Brown provides excellent guidelines, including worksheets, for establishing your own crisis communications plan so that you and everyone who should participate will be ready when a crisis hits. Weaknesses His weakest chapters are on writing news releases and online media relations. Although he generally gives examples and case studies when needed throughout the book, he is occasionally superficial. For example, in the section titled Telling Your Story, Brown writes about creating controversy as a way to make news. Journalists love a good fight.
Controversy sells newspapers and builds broadcast ratings.
One way to make news is to engage in a public fight. Communications professionals who are trained in marketing rather than in journalism tend to be inelegant writers, to put it charitably. Having worked as a journalist for 20 years, I have seen my share of pitiful attempts at verbal communication from PR hacks. But Brown has no excuse. He was a journalist for 20 years too.