What 15 years at the BBC taught me about crisis communications

Abby Mangold Media Interview

I spent 15 years at the BBC making undercover programmes like Watchdog, before moving into crisis communications.

Programmes that required journalists and lawyers and Directors of Communications all wanting different things. All under deadline pressure. All wanting to protect something – the story, the legal position, the organisation.

That’s not so different from crisis communications. You’re just wearing different hats.

The undercover work taught me how to stay calm when things are moving fast. How to manage difficult conversations with people who are angry or scared. How to balance competing interests when there’s no perfect answer.

In a crisis, you need both sides. You need the journalist’s instinct to know what the real story is. And you need the comms person’s discipline to think about how it lands with your audience.

 

Curious about the team behind Mangold Consultancy and how that background shapes our approach to crisis work? Get in touch, or find out more about our crisis management services.

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The Post Office, Boohoo and the moments I miss investigative journalism

Investigative Journalism

It’s times like these that I miss making TV.

Watching Mr Bates vs the Post Office and the long overdue response from the Government I’m reminded about the power of TV and its reach – 9.2 million people watched the first episode, and that was before people started really talking about it.

Yes, there are lots of means to get publicity for your cause these days but there is nothing more convincing than real human stories, told well, through public service broadcasting.

Meanwhile, a BBC investigation has found that Boohoo put ‘Made in UK’ labels on clothes made overseas.

Ooooh to have been part of the team uncovering that little nugget.

These dramas and investigations take big teams of highly talented individuals, they take money (so lacking in journalism these days) and they take a collective will to ‘out the truth’ even when it can be months and years to gather the evidence you need.

My advice to any business on the receiving end of one of these investigations is take it seriously, if they’re coming for your response, they’ve already got the evidence they need and the truth, well the truth will always out, even if it takes 25 years.

Kudos to my ex colleagues at BBC Watchdog

BMW

Credit to BBC Watchdog for their investigation on last night’s programme which lead to BMW announcing a recall of hundreds of thousands of cars.

The truth is that no one really knows what goes on inside an organisation during a crisis, apart from the people managing it.  There are often multiple business objectives which reach far beyond being featured on the programme.  Continue reading “Kudos to my ex colleagues at BBC Watchdog”