Funworld September 2007

Paula Werne: Creative Communicator

by Tim O’Brien

Paula Werne, director of public relations at Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana, is very popular with both media and fan organizations. She’s responsive to their needs, she knows what makes a good story or a successful event, and she joins in the fun when they visit her park.

Of course, she has a great product to share. She represents a park with three great wooden coasters, a world-class waterpark, and a family ownership that truly appreciates each and every fan and every word printed about them.

In her position since 1991, Werne laughs when recalling that she thought the job “would be fun” for a couple years. “I thought it would be repetitive, but boy was I wrong.”

During those 16 years, Werne has garnered an amazing amount of national publicity for her park, which was averaging fewer than 500,000 in attendance the year she began. In 2006, the park went over the 1 million mark for the first time.

“When it comes to generating publicity, Paula has that special knack of knowing what works—and what doesn’t—for her park,” says Janice Witherow, the former PR guru of Cedar Point. “Her wacky creativity and fun personality are a natural fit for Holiday World, and one of the neat things about her approach is that you never know what to expect—she always comes up with some sort of twist.”

Werne, an avid fan of XM Satellite Radio talk and news shows, says she bases a lot of what she does for the park on what she hears going on in the world around her. “It’s a lot easier to get national media attention when you can create something that rides the coattail of a national event,” she admits.

An example would be the several times Werne has pushed Holiday World into the “assault of Christmas” story that has brewed for several years on several cable news programs, including “The Colbert Report.” Last year, the park’s president, Will Koch, was set to be on that particular show to talk about Santa Claus. The segment was bumped and Werne, with tongue in cheek, put Colbert “on notice,” which caught the newsman’s eye. He dropped the original story, brought a crew to the park and made it an even larger story.

When nearby Evansville, Illinois, flooded, sending hundreds of locals into shelters, the disaster made national news. Werne set up a food and toy drive at the park for those affected by the flooding, and along with Santa, she and several media crews climbed into a van and delivered the food and toys. The media appreciated the different angle on the flood story, and seeing Santa in the middle of summer was a great surprise for the children still living in the shelters. Her creative and humanitarian idea helped Holiday World make national news, while helping the community at the same time.

“Holiday World has made the news for some of the craziest things—and that has Paula’s name written all over it,” adds Witherow, who worked six seasons at the park, then Santa Claus Land, during her high school and college summers. “She’s the only person I know who has garnered publicity for new restroom urinals!”

Werne meets the ACE group
Four years after Werne started at Holiday World, the park’s first major ride, “Raven,” a wooden roller coaster, opened to rave reviews. The immediate success of the coaster put both Holiday World and Werne on the national map.

When the new woodie was announced in 1994, Werne first appeared on the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) radar. Shortly after being approached by ACE for the first time, she called Witherow for advice, knowing that ACE had held many events at Cedar Point and that Witherow was a favorite communicator among coaster fans. “That was the first time I met Paula, and of course I helped the best I could. I obviously still had a strong affection for the park, and I was very proud of its success. I still am,” Witherow notes.

Tim Baldwin, then ACE events director, called Werne to set up an ACE event centered on the “Raven.” “We learned of Paula when the ‘Raven’ was announced and soon found that it was a match made in heaven. It was one of those rare moments of mutual devotion where she and the park took a shine to ACE members, and of course the enthusiasts were absolutely smitten with her, the coaster, and the park,” Baldwin tells FUNWORLD. “Her willingness to listen and her belief in what she can accomplish in her role there is a true testament to the hospitality for which Holiday World has become known.”

In subsequent years, Baldwin has been impressed that Werne continues to have that passion and devotion to the park, its coasters, and the enthusiasts. “She has done a tremendous job communicating the coaster community via her blogs, e-mails, and ACE event appearances,” he says.

“I definitely have had a long love affair with coaster and park fans,” Werne notes. In spring 2005, she started the first official blog of any park in the country, possibly the world. The Holi-Blog–A Walk in the Park, is a folksy tool Werne uses to communicate with fans worldwide. Behind-the-scenes stories and major announcements as well as fun stories about the park and its people can be found in Werne’s writings at www.holidayworld.com.

