Delivering a Clear Message for Maximum Impact

Media Relations - Pope's Visit to California

One of the biggest stories in the world in 1987 centered on Pope John Paul II's historic visit to the United States. Working nearly one year on this project, the objective was to create, plan and implement a media plan for the visit to Monterey, California.

Contracted by the Diocese of Monterey, this project involved accommodating the needs of the Vatican, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the Secret Service, and the local, national and International media.

The Secret Service was interested in protecting the Pope by minimizing access and visibility. The Vatican and the USCCB were interested in maximum visibility while the Diocese of Monterey was interested in maintaining the ecumenical atmosphere of the visit. Every media representative in the world wanted unobstructed access to the Pope and the historic meeting with actor and then Mayor, Clint Eastwood.

Immediately, meetings were held with all parties to ascertain needs and establish ground rules. Once initial wants and desires were conveyed, it became clear the national media would not participate in providing resources for "pool" coverage of the event. Given the desire of the local media to cover the event from beginning to end, we recommended and took the lead in forming a consortium of local stations to provide "pool" coverage. The San Jose Mercury News would call that move "unprecedented" and "a model for other cities". The "pool" consortium would be responsible for providing the continuous audio and video feed to the world. In order to cover the costs, fees and resources were collected from participating stations.

Every reporter had to be credentialed either nationally or by the Diocese of Monterey. A special Press Center was established at a Convention Center for the 2400 media representatives from around the world. Special "pool" areas were established at the three sites visited by the Pope, including the famous, Pope meets Clint Eastwood site.

Transportation was arranged to transport journalists to "pool" locations, and special arrangements were made to transport film for processing, then for "pool" distribution.
During the entire one year of planning, we worked closely with the US Secret Service to clear every decision involving the Pope's visibility. In many cases, this meant pushing back on security concerns and coming up with compromise solutions. We also worked closely with church officials to ensure that their concerns were also met, again involving negotiation and compromise.

In the end, we coordinated a 14 camera, three location, 11 hour live worldwide broadcast of the event. To compare, the Super Bowl in 1988 used 12 cameras broadcasting from a single location. The event was a tremendous success.