Political Communications

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

PRESS OFFICE
DAY-TO-DAY PRESS AGENT

BRIEF:
The Assembly Minority Office is one of four partisan offices assigned to provide daily legislative and communications support to State elected officials.

Challenge:
The Communications department was understaffed from the summer of 1999 into the 2000 legislative session. The volume of media requests would reach double digits on certain days. And the office was expected to continue to issue 100 external messages a week, including any additional messages for the district offices.

Solution:
In order to alleviate the volume of district office messages, I devised a media training manual and program for district office staff. A comprehensive media list was devised and set up digitally to automate dissemination. A media team was put in place to handle, TV, web, radio and print.

Result:
The office maintained its #1 ranking as the most pro-active communications office of the four. Story placements increased by 25%, most notably the Star-Ledger, Philadelphia Inquirer, NJN, NBC4, CBS2, Channel 11, Channel 9, WOR-AM, and the New York Times.