PR Students -- Be Ready to Rise Early

Bobby Maldonado, an aide at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 

scans the news constantly on his predawn commute. 

(Drew Angerer/The New York Times)

The New York Times carried a very insightful article in in its Tuesday, Jan. 18 edition ("Where News Is Power, a Fight to Be Well Armed," by Ashley Parker; also online at http://nyti.ms/huHKZl, Jan. 17). The article sheds a little light (as in sunrise!) on one of the most important duties of young public relations, business, and political staff members: scanning the early-morning news agenda.

Following Bobby Maldonado, a young aide with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington, DC, the Times reported:

"With the help of three alarm clocks, he gets up at 4 a.m., is showered and out the door in less than an hour.... He arrives at his office ... just after 5:30 a.m. There, in a darkened cubicle, he scans the Internet for the day’s news and condenses it into a two-page memo that he shoots off to Thomas J. Donohue, the Chamber’s president, and other top executives before 8 a.m. He is never late."

The article continued:

"Mr. Maldonado, 26, is one of the dozens of young aides throughout the city who rise before dawn to pore over the news to synthesize it, summarize it and spin it, so their bosses start the day well-prepared. Washington is a city that traffics in information, and as these 20-something staff members are learning, who knows what — and when they know it — can be the difference between professional advancement and barely scraping by."

The Times described another staff member, Andrew Bates, a media monitor in the communication office at the White House. Bates rises by "4 a.m. to look over 30 to 40 Web sites and blogs." He also watches "the morning television news and talk shows, and send out relevant news clips to the top ranks of the Obama administration. He has even been known — with the help of Google Translator — to translate articles from other languages."

I would encourage an aspiring young public relations student or professional to pay careful attention to a few key points in this article. One, of course, is be prepared to get up very early in the morning ... and immediately  kick into your "A game" mode. 

Second, it's not just about getting up early and clipping some news articles. It's also about staying on top of a news cycle that knows no beginning or end, recognizing what to clip, understanding why it should be important to your organization and leadership, and being prepared to answer questions about the news report(s). According to the Times:

"Getting up early is nothing new, but the lightning speed of news on the Internet and the proliferation of outlets like Politico, which place a premium on 'winning' the day, has made the job more demanding and pushed the mornings ever earlier."

Despite the time pressure, you have to be prepared to answer tough questions about the media that you report on. According to Maldonado, "I study three hours every day, and every now and then I go before the professor and answer questions.... I’m not a policy expert, but I’ll always try to know two or three questions [my boss] might ask.”

As for Andrew Bates, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer recounted, "Rapid response requires knowing that there is something that needs response.... For such a young guy, Andrew has a great ability to sniff out stories that need to be handled with dispatch. During our biggest fights, from health care to the Supreme Court confirmations, Andrew repeatedly spotted potential problems in the farthest reaches of the Internet before anyone else. That information was essential to our success.”

So, be prepared ... like the old adage goes: "Early to bed and early to rise..." 

Mark