Former Independent editor Chris Blackhurst has dealt with corporate disaster both as a journalist, covering it, and has given crisis PR advice. Here he shares his insight into how companies should deal with the media when things go wrong.

It’s a question I’m sometimes asked, as someone who has worked in journalism as editor, reporter, columnist and in PR as a consultant dispensing crisis and reputational advice. Why do some companies and their bosses emerge relatively unscathed from a drama, while others see their reputations damaged, possibly beyond repair?

First, the firms and their chiefs that do better are invariably those who have gone out of their way to court journalists in the past. They made friends in the media on the way up and those friends will view them more favourably now they’ve hit trouble. Those without pals in the media will suffer.