1 Why a Press Office and Have the Rules Changed? 1
2 The Press Office in the Information Age 7
Try This―A Job by Many Names 11
To the Point―Stages in Developing Press Offices 13
3 The Press Office at Work 15
Try This―A Press Office at Work 20
To the Point―A Day in the Life of the White House Press Secretary 23
4 The Proactive Strategic Communications Plan 25
Try This―Communications Plan Best Practices 28
To the Point―Communicating with the Public 29
5 Carrying Out the Media Campaign 31
Try This―Message Development 33
To the Point―Example of a Media Campaign 35
6 Tools of the Press Office 37
Try This―Tools of the Press Office 39
To the Point―Visuals Tell the Story 40
To the Point―Writing for Radio 41
Written Materials 43
Try This―Press Releases 46
To the Point―What Makes News? 47
8 Web Pages and Social Media 49
To the Point―Social Media vs. e-Government 59
9 Press Conferences 61
To the Point―Pool Reporting 64
To the Point―Working with Journalists 65
10 Interviews in Focus 67
Try This―Assessing the Interview Request 70
Try This―Preparing for the Interview 71
Try This―During the Interview 72
To the Point―Speaking On and Off the Record 73
11 Crisis Communications 75
Try This―Crisis Communications 79
To the Point―Dealing with False and Negative News 80
12 Event Planning 83
Try This―Before Accepting an Invitation 85
To the Point―The Briefing Book 87
13 Ethics: Codes of Conduct 89
To the Point―Do’s and Don’ts of Dealing with the Media 92
To the Point―Forming Groups with Common Interests 93
AP Appendix―Samples of Useful Press Forms 95
1 Media Advisory 95
2 Fact Sheet 96
3 Press Release 97
