First things first: if you're having a media or comms crisis at the moment, stop and contact Payper right now.
Sometimes, like in every aspect of business, the sh*t just hits the fan. You can do your absolute best to do everything right, but sometimes things out of your control go wrong, and before you know it a journalist has caught wind of it and told the world about it.
At Payper, we've seen it from both sides. Adrien and I are both ex-journalists – we've written the stories that keep founders up at night. Now we help businesses navigate the media, including the moments when the coverage isn't flattering. Here's what we've learned about handling bad press without making it worse.
Is It Actually a Crisis?
Not every piece of negative coverage is a crisis. This is the most important thing to get right early, because overreacting can do more damage than the original story.
A single critical comment on social media is not a crisis. A negative product review from one customer is not a crisis. A journalist asking tough questions about your business – that's not a crisis either. That's just journalism doing its job.
A crisis is when the story has the potential to materially damage your business, your reputation, or your relationships with customers, investors, or partners. Think: a product safety issue, a legal problem becoming public, a senior employee doing something seriously wrong, or a pattern of complaints that suggests a systemic problem.
The distinction matters because each type of negative coverage requires a different response. Overreacting to a minor issue – issuing a formal statement about a single bad review, for example – can actually signal to journalists that there's a bigger story worth digging into.
Before you do anything else, take ten minutes to honestly assess: is this a genuine threat to the business, or is it uncomfortable coverage that will pass? The answer shapes everything that follows.
The First Hour Matters More Than You Think
If you've determined it is a genuine crisis, speed matters – but not the way most people think.
The instinct is to rush out a statement. To say something, anything, to fill the silence. But a rushed, poorly worded response can become the second headline. What you actually need in the first hour is information, not a press release.
Here's what to do:
- Get the facts straight. What exactly happened? What do you know for certain, and what's still unclear? Don't speculate internally or externally.
- Identify your spokesperson. One person speaks to media. One. Mixed messages from multiple people are how small stories become big ones.
- Acknowledge the situation. You don't need all the answers yet, but you do need to show you're aware and taking it seriously. A simple "We're aware of [the issue] and are looking into it – we'll have more to share shortly" buys you time without looking evasive.
- Contact your PR support. If you have a PR partner, call them immediately. If you don't, this is not the time to wing it. Even a quick conversation with someone who understands media can change how the next 24 hours play out. You can call us at Payper immediately and anytime for crisis comms support.
In 2026, the news cycle moves fast. This year's biggest PR disasters – from Nestlé's delayed baby formula recall to the defensive responses around AI safety lawsuits – all had one thing in common: the initial response was either too slow or too defensive. Speed and tone together are what matter. One without the other doesn't work.
What Journalists Actually Need From You
Here's something most business owners don't realise: when a journalist contacts you about a negative story, they're not your enemy. They're doing their job. And how you respond in that moment can dramatically change the tone of the final piece.
Having spent years in newsrooms before starting Payper, I can tell you exactly what journalists need:
- A response. "No comment" is almost always a mistake. It reads as evasion, and the story runs anyway – just without your side of it. Even a brief, honest statement is better than silence.
- Honesty about what you know and don't know. Journalists respect "We're still looking into this and will have more information by [specific time]" far more than a polished statement that clearly dodges the question.
- A human being, not a corporate voice. The worst thing you can do is respond with jargon-filled, lawyer-approved language that sounds like it was written by committee. Talk like a person. Acknowledge the situation directly.
- Timeliness. Journalists work to deadlines. If they've given you until 3pm to respond and you miss it, the story goes out without you. Respect the deadline, even if your response is brief.
One thing I always tell our clients: the journalist is going to write the story whether you participate or not. Your choice is whether your perspective is included. In almost every case, you want it included.
The Apology That Actually Works
If your business has genuinely done something wrong, you need to apologise. But there's a specific way to do it that actually helps – and a way that makes everything worse.
The apology that makes things worse sounds like this: "We're sorry if anyone was offended." That's not an apology. It's a deflection. It puts the blame on the person who was hurt, not the person who caused the hurt. Journalists see through it instantly, and so does the public.
The apology that works has three parts:
- Acknowledge what happened. Be specific. Name the problem. Don't hide behind vague language.
- Take responsibility. Say what your organisation did wrong, without qualifiers or excuses.
- Explain what you're doing about it. Actions speak louder than words, and the best crisis responses pair an honest acknowledgement with a concrete plan for what changes.
Research consistently shows that companies who take full responsibility early recover faster than those who try to minimise or deflect. GroundFloor Media's 2026 crisis management analysis found that full recovery from a serious reputational hit typically takes six to eighteen months – but that timeline stretches dramatically when the initial response is defensive or dishonest.
