PR at PMH?...Nooooo the PMH Foundation!

I had not really considered the existence of a PR body working for a hospital – let alone an entire foundation dedicated to it – until I started my placement at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.

Wanting to find work placement in the non-for-profit sector, I was amazed at the variety of different organisations out there in our community that can be easily overlooked. Although Princess Margaret Hospital is well known in WA for its specialisation in children, since starting my placement I have quickly learnt that its separate Foundation is often forgotten or confused with the role of the hospital itself.

The PMH Foundation is the official fundraising body for the children’s hospital and has a critical role in providing funds for vital medical equipment and research, as well as implementing various projects. They are involved in so many exciting activities including annual events like the  Urban Decent (where people can fundraise to abseil down a city skyscraper…check out the fun we had earlier this year... http://www.urbandescent.com.au/tag/pmh/), Wear A Bear Day and even weekly visits into the hospital wards with their mascot ‘Stitches the Bear’. More information about everything can be found at http://www.pmhfoundation.com/ if anyone is interested.

Right from the first day working for the foundation I began to understand one of the main challenges it faces. As part of what has become my weekly task, I use a media monitoring website called www.mediaportal.com to search for coverage of the foundation and write up a media report about all the articles and other coverage that it has been mentioned in. Through this monthly report the media content can be analysed by the board as to whether there has been enough public awareness and activities generated to assist with fundraising objectives.

The problem, however, is that all too often the journalists and outsourced consultants who write the articles simply write PMH instead of mentioning the PMH Foundation specifically. The public are often confused as to where they can donate money because of this mix-up. It also makes it hard to monitor what the Foundation has actually been doing for the hospital. I also think the PMH Foundation and its staff work really hard to create a good public profile for the hospital and it is a pity that they often do not get the recognition they deserve. I have spoken with my coordinator about what they plan to do about the problem. She said that they have started to put a note on all the information they send through highlighting the importance of having the PMH Foundation specifically mentioned in media releases and articles. Whether that is going to be enough is another story. Maybe I should ask if any of you have a better idea of how to tackle this issue? I’m sure my team would be eagre to hear your suggestions!

MEDIA PROFILE AND MEDIA REPORT

Media profile or updating media on a certain client is easy as long as you give it time and comprehend with it before you even start. I was given the work on media profile for dissimilar newspapers and magazines for our client, which at first I did not understand but did it without any assistance to see whether I can do it appropriately.


I was given a list of newspapers and magazines of which some were not in the office, in this case I had to go into the supermarket to research on the newspapers and magazines. Being terrified of being spotted researching on the newspapers and magazines without buying, I had to buy them mostly newspapers which I spent a lot just for research. What I was supposed to do was to research on the profile of different newspapers which included target audience; websites of the newspaper, the day the paper is published, programmes’ included in the newspaper and the pages the newspaper is composed of. For example News Straits Times is composed of NST Learning Curve, NST Sunday People, NST, Life and Times and NST Travel Times. Luckily I was given only the English newspapers, so I could understand better.


This media profile update has helped me to be familiar with the local English newspapers because even now I know what is included in different newspapers as well as their target audience which I was not familiar with and had no interest of knowing about it.


Apart from the media profile update, I was given a task on compiling the client’s media yearly report. I compiled the report from July 2009 to January 2010, this perplexed me a bit because I did not know where to get the media clippings for the past months that I was not in the office. There came an idea, I went through the client’s folder only to find media clippings for the past months and reports, I compiled all of them accordingly and then I started afresh with the January reports and clippings which took me less time to get done.
I had to collect all the media clippings for January and then compile a report based on those clippings. The report included activities for the month, publication, circulation, media value and the date of the publication. It was not an easy task because I kept on missing some clippings of the month and had to go back again and look for them. Be reminded that the report was from July 2009 to January 2010 which is seven full months. I gave it time and enthusiasm but I jammed on the way with the events and activities because they were mixed up. This took me time as I did not anticipate something of that temperament. Some articles were the same but it did not come to my mind that there are different newspapers so this means that every newspaper can publish the same article. For example New Strait Times had the article and The Sun had the same one too with same heading, so I was like this is the same article so I will just include one and leave the other aside. When I was done compiling the report I emailed it to my supervisor who after checking it, she told me that I have missed some clippings and had to include them. I did it again because by then I was familiar with the clippings and the report compiling. Media value was well calculated as I was told how to do it so it was not a dilemma to me.


With media report and media profile update, it has left an aide memoire to me because the newspapers that we read every morning we read them to compile clippings which at the end are compiled as a report for the month or year. I have been thinking I am given simple task which is reading without any idea that those media clippings are important at the end of the month. So my advice is if you have not done media monitoring yet make sure you take it seriously because at the end the same clippings you cut every morning are to be used as media report, who knows, the task might be given to you and it will be uncomplicated if you have an idea where and how you saved the clippings.

By Tiny D. Tshukudu