Patrick Reilly: 'Are We About to Enter an Era Where Old Media Falls Off the Cliff?'
The communications chief for Sirius Satellite Radio and former Wall Street Journal media reporter sees big worries ahead for traditional media: "It's alarming that young people don't read newspapers."

By Patrick Phillips
I Want Media, 02/01/05

Patrick Reilly is the senior VP/communications for Sirius Satellite Radio, the rising entertainment company perhaps best known as the future on-air home of shock jock Howard Stern. Reilly joined Sirius in November, after holding top public-relations posts with BMG, the music conglomerate, and Robinson Lerer & Montgomery, a PR firm with media clients including AOL, MTV and the New York Times.

A journalist by training, Reilly worked at the Wall Street Journal for 10 years as a media reporter, and was a reporter for Advertising Age, Crain's New York Business and Women's Wear Daily.

Reilly spoke with I Want Media about why he won't be "regulating" Howard Stern at Sirius, his regrets over once making a PR person cry, and why he doesn't miss being a reporter.

I Want Media: So, is Sirius in talks about merging with XM, the other satellite radio company?

Patrick Reilly: Our policy is not to comment on rumor and speculation, and that report in the New York Post [on Jan. 26] was definitely rumor and speculation.

IWM: What's the biggest challenge of your job?

Reilly: Educating the public to satellite radio, and educating the media to the fact that we're a different kind of entertainment company. I like to say that we're part record label, part college radio station, part cable network, part tech company -- all rolled into one.

IWM: Howard Stern is to join Sirius next January, "in the most important deal in radio history." What do you hope he'll do for Sirius?

Reilly: I think he'll put us in the national debate. People who say that Howard's just about sex haven't really been listening to him. Howard talks about people, he talks about the news, he talks about politics. Also, he's the world's best marketing tool. A lot of people didn't know what Sirius was about before Howard announced that he was going to join us. They sure as heck know what we are now.

IWM: Do you expect Howard Stern will become the "Uncle Milty" of satellite radio?

Reilly: People have said that. Yeah, he's the lead dog that people follow behind. In fact, I think that's possible. I think the analogy is apt.

IWM: Part of your job, I presume, is handling both Howard Stern and CEO Mel Karmazin, who are rather outspoken individuals. Will that be a challenge?

Reilly: I don't feel it's a challenge as much as an opportunity. Mel brings us respect; Howard brings us an audience. Put them together with our programming, and we've got a powerful group of assets.

IWM: Howard Stern is known for making outrageous public remarks. After he joins Sirius, will questions from the news media about those remarks come to you?

Reilly: We'll do our best to answer those questions, but I'm not here to regulate Howard. We want Howard's voice to come through loud and clear, which is why we hired him.

IWM: You were a media reporter for the Wall Street Journal for most of the 1990s. What were some of your big scoops there?

Reilly: One was on Martha Stewart, when she was just starting her company and leaving Time Inc. Another one was on Bob Guccione and the decline of the Penthouse empire. And there was one on succession issues at the New York Times with the Sulzberger family.

One of my favorites was a Page One story on [former Cosmopolitan editor] Helen Gurley Brown, about how she was being moved out and a new generation of editors was being brought in. She wrote me a letter on pink paper and called me a shit. There weren't any factual errors. She just didn't like the tone of my approach. I admire her for having the guts to respond to me with complete candor.

IWM: Why did you make the jump from journalism to media relations?

Reilly: I've always wanted to work on the strategy side of a media company. I find it utterly satisfying.

IWM: What do you miss about being a reporter?

Reilly: Here's the strange thing -- I don't miss a thing. I loved it, but I've done it. I had a nice string of Page One stories, and that's very gratifying. But I don't miss it. I'm now on the other side of the mirror. I'm at a media company, and I feel very much in it.

IWM: How did your years in journalism prepare you for media relations?

Reilly: They didn't prepare me entirely. Journalism exercises one kind of muscle. The work I do now is like exercising five different muscles. It demands a certain poise that some reporters don't have.

Many reporters are used to being behind the screen or behind the story. Media relations calls on more of your personality and life experience, because you have to deal with all sorts of people -- employees, the leadership of a company, as well as reporters. It's both challenging and stimulating.

IWM: When you were working as a journalist, were you one of those reporters who would complain about PR people?

Reilly: I once made a magazine PR person cry. I'm not going to say who it was. I didn't do it on purpose. I thought she had screwed me out of a story and placed something with the New York Times. So I got very angry. Reporters have to fight their competitors, and I was a fighter.

IWM: What did you do? Yell at her?

Reilly: Yeah, I yelled at her over the phone and she started crying. I'm not proud of that. That's not acceptable behavior. I was simply pissed that I missed an exclusive.

IWM: Since you've begun working in media relations, has a reporter ever yelled at you and made you cry?

Reilly: I've had reporters yell at me. I tried not to cry. I like a good give-and-take with reporters. I'm not one of those guys who says "no comment" all the time. I like an exchange of ideas. I like playing the game.

IWM: If you were to put your media reporter hat back on, what do you see as the big media story right now -- besides satellite radio?

Reilly: The big story, I think, is a long-running one: Are we about to enter an era where old media falls off the cliff? For example, it's alarming that young people don't read newspapers. I read five newspapers a day, and I will for the rest of my life.

IWM: Well, you're of a certain generation ...

Reilly: But what happens when the younger generation matures? How will magazine and newspaper publishers find their audiences? Can they recoup them on the Internet? That's the big media story, and there won't be an answer for years to come.

IWM: Are you particularly interested in the media?

Reilly: Yeah, very. I like the people in it. Record people are different from publishing people. Publishing people are different from Internet people. Internet people are different from satellite-radio people. But they're all fun and creative. There are a few jerks, but they're largely pretty good to deal with.

IWM: Who are some of the jerks?

Reilly: I won't go into that. I might be working for them someday.



PREVIOUS "MEDIA PEOPLE"