A panel of Central Iowa media veterans delivered two messages to a gathering of business leaders last week: Be responsive and honest when dealing with the press, and be aware that the press has changed.

“The quickest way to turn a short-term crisis into a long-term trial by fire,” said Lorraine May, “is to not be forthright.”

May, an attorney who has worked with publishers and helped corporate clients deal with reportersf questions, was one of four participants in a panel discussion on “Media Ethics and Public Relations Crisis Management” at one in a series of Power Breakfasts hosted by the Des Moines Business Record. Completing the panel were Diana Deibler, president of the Deibler and Co. public relations firm; Barbara Mack, an associate professor at Iowa State Universityfs Greenlee School of Journalism; and Eileen Wixted, a partner in Wixted Pope Nora & Associates, which provides communications training and consulting services to businesses.

Martha Willits, president of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, served as moderator.

The 90-minute session included these comments about how business people should handle press inquiries during times of crisis for their companies:

“Don’t waste time creating a Q & A that’s so sanitized no reporter in their right mind can find anything of value in it,” Deibler said. “Create two or three message modules that are clear, concise and compelling. What do you want your key audiences to think, feel and believe?”

“Crisis management is ultimately about your ability to protect and manage your brand,” Wixted said. “When you undermine your credibility, you will lose market share.” Tell the truth early, often and well.”

Wixted said she advises clients to have company officials get involved in making statements to the press as coverage of a crisis goes on. “The person you send out front has to have a level of authority,” she said. “A spokesperson is helpful in the early hours, but you have to move up the food chain. We tell them to save the CEO for when you’re about to claim victory.”

“There’s never a time to say ‘no comment,'” Deibler said, and Mack agreed, saying, “‘No comment’ means ‘I’m guilty.'”

May told of being unable to answer a reporter’s question, then getting the information from another source and relaying it to the reporter; she said the resulting newspaper story reported that she refused to answer the question initially but later called back to admit she had the information. “When you can’t answer a question,” she said, “it’s important for the reporter to understand why.”

“Talking to reporters off the record is a risky thing to do,” Mack said. “You have to establish exactly what that means.”

“My advice is not to go off the record,” Wixted said. “I don’t trust reporters.”

Three of the women in the group have been part of the media. Deibler worked as a television news director, Mack served in several roles at The Des Moines Register and Wixted was a TV news reporter and anchor.

The panelists were unanimous in criticizing the current style of reporting.

“Reporters today are fundamentally driven by different things. It’s no longer about news; it’s about eyeballs,” Wixted said. “It’s about capturing an audience and driving revenue. And, like other businesses, news organizations are doing more with less, so reporters are always going from one story to another.” She added, “I’ve run into reporters who are very disrespectful.”

“Part of that is generational,” May said, suggesting that longer experience in reporting leads to a more courteous approach and a deeper understanding of the subjects being covered. “I would love to see [a statistic on] the average age of reporters 20 years ago versus now. I bet it’s younger now.”

Mack agreed and added that college students are more likely to go into the public relations field than into journalism because of differences in pay and working conditions. “The students say, ‘I need to make some money,'” she said. “In journalism, you have low pay, and the hours are not great. It used to be you were treated well, but now there’s more pressure for action, not thoughtfulness.”

Mack also suggested that reporters and the public are less inclined to trust businesses that operate here but are based elsewhere. “We have fewer and fewer locally owned businesses that have established relationships with the community over decades,” she said. “We have fewer relationships built on churches and schools as well as business.”