Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Timing is one of the most crucial aspects of Public Relations. We often refer to journalists’ deadlines when discussing the importance of timing, but the timing of an announcement is vital to the success of managing scenarios.

A simple example of this is announcing job cuts to the workforce, rather than letting staff find out through the media. If that were to happen a environment of hostility and confusion would arise, whereby disaffected workers would voice their concerns to the media, despite the fact that their fears might be unfounded.

I came across a nice example of how poor timing of an announcement can have a negative effect this weekend. The German Soccer manager, Jurgen Klinsmann, choose to announce that Jens Lehmann would take Oliver Kahn’s place as the number one goalkeeper going into the World Cup. It didn’t help the fact that Kahn was due to play an important game less than 24 hours later which his team went onto lose three nil.

I’m not saying the announcement caused Kahn to concede the goals, but it couldn’t have helped his concentration knowing that he was going to enter his last World Cup finals on the subs bench, hours before a crucial match. Klinsmann was rightly criticised by Kahn’s manager and the press.

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