When Seconds Count: How I Keep Control in a Media Crisis
Warning – explicit content
I remember the moment vividly: The phone buzzed on my desk with an urgency I recognized all too well. It was the public affairs unit of the local police department with some confidential and disturbing news that would bring my organization into the global spotlight.
I put the phone down and quickly informed my boss. At first he didn’t believe what I was saying was true and thought it was a school prank. It was just too horrifying. A dismembered body part getting mailed to an elementary school and then opened up by an unsuspecting office assistant in the middle of the school day? Could that really happen? We realized we had to get a handle on the facts before the media and school’s parents found out, or the story would outpace us and take on a life of its own.
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate one undeniable truth in crisis communications: When a crisis hits, every second counts. The organizations that protect their reputations in these moments aren’t just lucky—they’re prepared and they have systems in place to weather the storm. And while experience, instincts, and calm under pressure all play a role, the real differentiator is how well a team is set up to respond before the crisis ever begins.
The Crisis That Shaped My Approach
Early in my career, I worked on a crisis that made crystal clear the value of preparation and the importance of good systems. I was newly with the Vancouver School Board when word came that since-convicted killer Luka Magnotta had mailed body parts of one of his victims to a Vancouver school. It was hard to process how something so horrifying had happened, let alone to have a compelling answer to all the questions coming from the press and public. International media picked up on the story immediately.
What followed was a scramble. I remember news breaking in real time while I was on the phone with a reporter from a major media outlet. We were inundated with emails and calls and we did our best to handle them, but without a good tracking system, we definitely missed replying to some. I was able to prepare a short list of key messages on a crinkled piece of paper but I quickly exhausted it and struggled to come up with what the school board or police responses would typically be for this type of situation.
The result? A nervous spokesperson who didn’t come across as authoritative. We had no agreed collection of messaging and phrasing so the response felt ad hoc to journalists and did little to quell the concerns of parents. I got through it but found myself utterly exhausted that night, replaying missteps in my mind. On the second day of the crisis, we knew we had to do better and we did—conducting a series of morning live hits to shield school staff from media calls and interview requests. I was able to unify the teams and convey a clear message that no child had seen the evidence. Finally on Day 3, the media moved to a new story. While we’d held our own, the school board’s reputation had definitely come under pressure.
That experience taught me a crucial lesson: In a crisis, disorganization isn’t just inefficient; it’s reputationally dangerous.
The Importance of Acting Quickly—But Not Carelessly
Speed in a media crisis is non-negotiable. The news cycle moves faster than ever, and social media can magnify a single comment or event exponentially. But there’s a common misconception that speed means rushing. In reality, it’s about having the right systems in place so that responding quickly doesn’t mean responding carelessly.
When a story breaks, your team needs immediate access to critical information:
- Who has already been contacted?
- What messaging has been shared publicly?
- What’s the official line the team needs to stick to?
- Which stakeholders need to be prioritized?
Without a central, accessible record of this information, you’ll lose precious time hunting for answers—time you simply don’t have.
I’ve seen teams make avoidable mistakes under pressure: calling the same journalist twice, releasing statements with inconsistent details, or worse, contradicting one another across platforms. The fallout isn’t just embarrassing; it erodes the public’s trust in your organization.
Consistency is Credibility
One of the most overlooked aspects of crisis communication is consistency. If your messaging varies depending on who is speaking or where it’s being published, your audience will question your credibility. Imagine two spokespersons from the same organization offering slightly different accounts of an incident. Or a school principal telling parents one thing while a district administrator says something else to the media. Even if the difference is minor, it plants seeds of doubt.
To avoid this, organizations need:
- Pre-approved message templates: For common scenarios like data breaches, employee misconduct or operational disruptions.
- A single source of truth: A centralized platform where all messaging and interactions are logged.
- Real-time updates: The ability for team members to access the latest approved messaging, anytime, anywhere.
