1. Capital Metro Media Roundtable
APTA Marketing and Communications Conference 2018
Thanks Drew.
I’m here to talk about a media relations tool that we created and used in the past year at Capital Metro: the media roundtable.
Mariette Hummel

2. Reactive Media Relations
Passive media strategy
Lack of information control
Crisis Communications
But first I want to explain how we came to develop this idea.
When I joined Cap Metro two years ago, I was tasked with creating a more proactive and message-forward media strategy.

3. Taking Control of the Narrative
Plan ahead and anticipate
Increase internal communications
Identify potential media risks and opportunities
Leverage media content
Find out what the reporter wants
Frame the message, let the media own it
So the question was: how do we control the narrative about Capital Metro?
First, we had to plan ahead and anticipate big projects, changes and events that we could leverage as media content. We had to increase our conversations about this with other departments so we could identify both potential positive news stories and also potentially negative news content.

4. Cover the Basics Increase inquiry response time
Find out how media outlets like to receive information
Use each reporter’s preferred contact method
Ask how they think you’re doing
Give regular project updates
We started with the basics. So, we worked to increase our media inquiry response time, I also asked our contacts how they’d like to receive information and follow-up notices and made sure we’d follow their guidance. The next thing I did was set up meetings with our beat reporters and TV stations to ask how we were doing and what we could do better.

5. Inspiration: Austin Mayor Steve Adler
We started with the basics. So, we worked to increase our media inquiry response time, I also asked our contacts how they’d like to receive information and follow-up notices and made sure we’d follow their guidance. The next thing I did was set up meetings with our beat reporters and TV stations to ask how we were doing and what we could do better.

6. Inspiration: Austin Mayor Adler
Bi-weekly roundtable
Conference call or press gaggle
Updates on major projects, events, and initiatives
Positive feedback from media
During a coffee meeting, one of our reporters mentioned that the mayor of Austin holds a bi-weekly conference call with the media to give information updates. He asked if we could organize a similar thing. Now, we are not the mayor’s office and knew that if we did this bi-weekly or even monthly, very little media would show. So we created a concept that became the quarterly media roundtable.

7. Requests from the Media
Scheduled after editorial meetings
Late AM
The ability to call in to the meeting
Direct access to the experts
Program managers and planning staff
Opportunity for on-camera interviews immediately after the roundtable
I actually developed the roundtable with input from our reporters. During meetings with them over several months I asked them how this could help them cover us. Here are some of the things they asked for:
the ability to call in if not able to be there in person
get information straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak, with direct access to program managers and planning staff
opportunity for on-camera interviews right after the roundtable

8. Building an Alliance with Media
Reporters feel the pressure of social media and online information sharing.
1 or more stories every day
Reporters need content
Help them tell the story
Be their partner
 Now, the key here is the realization that just like we do, these reporters go to work every day with a task, a job to do. And they have to produce a new story, or more than one, every single day. A big part of media relations success is understanding the pressure of their job and knowing that they need all the help they can get.

9. Capital Metro Media Roundtable
Sample agenda
Time for each major agency initiative, led by subject matter experts
Offer time for on-camera interviews after
 So at that point, I put together a list of topics that we could talk about with the media. For this, I talked to our departments including planning, rail operations and capital projects to see what was happening in the next couple of months. I then created a list of topics, like the one you see here. So for this past media roundtable we held earlier this month we talked about several developments that really span from now until June and beyond. The interesting thing about holding a media roundtable like this is that you’re able to produce news stories about things that are really still far out. How Cap Metro will implement the biggest service change in its history
What is next for the Pickup Service? 
New developments for Project Connect
MetroRail: what are we doing to improve service?
SXSW: what is Capital Metro doing this year
Let’s talk a little bit about what this roundtable actually looks like. Before I even send out the agenda and an invitation to all our media contacts, I have a dry run with staff attending the roundtable. That’s how we determine the best order of topics and also the time each person needs to talk about it.
When I invite the media, I make sure to list a conference number right away so they know that’s an option. I follow up with each of them a few days before the roundtable and with the TV stations on the morning of.

10. Media Guideline Examples
Everything is on the record
Not everybody is media trained
Only media-trained staff should do on-camera interviews
PIOs are on camera, or coaching on-camera staff
 Everything said at the roundtable, which lasts an hour, is on the record. We allow radio reporters to move around to capture audio, and TV can get some establishing shots of the room. But we do ask the reporters to really wait with one-on-one interviews until after the roundtable so that it doesn’t disturb the conversation too much.
Because that’s really what it is: a conversation with our media partners. Each staff member will talk about their project and give any updates. While we move through each topic on a timed schedule it allows for clarifying questions after each agenda item.

11. Capital Metro Media Roundtable – May ‘17
 In this photo you can see what it looks like. Generally we have some photogs from TV set up on the side of the room. Most reporters sit at the table with us. This works well because the media really feeds off each other and when one reporters asks a question, another one may have a follow up…much like a press conference. At the end of the roundtable discussion, I ask all media to let me know who they’d like to interview.
Now this is where we really see a return of the invested staff time and resources. Generally, reporters do several interviews about different projects. We will set them up in different areas of our room or outside for TV interviews. Some planners or project managers may sit down with one of our print reporters for an interview, while radio grabs audio from either the TV or print interviews.

12. Immediate Results - Coverage
“Capital Metro will implement its biggest service change in history”
“Capital Metro takes its bus realignment network to its riders”
“Capital Metro projects aim to alleviate downtown commuter congestion”
“Installation of additional track lines along the MetroRail will reduce wait times”
At each of our roundtable and we’ve now had 4 total, we’ll see ten or more stories coming out that week about our projects. Now that’s the immediate coverage.

13. Immediate Results: Coverage
Average 10+ stories in the following days
Attendance high: 12
Attendance low: 7
2-3 call in
. In this graphic you can see a clear peak in our media exposure right around the roundtable which took place on May 30.

14. Open Communications – Positive Coverage
 But we also plant seeds with the media for future coverage. A great example is a bus stop revamp we are currently working on. While this wasn’t much of a story when we first discussed it in June, several reporters have since started following the story and covered it several times. They’ll now even check in with me to see what the status

15. Opportunity to Showcase Partnerships
. The winning factor there was that at that roundtable we also invited the community leaders that we are partnering with on this project. It turned the simple revamping of a bus stop into the revitalization of community history and became a compelling story.
And that’s one thing that has proven successful: opening up the roundtable to partners and stakeholders when we are wanting to talk about a joint project. I touch base with our partner agencies several times a year and always ask if they’d like to join one of our roundtables. This also shows to the media just how much we work together with other organizations in the city.

16. “Big Projects for Cap Metro Moving Forward”
I’ll now show you a clip of a story that came out of the roundtable last year and really shows the value of this strategy. The reporter will talk about several of Capital Metro’s projects, very little of which was immediate news. Some of this was not happening for another year or more. But because we were able to take control of the information, it really shows that we are working hard to improve transit for the people of Central Texas.

17. Telling Our Story – Telling Your Story
As one reporter put it after our roundtable last summer: “there’s just so much to pick from!”
That’s really the main objective of these roundtables. While many
transit projects or big service changes may move at a slow pace, we
need to let the public know that we are working on things and we
are listening and engaging.
The real value of the media roundtable here is that they only cover these topics right now because we are talking about them. We are helping them create news content and in doing so we are controlling the narrative.
“There’s just so much to pick from”

18. Questions? Thank you!