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People and Pop Culture

Plugged In: Maureen Huff, Time Warner Cable

A veteran cable executive who has spent 17 years in top PR positions at two distribution companies, Maureen Huff for the past nine years has been with Time Warner Cable, where she works as the company’s point person in its carriage battles with sports networks. Like other PR professionals, Huff has had to navigate changes in media that have been as disruptive as the changes her company has seen in the cable industry.

Sometimes, I can keep ahead of a story because I’ll see a reporter tweet something that’s clearly piquing their interest. I know I’ll have a short window to find out more information before a call or email comes in.


Photo by: TIME WARNER CABLE
A trend in corporate communications: It’s not a new trend, but we constantly are working in an environment with no deadline — where everything is instantaneous. Reporters have pressure to break news instantaneously on social media even before a story is written, which means that we need to respond as quickly as we can so that we don’t miss a story that gets picked up by other outlets.

How she stays on top of the news: TweetDeck is my biggest news aggregator, but I am trying to reverse that. You can get lost in your own silos if you’re only reading TweetDeck and following key beat reporters. Almost two years ago, I forced myself to read more print as opposed to solely clicking on key sites and stories.

On the carriage battle with sports networks: If you like cooking shows or children’s programming, you have several choices. Even if one network goes dark, you never are going to miss an entire genre. Sports is different. People are avid fans who want to see their team. It’s one of the few areas where people still need to watch live. When you’re in a dispute when popular games are at stake, it definitely raises the temperature.

On maintaining focus while Charter Communications awaits regulatory approval to buy TWC: It’s not difficult to concentrate on the day-to-day, but with the bigger-picture stories, we find that the phone stops ringing. That drives me crazy. We still have the same executives with the same brains and same strategic thought who can provide the same perspectives to reporters. You have to flip the equation and be more aggressive to stay in the story.

Looking ahead, five years from now: It’s absolutely necessary to have a bilingual PR team in place. Certain areas of the country have a large Spanish-speaking population. Some companies are completely ignoring many media outlets and many opportunities to get their story out there.

— John Ourand

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