In one case I worked on, we set up a simple spreadsheet as our “message centre.” It worked—until it didn’t. As the situation evolved, the document became cluttered, team members forgot to update it, and it was difficult to track changes. It was clear we needed something more robust.
The Mental Load of Crisis Management
What people don’t often talk about in crisis communications is the emotional and cognitive load it places on a team. In the heat of a crisis, you’re not just dealing with media inquiries—you’re managing internal expectations, calming anxious executives and constantly recalibrating your response based on new information.
Crisis communications professionals are human. We make better decisions when we’re not juggling a dozen tasks manually. Automating routine but essential processes—like tracking media interactions or compiling response reports—frees up mental bandwidth for the strategic work that truly matters.
The Spreadsheet Era—and the Moment of Realization
After years of handling crises across multiple organizations, I found myself defaulting to the same routine: opening spreadsheets to log media inquiries, copying and pasting email threads, and manually updating lists of who said what to whom. The spreadsheets were useful but they were also fragile. People forgot to update them, made accidental edits or simply couldn’t access the latest version when they needed it most.
That was the moment it really clicked: Our process was fundamentally flawed. We were trying to manage 21st-century crises with 20th-century tools. And it wasn’t just us. When I talked to peers in the industry, they all told me the same thing: They were also juggling spreadsheets, emails, and sticky notes while trying to respond to journalists in real time.
The tools we had weren’t failing because we were using them incorrectly; they were failing because they weren’t designed for the complexity of the modern media landscape.
What We Needed to Do Differently
That realization led me to rethink what an effective crisis response system actually needed. Through trial and error—and more crises than I’d like to admit—I landed on a few core principles:
- Automate Manual Processes:
We were spending hours entering media requests into spreadsheets. The more we could automate that, the more time we had to craft thoughtful, accurate responses.
- Centralize All Communications:
It wasn’t enough to have the information; we needed it in one, accessible location. Whether it was a media inquiry from that morning or a key message from last year, everything had to live in the same place.
- Maintain a Clear Timeline of Events:
In a crisis, things move quickly. It’s easy to lose track of who said what to whom. Keeping a running, time-stamped record of interactions made it much simpler to track the evolution of a situation.
- Ensure Access to the Latest Messaging:
We built a library of pre-approved messages for common crisis scenarios. It was like having a toolkit ready to go when the alarm sounded.
- Give Everyone the Same Playbook:
Crisis communications isn’t a solo act. Everyone—from the executive team to front-line communicators—needs to be aligned. Shared dashboards, regular check-ins and clear communication channels became essential.
Over time, these principles became the backbone of how we responded to crises. They also happened to be the foundation for pretty much everything I eventually built into Broadsight Tracker.
Lessons Learned: Preparation Over Panic
If there’s one lesson I hope others can learn from my experience, it’s this: Don’t wait until the storm hits to build your response infrastructure. Media crises are inevitable for most organizations. How you handle them defines your reputation long after the headlines fade.
So, what can you do today to prepare for the crisis you hope never comes?
- Identify Your Crisis Scenarios: List the types of crises most likely to impact your organization.
- Create Messaging Templates: Draft core messages now so you’re not scrambling later.
- Centralize Your Information: Whether it’s a spreadsheet, an internal tool or a platform like ours—just make sure everything is in one place.
- Run Regular Drills: Practice makes clarity. Simulate real scenarios to stress-test your process.
- Empower Your Team: Crisis response isn’t just the responsibility of one or two people. Equip your entire team with the skills and tools they need to respond effectively.
Today, I still get that familiar jolt when my phone buzzes unexpectedly. But now, I also feel something new: confidence. Confidence that my team isn’t scrambling through outdated spreadsheets. Confidence that we can respond quickly and with a unified voice. Confidence that, even when the stakes are high, we’re ready.
Because when seconds count, preparation isn’t optional—it’s everything.
Download our free Crisis Communications Checklist and equip your team with the tools to respond confidently when seconds count. It’s the same framework I’ve used throughout my career—and pretty much everything we built into Broadsight Tracker.
Download our Crisis Communications Checklist
