. An important distinction.

The non-attributable briefing is particularly sensitive, as it will often require even further clarification. Is "a company spokesman" acceptable? Or "a source close to the company"? Or should the understanding be that the information or comment should in no way be linked with the company in even the most indirect fashion? Whatever the agreement, clarity is vital.

Another area of danger is the tendency of some interviewees to move blithely on and off the record in the course of the same press briefing. I've seen this done with great skill and effect. But the potential for misunderstanding is frightening.

It's actually very rare for a journalist to break an off-the-record commitment. Most apparent breaches can be traced to a failure to establish the ground-rules sufficiently clearly at the outset.

Certainly, handled well, with journalists you know and trust, off-the-record briefing can, on occasion, be a valuable media relations tool. But the single, overriding rule for anyone planning a non-attributable or off-the-record briefing is this: never say or reveal anything which you cannot afford to see repeated in print with your name beside it in the next day's paper.