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• Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba
• Additional Report on Caravan to Cuba by Hank Strunk
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Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba

Media Report

Background: Doug Igelsrud, who traveled to Cuba previously with the Center for Cuban Studies, worked with Pastors for Peace to recruit a driver from Syracuse to participate in PfP's caravan to confront the blockade. He recruited Hank Strunk, an engineer.

I met with the committee for the first time on January 28th and advised the committee on a media strategy. We broke down the campaign into a number of components, as each event had a potential media opportunity connected with it. The components were:

• An upcoming fundraiser
• Arrival and departure of the caravan from Syracuse
• Arrival at border
• Time in Cuba
• Post trip interviews

Basically, we divided the press work in to pretrip, during and after.

We were extremely successful in achieving our goal of educating the community in regard to the effects of the embargo on Cuba and the work of Pastors for Peace. In a ten week period we generated over 40 interviews between radio, TV and print.

Pretrip interviews:

• Newspapers--Six articles
• Editorial board meeting
• Radio--Four interviews
• TV--Two news interviews and one 1/2 hour talk show.
• Total: 14

During trip:

• Newspapers--Fifteen articles: Two articles were written as the caravan crossed the border. The morning paper also sent a reporter to Cuba to cover the caravan and hired a free lance photographer. The reporter wrote 13 articles complete with photos, maps etc. which ran on the first page of the A section. The work of Pastors for Peace was highlighted in a side bar in almost every article.
• Radio--One interview
• Total: 16

After trip:

• Newspapers--One article
• Radio--Four news interviews
• TV--Three news interviews & four talk shows
• Total: 12
• Total in a Ten Week Period: 42

We were able to arrange 42 interviews by the time this report was written. We still have the possibility of arranging a few more radio talk shows.

While a text book example of press work there is no reason this could not be duplicated in many cities across the US. There is no previous history of interest in Cuba within the media in Syracuse with the exception of one article and an op-ed piece over the last few years.

The press coverage is a reflection of hard work and follow through by a committee of four which was able to capitalize on a national issue ( blockade of Cuba), combined with a unique event (caravan) and a local angle (driver from Syracuse).

Submitted by: Peter Wirth, GW Associates, pwirth@accucom.net

April 8, 1994