The Kiki Club situation from last week is a useful example of the opposite. Rather than owning the misjudgement quickly and directly, the posts were simply deleted. But deleting a post doesn't delete the screenshots, the commentary, or the perception. If anything, it signals that you know it was wrong but don't want to face the conversation.
When Saying Nothing Is the Smart Move
There are genuinely times when the best response is no response at all. This is counterintuitive – especially when you're sitting there watching negative commentary pile up online – but it's true.
Saying nothing is the right move when:
- The story is small and contained. A single social media complaint with minimal engagement doesn't need a press release. Responding publicly can amplify it.
- The criticism is unfounded and obviously so. If someone posts something clearly untrue about your business and it's getting no traction, responding can give it oxygen it doesn't deserve.
- The conversation has moved on. If the story cycle has shifted and the coverage has died down, re-entering the conversation can reignite it.
Saying nothing is NOT the right move when:
- Customers or the public are at risk. Product safety, health concerns, or anything involving real harm demands a response. Always.
- A journalist has contacted you directly. As I said earlier – they're writing the story regardless. Your silence is a choice that shapes the story against you.
- The narrative is building momentum. If multiple outlets are picking it up, or if it's gaining traction on social media, silence starts to look like guilt, and it will only make things worse as your silence will drag the story on for longer.
The judgement call between "respond" and "don't respond" is one of the hardest in communications. It's also one of the most valuable things a good PR partner can help you with, because they can see the situation from outside the emotional vortex you're in.
Social Media: Where Small Fires Become Infernos
Most modern PR crises don't start in traditional media. They start on social media – a customer complaint that goes viral, an employee's post that gets screenshotted, a tone-deaf brand post that lands badly.
The rules for social media crises are slightly different:
- Don't delete posts unless they contain genuinely harmful or incorrect information. Deletion is visible. People notice. It looks like you're hiding something.
- Respond publicly, then take it private. A brief, empathetic public response ("We hear you, and we'd like to make this right – we've sent you a DM") shows other people watching that you take it seriously. Then resolve the detail privately.
- Don't argue. You cannot win a public argument on social media. Even if you're right, the optics of a brand arguing with an individual are always bad.
- Monitor before reacting. Before responding to a negative post, check whether it's gaining traction. Five likes and no shares is very different from 500 shares and counting. Scale your response to the actual reach.
One thing I see regularly: founders who get personally hurt by negative social media comments and respond emotionally. This is completely understandable – your business is your life – but it's also where the worst crisis escalations happen. If you're feeling angry or defensive, hand the phone to someone else before you respond.
Building Your Crisis Playbook Before You Need One
The businesses that handle bad press well almost always have one thing in common: they thought about it before it happened.
You don't need a 50-page crisis communications manual. But you do need a few basics in place:
- Know who your spokesperson is. If a journalist calls tomorrow about something negative, who picks up the phone? If the answer is "whoever happens to be available," you have a problem.
- Prepare for the worst case scenarios. Ask yourself as a business, "What are the worst PR disasters that could happen to us?". For a food and beverage company, it might be a major hygiene scare; for a software company, it might be a data breach or hack; for a well-loved physical product, it might be a product recall; for a construction company, it might be a fatal or serious injury on-site. Write these scenarios down and put together a plan of attack as to how you would respond to each.
- Have a PR partner on call. Even if you don't use PR regularly, having someone you can ring who understands media – how journalists work, what deadlines look like, how to frame a response – is invaluable when things go sideways. At Payper, several of our clients benefit from exactly this: an established relationship that means we can move fast when it matters, because we already understand their business and their media landscape.
- Keep a simple holding statement ready. Something like: "We're aware of the situation and are taking it seriously. We're currently gathering the facts and will provide a full update by [time]." Adapt it as needed, but having the bones of a response ready saves precious time.
- Brief your team. Everyone in your business should know that if a journalist contacts them directly, they should politely refer them to [name]. No freelancing. No "off the record" chats that aren't actually off the record.
Good PR isn't just about landing positive stories. It's about being ready for the questions you don't want to answer, too.
The Honest Summary
Bad press happens to good businesses. Sometimes it's deserved, sometimes it's not, and sometimes it's somewhere in between. The difference between a temporary bad news cycle and lasting reputational damage almost always comes down to how you respond in the first few hours.
Be honest. Be fast. Be human. Don't hide, don't argue, and don't pretend it's not happening. And if you can, have a plan and a partner in place before you need one.
If you're a New Zealand business thinking about how to protect your reputation – or you're in the middle of a difficult situation right now – we're here to help. No judgement, no jargon, just straight advice from people who've been on both sides of the newsroom.
Get in touch here and we'll give you a straight answer.