A Knack for Public Relations

by Greg Scott
Southern Alumni Magazine

At the age of 23, Francie Murphy's lifelong dream of becoming a high-profile broadcast journalist was cut short. But she soon discovered her real niche -- a career in public relations.

Sitting in her favorite neighborhood restaurant, just five minutes away from her home in Los Angeles, Francie Murphy reflects on a career that has included holding media relations positions at two major medical centers and Allstate Insurance company, along with directing communications for an interactive multimedia firm. But while conducting an interview for Southern Alumni magazine, Murphy wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to share an idea that would market her alma mater on the West Coast.

"I think the Alumni Association should design a T-shirt that says 'California Saluki.' It should include a sketch of the Pulliam Clock Tower," says a zealous Murphy. "You could sell it to people in California. That is the kind of T-shirt that would urge someone to ask, 'What is that?' And it immediately starts a conversation."

This same knack for public relations and promotions is one reason why Murphy has successfully spearheaded Francie Murphy Associates, her communications consulting firm in Los Angeles, for over three years. In a career spanning over 20 years in public relations and journalism, she has managed national and global public relations and marketing programs for corporations, service firms, and nonprofit organizations. Murphy has garnered national respect for her work with the media, having earned many awards for her public relations campaigns.

Murphy has acquired expertise that enables her clients to maximize their image and visibility. Before starting her own firm, she directed training divisions for two public relations agencies in Chicago and Los Angeles. Murphy's broad experience enables her to work with people in diverse professions ranging anywhere from political candidates, lawyers, accountants, and real estate investors to architects and homebuilders.

Her list of clients have included Arthur Andersen, Deloitte & Touche, Pep Boys, SunAmerica, Sara Lee, and Lions Clubs International. To accommodate the needs of her clients, Murphy contracts the services of public relations professionals across the country.

A 1976 radio-television graduate, Murphy attributes her success to the broadcasting skills she acquired at SIU. A former television anchorwoman and reporter, she worked at WSIU-TV and WIDB radio station on campus, and WCIL-AM in Carbondale. Murphy says experience in the media continues to serve her well today.

"All of the skills I learned in the newsroom come into play in my business because I write a lot of news releases and magazine articles," she says. "For all my speeches and scripts for videotape or multimedia presentations, I employ the broadcast style of writing because you're writing for the ear -- not the eye.

"Broadcast journalism is the absolute best training for what I do. You need a critical eye to identify whether or not something is newsworthy. I know how to be a resource for a reporter and pitch the right story at the right time. This enables me to give clients the best possible advice."

While she specializes in training executives to meet with the press and deliver effective business presentations, people close to Murphy say her passion for communication and personal touch sets her apart. Good friend and fellow SIU graduate Tom Blomquist, a Hollywood television producer/writer, says Murphy exhibits the qualities that lead to success.

"The additional quality that Francie brings is that she is equally inspired by volunteer and paid work. She has given me some marketing and public relations advice in my professional ventures," he says. "I find her to be a remarkable woman. It's no wonder that she's been successful."

One of Murphy's favorite volunteer ventures is lending public relations advice to her alma mater. She immediately recognized the appeal and uniqueness of the University's Hollywood Studies Program, which gives students an opportunity to do hands-on summer internships with production houses, television shows, and radio and television networks in southern California.

With SIU being one of few universities offering this opportunity to students, Murphy pitched the uniqueness of this program to the Chicago Tribune. As a result, Hollywood Studies was featured in the national newspaper. Joe Foote, dean of SIU's College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, says Murphy's public relations expertise is an asset to the college.

"The Chicago Tribune wrote a laudatory story that gave us some wonderful publicity. Francie has a keen ability to size up situations and identify points of promotion that have helped us a great deal," Foote says. "It would be difficult to have a 10-minute conversation with Francie and not come away with three or four ideas to enhance SIU's visibility.

"She is a great resource who should benefit all of us in the future. If our chancellor or president aspired to assemble a core of advisors to enhance the university's image, her name should be at the top of the list."

Murphy says she would embrace this opportunity. "I have a sense of loyalty to SIU because it was such a great experience there. I feel that I should give something back," she says. "I'm more than happy to help SIU. Some alumni donate money to the university or may even give students jobs. But everyone has a certain type of expertise to lend. My expertise happens to be public relations."

