Creative Director, Rubin Communications Group
The media occasionally needs experts, no more so than when a complex subject must be reported and explained to viewers.
The Affordable Care Act was such an event.
Newspapers, TV shows, blogs and other outlets were reminding readers and viewers they could start visiting the Web on October 1 to see new insurance plans and learn whether they would be eligible for a subsidy to purchase coverage. But understanding the nuances and whether it was necessary to sign up now or wait took the wisdom of people who work daily in the field.
Those people include the experts at TFA Benefits in Virginia Beach, a Rubin Communications Group client.
Joel Rubin became aware, from attending a town hall meeting on the subject, that WVEC was planning to produce a half-hour special to air on September 26. Through his longstanding relationships with producer and anchor Janet Roach and health reporter Lucy Bustamante, he offered to arrange interviews with TFA’ s Richard Herzberg, Stacy Viles and Jill Age and suggested the station stage a live online chat the evening the show aired. They agreed, and TFA’s Corbin Granger (pictured here) spent more than three hours typing answers to viewer questions.
Afterwards, WVEC General Manager Brad Ramsey wrote us that “it is an honor and a privilege to provide this kind of valuable service to our community and our viewers. Thank you for helping us make it a success.”
Sometimes media outlets see PR folks as bothers but not this night. Bustamante thanked the TFA reps for giving of their time and expertise. “We have great resources in all of you,” she wrote.
“Timing was everything here,” says Joel Rubin who worked with account executive Dee Dee Becker on the project. “The station recognized it needed help, and we were there to offer and coordinate it.”
Janet Roach could not have been more excited about the outcome. “Brad Ramsey says he wants to more of these type of shows!” For hard working journalists who want air time to provide more in-depth reporting, that was music to their ears.
