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research. "The obvious thing is that it needs to have broad importance and interest to a broad audience," says Lavelle. "Some of the research that comes out of business schools is too narrow." Bridging the Gap Whether business school academics want their research to appeal to mainstream media is a matter of some debate. For every professor who'd like to have her study featured by The New York Times, there is another who is perfectly happy to have his accepted by a top peer-reviewed journal read by only a few hundred fellow professors. But there is no doubt that a small but growing number of business school scholars are eager for their research to engage a wider audience. For example, in August 2008, at the American Acad- emy of Management's annual conference in Atlanta, pro- fessors from Emory University's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta and the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor organized a panel titled, "Who are we reaching? The real and intended audiences for business school research." The panel featured academics, journal edi- tors, and business journalists from outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Harvard Business Review and The Academy of Management Journal. The impetus for organizing the panel was to explore new ways to bridge the gap between management researchers and those who cover business for the most influential media outlets. "When we look to a professional field like medicine, we can see that it does a better job in some ways of making its findings more intelligible and accessible to people," says Monica Worline, an assistant professor of organization and management at Goizueta. Worline notes that the business press moves fast—so fast that many business academics may think that an esoteric study may not warrant its attention. Still, she adds, "If we were able to translate those findings better, that might not be the case." Achieving Media Relevance Business academics can make their research more compelling—and rele- vant—to a broad audience of readers, if they do the following: Avoid the "too-narrow" trap. Academics can ask questions that inter- est those beyond their disciplines, to reach the concerns of a broader base. Make it snappy. Business-themed research will grab attention if it offers 50 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2009 punchlines that matter. Schools should keep journalists in mind, highlighting their most compelling, surprising, topi- cal, or counterintuitive findings. Get creative. Business schools can hire in-house media personnel or outside consultants to identify, translate, and package research for public consumption in every medium, from traditional outlets to the blogosphere. Reward the effort. Business school deans can make sure that faculty's media outreach efforts are rewarded during the tenure review process. Evaluate and translate. To find a large audience, provoc- ative research can't just appear in a top peer-reviewed journal or on the Social Science Research Network. Business school staff must systematically track the research that their faculty generate and devote resources to evaluating whether it might have broader media appeal. If it does, they must know how to translate that research to be relevant and accessible to a mainstream audience. Target and broadcast. There are two ways to keep journalists in the loop. First, target the right story to the right media outlet. Financial research like Lie and Heron's, for instance, is tailor-made for finance reporters; an on- the-ball media specialist will make sure they know about it first. On the other hand, it's important for a school to keep the community of business reporters informed of its best research on a regular basis—media staff never know when the right story will reach the right journalist at the right moment. For that reason, business schools should consid- er disseminating research findings through news releases or online news feeds such as PRNewswire.com or Ascribe. org. Schools also can create their own online platforms, similar to Knowledge@Wharton and Knowledge@Emory. Schools that pay more attention to the news value of aca- demic research increase the likelihood that their most impor- tant studies will find a larger audience, enhancing their repu- tations in the process. After all, if an important role of academia is to generate knowledge, it makes sense for schools to creatively assess and disseminate that knowledge through as many channels as possible. n z Peter Rooney is the former vice president of Gehrung Associates, a marketing firm that specializes in higher education and research. He recently joined Amherst College in Massachusetts as its director of public affairs. PETER DAZELEY/GETTY IMAGES