An old trick in the PR world was that when you wanted to bury a story, put out your press release at the end of the day on Friday.  The weekend papers had been pretty much put to bed, reporters and editors wanted to go home, and frankly everyone was tired of news.

There’s a reason that’s an “old” trick.  In the current media driven world, there are no timelines.   Digital and online outlets don’t have natural deadlines because you don’t need to get it to print or on the air.  It’s a 24 hour news cycle and news time is any time.

So when the University of Michigan athletic department put out a release in the middle of the night, reporters and editors caught it and weren’t fooled by the “old” trick.  The complete disintegration of the football program was exacerbated by this attempt to hide the concussion story and coaching decisions.  And the digital media folks ate it up – or more accurately, feasted on the athletic department.

Instead of burying the story, they generated huge headlines for the morning news.  Readers woke up to the story on their laptops, tablets and phones.  And then the social media buzz went into hyperdrive as the social media posts sent this story everywhere.

This is a good lesson that in the ever-changing world of media, the old rules don’t apply.  You have to understand how the new world of media works and deal with it.  They’re not going to change because you’re one of the most storied athletic programs in the universe.  If anything, the media loves to be a giant slayer, then they’ll kick you when you’re down.

This was a tough lesson for the University of Michigan and we’ll see if they learn from the mistake.  Big time athletics is a huge enterprise, so you better understand the new media world and use it to your advantage.