Customer Reviews

Stop the Presses: The Crisis and Litigation PR Desk Reference

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Don't buy this book for your PR department. Buy it for your attorneys.

Levick bridges the gap between the need for an organization to speak publicly during a crisis and its legal department's desire to keep the corporate yap locked tight. An attorney himself, Levick understands perception trumps fact, and that at crisis time the real battle won't happen in a court of law; it's already happening in the court of public opinion.

Filled with insights and strategies for short-circuiting a media assault from newspapers still in print to online bloggers, "Stop the Presses" is a must-read for those who think they know crisis communications.

Levick also explains the critical need for advance preparation, on-going media awareness and outside legal and communications counsel in a crisis, three steps lacking in too many organizations.

A clear winner.

Dennis Dean
The Dean Group

It's rare that a book can serve as an "insurance policy," but Stop The Presses comes as close as any I have read. Nobody relishes the idea of a crisis situation befalling them or their business--but crises do strike--and by definition, they are unexpected. If a company's management has read, or even browsed those neat little gray "So Don't Forget" boxes at the end of each chapter of Stop The Presses, it will have taken the first step on the road to preparedness.

Ricard Levick and Larry Smith make this sometimes frightening topic eminently readable, and fill the pages with useful, do's, don't and "don't forgets." Their experience is evident all through the book. No book is a substitute for the right advisers and advice, but this one covers many of the crises and legal/regulatory troubles with just enough explanation to start readers on the path to the right kind of actions.

As I stated at the start: it isn't quite an insurance policy, but for $30, it might just save your reputation or your company. And that's probably the best $30 you could spend. Buy it; read it; and hope you never need it. You'll sleep better at night.

The authors deliver a comprehensive "how-to" guide on reputation and crisis management. They are definitely advocates who write in terms of us vs. them. In their world, (usually) well-meaning corporations are beset on all sides by adversaries who will use any technique, fair or foul, to undermine their business. This book, the Second Edition, includes more discussion of issues related to Web media, advocacy blogs in particular. The authors seem particularly concerned about the growing and often diabolical influence of bloggers, who are indeed reaching larger and more motivated audiences just as print media readership continues its steep decline. This passage sums up the book's attitude toward bloggers -

"Because the E.coli crisis was not the first such event, and nor will it be the last, the industry was facing adversaries even before the revelations of contamination were made. Special interest groups and self-appointed watchdogs were lying in wait. Their lair is the blogosphere." (p 113)

The book is important reading for three audiences.

1. Corporate leaders who must know all the angles when it comes to defending their company when crisis strikes. Levick and Smith are clearly experienced. They've seen things spin out of control every which way, and their many case studies and examples teach valuable lessons.

2. Corporate attorneys involved in crisis litigation. This is way outside my area of expertise, but the book contains fairly detailed advice geared specifically to attorneys.

3. New media thought leaders. "Stop the Presses" stands in stark contrast to books such as The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly, Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, and even The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual. These books, which sing the praises of full disclosure and wide open communication, tend to under emphasize the legal risks borne by corporations in the face of an organized opposition with sometimes sinister motivations. While overly open communication could backfire badly for a large corporation, strict adherence to this book's perspective could lead to an equally devastating bunker mentality. The best approach to managing information on the Web lies somewhere in between.

A couple side notes ... The book is quite readable on the whole, although the style bounces around between conversational and formal. I found the many, many "sidebar" digressions - some of which were several pages long - to be highly distracting, as they were inserted in the middle of the rather complex narrative. When will publishers stop trying to turn printed material into Web pages? It doesn't work.

(Disclosure - A publicist from Mr. Levick's office gave me a free copy of the book and encouraged me to review it here. No suggestions were made about what kind of review to give it.)

Stop the Presses is a revealing surprise so far. I'm finding it a compelling work of reference, application and practical wisdom that's equally clever, smart and a popping good read! I hope the authors do for C-suites what Cluetrain Manifesto did for those who were once 'sheep.' In fact, I just ordered one for my favorite 'litigator' -- my dad.

As an investigative reporter years ago, I would have delighted in this book -- it's quite enlightening in terms of how the media and its sources traditionally share a mutual perspective as 'frienemies' -- whether those sources are marketing chiefs, communications 'comptrollers,' information 'controllers' or the info-trolling public they can't control (and never did... not all of 'us' anyway).

Though cliché, the authors' call to 'run to the crisis' isn't trite at all. It's no less trite for chiefdom, occupational journalists and their citizen counterparts dawning 3.0 than it was to the friendlier, subtle but perhaps more adversarial 'oneupmanship' that marked information exchange and reputations of the 1.0 generation. Our corporate 'friends' and counsel wore white-collar T-shirts beneath their expensive vests; we wore our coffee-stained cottons and camisoles straight up to the copy desk. (We dressed them up for boardrooms with khakis and a blazer ....)

As I recall, the press corps' most popular T quoted Richard Nixon: "... The media always have the last word." Levick and Smith 'get it,' and they also seem to get the power of integrity and today's new media powerbrokers, as well as the fuller message of Nixon's full quotation: "The media are far more powerful than the President in creating public awareness and shaping public opinion, for the simple reason that the media always have the last word."

Today's media often have the first word, too, which STP underscores well -- crisis or not. And for that, Levick and Smith deserve a T-shirt ... with matching SOX to boot. Or maybe they'll brand some sox for the C-suite that offer the real wisdom of this book: "Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching." -- Stop the Presses

After having devoured this book, I can highly recommend reading it.

