When is it OK to shut out the media?
After a negative CNN report, one company has pulled the PR equivalent of taking its ball and going home. Smart move—or will it backfire?
Company meets media outlet. Media outlet runs story about company. Company doesn’t care for story’s tone. Company scorns all media.
Maybe it didn’t happen exactly like that when NPD Group announced plans to withhold video game sales data from the media, but the evidence makes a strong case for it.
It also prompts the question: When is it OK to shut out the media?
Here’s what happened:
A recent CNN article called NPD’s numbers (in so many words) useless and incomplete. NPD is a market research company that provides information on (among other things) video game sales.
Electronic Arts corporate communications executive Tiffany Steckler went so far as to tell CNN, “We see NPD’s data as a misrepresentation of the entire industry.”
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