At the end of July 2024, I retired from a 30-year career in State Government.  My path in State Government led me through several different job assignments.  The assignment that I loved the most was when I spent time at the Tourism Department doing media relations.  That is where I worked with The Garrity Group on the Balloon Fiesta, familiarization tours and crisis communications related to the Cerro Grande Fire.  We also worked together to help put Roswell on the map as a part of the infamous 50^th Anniversary of the Roswell UFO Encounter in 1997.

The New Mexico Tourism Department opportunity allowed me to dive deep into the history of our state and to work with people from all over the state covering major events and being involved in creating a crisis communications plan. I spent time with journalists from all over the world who were interested in writing stories about New Mexico. After leaving the Tourism Department, the second half of my career was with the Department of Cultural Affairs.  My transition into Cultural Affairs had me less involved with media relations and more into managing people, programs and facilities at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

Time spent at the administrative level provided me more time to move from the tactical implementation to the strategic development of public relations. I worked with a wonderful media relations staff and applied my time as a baseball coach to coach my colleagues in their professional goals.

Changes to the process of Public Relations

Over my 30 years of working for the State of New Mexico, the technology of public relations has changed exponentially.

Tracking media coverage was handled by a contractor who would send envelopes of actual news articles that met our criteria. We would then take the clips and separate them out by topic and the region of the state that was mentioned.  After making copies of the clips, we would then send them around the state to the communities that were featured in the articles.  Those same subscription services are still available but now everything is done online, and the clips can be organized, downloaded and sent to clients with a few clicks.

Sending out news releases was done through the trusty fax machine, fax numbers and paper that seemed lighter than air at times; and that sound of the fax machine connecting was pretty cool.  Today, there are services like New Mexico Newswire. The service posts news releases and sends them to relevant news editors, reporters and digital influencers.  These are sent with a “click”, so no more cool sounds. 

Digital and social media are new since my career started at the tourism department. Also, review sights and petition pages in Wiki, Reditt, and Change.org provide new tactics for public relations practitioners to use.

Despite the changes in tactics, there are some key items which still remain a constant.  Strategy is key and so are the elements of an effective public relations plan: research, planning, execution and evaluation. Engaging your customers or target audience, listening to their perspective then providing counsel on how to establish measurable objectives to build trust and provide transparency will help organizations to remain relevant.

When coaching baseball, my main goal was to communicate the importance that following the process is important in order to get the best result. If you are only interested in the final results without working through the process, then the outcome will not match your expectations. Even though the public relations process has seen many changes over the course of several years, what hasn’t changed is the need to have a clear consistent message that is managed by your staff or through a professional public relations firm. If your organization wants the public to understand its position, it is important that you understand the process and work through it in order to obtain the results that are desired.  

At the Garrity Group, our core message is to help small businesses to be heard and large organizations to be understood we will be happy to work with you through our process to help make your next public relations campaign successful.

Gary Romero is Vice President at The Garrity Group Public Relations.

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