It is easy to read and offers lots of very practical advice on how to master or even prevent crisis. Richard and Larry have apparently broad experience in helping troubled companies in times of difficulties; and they share their knowledge with a good portion of humor, many real world references and examples, and very helpful appendixes.

Their emphasis on "prevention" made it clear to me how important it is for nearly every company's "survival" to anticipate the potential for crisis and to set up early the required structures. I liked in particular the reminder - or wake up call for many of us - on how important it is to become part of the blog community.

This book should be bed side lecture for everybody who manages communication on behalf of any size and type of company, in particular outside counsel, members of legal and PR departments. It is a great 1x1 on crisis management but also offers lots of depth.

I immediately thought of British Airways' management who should have read this book before opening Heathrow's new terminal and entering into disaster. They would most probably be better off today!

Stop the Presses (2nd Ed.) is a reference book, but it can only be considered a primer for anyone needing to respond to crisis and litigation. I especially like appendix. Most readers will find them helpful.

If Roger had read Levick and Smith's "bible" on crisis management, I truly do not believe he would be facing an FBI investigation today or the destruction of his "brand" name. The Clemens case is proof positive that even the highest paid lawyers in the world do not necessarily have the skills to get out ahead of the crisis curve. Firms like Levick would have had a "ambush prevention" strategy in place for Clemens before the Mitchell report even hit the street and they would have anticipated how to deal with whatever his former trainer said--before he said it. Roger should still read this book--it is never too late to counter attack. And it goes without saying that senior executives of corporations throughout the world and other public figures should do so as well.

Vice Admiral Ed Straw
Former President, Global Operations
The Estee Lauder Companies

In today's media-rich world, where everyone's looking for the next "scoop", you can NOT afford to be without this book... STOP THE PRESSES: The Crisis and Litigation PR Desk Reference (2nd Edition) by Richard S. Levick, Esq. and Larry Smith. This is the go-to book when your organization is under siege from reporters, bloggers, and scandal-hungry media outlets. Actually, it's the go-to book *before* you get in that situation...

Contents:
Bullet-Proofing Your Brand; Things Change, Things Stay the Same; The Life Cycle of a Brand; What's At Stake? Here's the Quick Answer... Maybe Everything; The Quintessential Crisis Team - Two Approaches; The Crisis Plan - From Action Points to Talking Points - and Back to Action; Handling the Print Interview; How to Survive the Broadcast Media Pit Bulls; Secret Weapons, Open War - Optimized Internet Strategies as a Litigation Tool; A Whole New Ballgame - How Blogs Have Taken Crisis Communications to the Next and Unprecedented Level; Food, Drugs, and Money - Communications in an Age of Heightened Regulatory Prosecutorial Activity; The Family Jewels - Media Strategies in Product Liability Crises; Special Agendas... Gearing Press Relations to Specific Crisis Areas; Another Crucial Complication... How Cultural Differences Affect Media Management Across Borders; Law Firms in Trouble - Unique Media Strategies for a Unique Market; The Immense Significance of Offense in Crisis Communication Today; Conclusion... Sort Of; Appendix A - Litigation Planning Guide; Appendix B - A Crisis Management Primer for In-House Counsel; Appendix C - Crisis Scenarios

Despite the rather formal sounding title, STOP THE PRESSES is concise, compact, and incredibly readable. Levick and Smith do an excellent job in examining how organizations can be targeted by media following up bad news, product recalls, scandal, or any other nasty thing that will make headlines. It used to be that you could get away with a "no comment" and control the two or three media outlets that mattered. Now "no comment" is seen as stonewalling, and media is far more than the newspaper and the 5 pm news. Blogs, websites, and 24 hour news stations can take a story, break it in hours (if not minutes), and put you in a position where you better have a plan in place before the public opinion is permanently set against you.

The book starts out with making sure you get your message and image out in the media before a crisis hits. You want to be seen as a reputable, responsible organization with a consistent story. That gives you good will and a chance if and when things take a turn for the worse. A prime example would be Southwest Airlines recently being exposed as flying planes that were past their inspection dates. While they will take a hit for that, their public image prior to the report gives them a bit of room to respond. The authors then transition into how to build a team that will respond to any crisis, knows what to do when the news breaks, and has a firm grasp of the message that should be used in any media forum.

As I'm a blogger, I was most interested in how they viewed blogs in this situation. As with the rest of the book, I felt they were dead-on. Blogs can't be ignored, companies should have their blogging voice established well before a crisis hits, and at the very least you need to be monitoring the blogosphere to see what's being said about your organization. Often a news story that would be overlooked has been fanned by bloggers into a full-blown lead feature. As examples, look at Dan Rather's "authentic" memos as well as Senator Trent Lott's resignation over insensitive remarks over race. Ignoring bloggers is something to do at your own risk and peril.

There is even more information in these pages that corporate communication staff should know and fully understand. If I were running the PR department of *any* company or organization, I would require this book to be on everyone's desk in my department, and we'd use it as a planning tool for that day when the media turns on you. And it *will* happen...

This book was not only authoritative but entertaining reading. In a world where it is often difficult to find credible sources of information about any topic, these guys are the real deal. And any recommendation from Jack Trout is good enough for me.

As someone who works on the business side of the media, I found this book doubly fascinating, both for what it has to say about the impact of media on business as well as the best media strategies for business. It is a strategic and tactical guidebook, but it is also a powerful reminder of the responsibilities we have in this world...Words like "accountability" and "transparency" appear throughout the text, but they're never used glibly. Finally, unlike a lot of business books, this one is written by a couple of guys who really know how to write...Judging by their style, they've earned the privilege of advising others about how to communicate.