Mar

3

Interview with Matt Barnhart, Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations (Part 3)

Filed Under Career, Interviews | Leave a Comment

Today is Part 3 of an informational interview that I had by phone with Matt Barnhart, who is the Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations. We spent nearly 45 minutes talking about public relations and the Lions so I decided to break it into multiple posts this week. In today’s post, Matt addresses the Lions’ 0-16 season in 2008 and dealing with blogs and rumor websites. Tomorrow’s post, which will be the last in this four-part series, will feature Q&A with Matt about career tips for the sports PR industry. If you haven’t read them already, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the informational interview.

1) In 2008, you guys obviously had a tough season going 0-16. As a PR department, how do you deal with something like that and what were some of the obstacles that you had to overcome during that season?

Well how we dealt with it was that we didn’t focus on 0-16. Just like the team, we were focusing week-by-week. We weren’t looking at how this is going to affect us long-term or what’s going to happen three weeks down the road. Our focus was to do what we can as a PR department to help this organization prepare and get ready for the next game. So you really narrowed your focus and as much as possible and kept focus on the upcoming game. Much like the team preparing each game, you were doing the same thing and working in concert with the same message and the same mission that they were doing. Obviously things didn’t turn out anywhere where we expected and it was a disappointment, but you’ve got to have that mindset especially if the team is moving in that direction. You need to make sure that you stay on that same message.

Read more

Mar

2

Interview with Matt Barnhart, Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations (Part 2)

Filed Under Career, Interviews | 2 Comments

Today is Part 2 of an informational interview that I had by phone with Matt Barnhart, who is the Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations. We spent nearly 45 minutes talking about public relations and the Lions so I decided to break it into multiple posts this week. In today’s post, Matt addresses the NFL Draft. Tomorrow’s post will feature Q&A with Matt regarding the Lions’ 0-16 season in 2008 and how he deals with blogs and rumor websites. If you haven’t read them already, be sure to check out Part 1 of the informational interview.

1) The Lions had the top pick in 2009 and obviously the draft generates so much media attention, especially of late. What types of things did you and your staff do in the weeks leading up to the draft and then actually on draft day when it comes to that overall first pick?

As the off-season kind of developed, we started to realize that there’s nothing we can do about the past and it helped us that we had a new face in terms of our head coach, Jim Schwartz, who does a tremendous job with the media. The way he handles the media positively impacts the development of this team. We quickly realized that no matter where we go, whether it’s the combine or owner’s meetings, we’re going to receive a lot of attention and there’s going to be a lot of people requesting for his time and our time because they want to know what’s going on and they want to know who we’re picking. The draft has become such a huge event – it’s one of the top events in all of sports and probably the top non-game event on the sports calendar each year. With that number one pick, all focus for the months leading up was focused on us because with the number one pick we held the key to the rest of the draft.

Read more

Mar

1

Interview with Matt Barnhart, Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations (Part 1)

Filed Under Career, Interviews | 5 Comments

I had the honor of conducting an informational interview by phone with Matt Barnhart, who is the Detroit Lions Director of Media Relations. We spent nearly 45 minutes talking about public relations and the Lions so I decided to break it into multiple posts over the next few days as Matt provided me with an incredible amount of helpful information and tips in his responses and I want to make sure none of his answers get lost in the shuffle. In today’s post, Matt addresses his career with how he got his start and what his current position entails. Tomorrow’s post will feature Q&A with Matt regarding the NFL Draft.

1) You’ve been working with the Lions since 1997 and started off as an intern before making your way to your current title as Director of Media Relations. How did you go from being an intern with the team to where you are today?

I learned very early on that one of the best pieces of advice to me, given to me, is that you always want to try to work at the level above you. That means if you’re an intern, your level of work should be as an entry-level assistant. When you’re an assistant, you should try to be working your way up and working as an assistant director. Or if you’re an assistant director you should work at the level of the director. What you want to do is have people notice what you’re doing, notice your responsibilities and see how you grow. When the opportunity comes, you want to make sure that you’re the first person they think can fill that role. You want to be the first and best option.

Read more

← Previous Page