Ironically, starting with her childhood through her years at SIU, public relations wasn't Murphy's initial career choice. Growing up as a youth in Chicago, she became fascinated with broadcast journalism. She was a seven-year old Catholic school student in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. She and her classmates were sent home and Murphy remembers watching extensive coverage of Kennedy's murder on television. At this point, she decided what her career path would be.

"The networks all aired news programs at noon and I was glued to the television set for five straight days," she says. "When I was a little girl, most women were housewives. But I was watching all of these women cover the news and thought this was just the best job in the world."

She continued to stay abreast of current events, reading the Sunday paper with her older brother Jim, a 1975 SIU journalism graduate. Murphy remembers reading the Chicago Tribune every morning and the Chicago Daily News at night with her brother, who now heads public relations at Illinois College in Jacksonville.

"We were both children of the 1960s and there was so much going on through our high school and college years," Jim says. "Every night at the dinner table we would have the television on, listening to Walter Cronkite reporting the news. Francie stayed informed because it was a topic of conversation for the family."

Jim Murphy says he never questioned whether or not his sister would be successful. "Francie had the type of personality that would open doors. She set her sights high, kept her feet on the ground, and wasn't afraid to work hard. She focused on her goals like a lazer beam."

After graduating in the top three percent of her high school class, Murphy says she surprised the nuns at her school when she decided to study broadcasting at SIU. Although two older siblings had selected Southern, her instructors thought she should study math or English at a Catholic liberal arts college or attend the University of Illinois, like many of her classmates did.

Murphy had actually been accepted into the University of Illinois. She went as far as getting a dorm room and roommate, but she quickly changed her mind. "I just remember sitting down and thinking 'Wait a minute. They don't have an outstanding radio-television program but Carbondale does. And if that is what I want to do, that's where I should go," she says. "Despite everyone telling me the opposite, I went to SIU."

A presidential scholar, Murphy received several academic honors, which resulted in a full-ride scholarship at Southern. She appeared to be on an accelerated schedule, having taken advanced placement courses in high school and with the exception of her first year at Southern, she enrolled in classes during the summer.

"There are certain kids who just stay in the newsroom. Because the news doesn't stop for summer break or Christmas break," she says. "There was a group of us diehards who always stayed there."

This resulted in Murphy graduating with honors from SIU in just three years. "See, I was always in a hurry," she says in jest.

But actually, Murphy's feelings were just the opposite. She never regretted her decision to attend SIU. Her feelings about the University were so strong that she cried on her graduation day. "It was terrible leaving and none of us wanted to leave. I made wonderful friends and had the best professors," she says. "There are a lot of great memories. Being in the newsroom and going on the air with a story that the local television station didn't have was exciting.

"We challenged each other to be the best all the time. My classmates stayed in contact and did extremely well. If you were a radio-television major, you had at least four or five job offers when you graduated."

Murphy was hired as a reporter at WKRG-TV in Mobile, Ala. A year later, she accepted a position to anchor the news at WTSP-TV, an ABC affiliate in St. Petersburg, Fla. But Murphy soon reached a turning point in her career. She was pregnant with her daughter Emily, and realized that 11-hour work shifts couldn't be conducive to raising a child. She admits that leaving the broadcasting profession at the age of 23 was a tough decision.

"It was a bitter pill to swallow and it hurt. But I knew that my daughter's well-being was more important. I had to take a job with realistic hours, not the 11-hour shifts I was used to," she says. "Back in 1978, childcare was not readily available and bosses didn't make special arrangements for working moms. Things have come a long way since then."

Once she came to this realization, Murphy began to investigate possibilities in public relations, which she had never studied in school. But receiving her first job would be a challenge. She endured numerous rejections because employers said she didn't have print journalism experience. Finally, she was hired as a public affairs information officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville in 1980, the first of two major medical centers she would work for.

"I got a job and did incredibly well. Prior to my arrival, they might have had a doctor interviewed once a month on television. But it got to a point where I had us doing a dozen interviews a month on radio and television," she says. "I know how to talk the language of television and radio journalists. I realized that I had a little niche."

A niche that has taken her a long way.