A Truly Nice Person
“With Paula, what you see is what you get,” Witherow adds. “That is not the case with many PR practitioners. She is a refreshing breed of publicist.”

Werne, noting that PR is not rocket science, is all about relationships, and being honest and fair with all her contacts. She likes to note that her rides spin, but she doesn’t (the facts, that is). To be successful with the media, one has to “be proactive as well as reactive. When media calls, I drop everything and work with them until they have what they need.” The press love that attitude, and it’s another reason Holiday World gets so many mentions—the press know when they call her, they will always get what they need in a timely manner.

One of her priorities is showing media around her park, much as a tour guide would, inserting color commentary as they walk. “I like to point out things and tell stories about nearly everything,” she laughs. “A lot of times a journalist will get a story idea from one of my stories.” While not particularly excited about riding rides, Werne has learned to appreciate the wooden coaster journeys she often takes with visiting members of the press. “I don’t think I would be sending the right message if I didn’t ride along with a reporter,” she laughs.

Wanted to Be a Star
Born in Brockport, New York, Werne moved to central Indiana at a young age. She loved theater and won “best actress” award during her senior year in high school. “Oh, yes, I thought I was going to be a big star,” she recalls. She went to Indiana University in Bloomington because of its well-respected theater arts department. The day she went to sign up for classes, few if any were left open in theater. “I took other classes, auditioned, and then became a member of the Singing Hoosiers chorale group, which was a lot of fun,” she says.

One of her singing colleagues who was majoring in telecommunications asked Werne to take part in a radio program one day, and that was all it took. “I was totally infatuated with broadcast journalism,” she notes, adding that she changed her direction and ended up receiving a double major—telecommunications and French—in 1981. She went to work in the newsroom of a small radio station right out of college and then moved into a larger market less than a year later.

Moo-ving to the Farm
It was while working as a reporter for that radio station that she met her future husband, Gary. He was a dairy farmer, and she was a reporter covering a local election on a major agricultural issue in southern Indiana. “I asked him a few questions about the issues and I had to leave before the election results were in, so I gave him my business card and asked if he would call me at the station later that night. He called in the results, asked me out, and the rest is history,” she smiles. “Six weeks later we were talking marriage, and I was wondering if I could stay and live on a farm in southern Indiana and give up my broadcast network dreams. I made a wise decision.”

She recalls something about Gary that night: “There was a small nick on his ear and I remember wondering if it was a speck of cow manure. It wasn’t.” They were married in 1982 and subsequently had three sons, Thomas, John, and James.

She quit the radio station in 1984 when she was pregnant with her first son and, shortly after he was born, became a part-time volunteer for a local drama group that was trying to put together an outdoor drama. In 1986, she went to work full time as editor of a national trade magazine, Pizza Today, which was published in Santa Claus. Meanwhile, Bill Koch, then owner of Holiday World, stepped in to save the outdoor drama and Lincoln Amphitheater and called Werne to take over as both general manager and PR representative for the fledgling attraction. He had remembered her from her volunteer days and thought she would be perfect for the gig. She accepted, stayed on for the two years the Kochs produced the show, then went back to the pizza magazine.

After attending several PR and publicity seminars during the 1991 IAAPA Attractions Expo, Bill Koch came back to the park ready to set up a PR department, a task that had been shared by “anyone who had time, which meant little was ever done,” Werne notes. He called her, and she accepted the challenge.

Werne’s first season wasn’t as hard as it could have been, thanks to a bungee jumping show at the park. When not in use by members of the show, the bungee tower was available to park guests, for an up charge. That was in 1992, right as bungee jumping was the hot commodity at attractions across the country. “There wasn’t a media list for me to use to call local reporters, so I had to start from scratch,” she notes.

Her first wacky event, of which there have been many since, was a couple getting married by a bungee jumping Elvis, who sang “Can’t Help Falling in Love” as he jumped. It went over well, and Werne’s reputation as a friendly, offbeat publicist was born.

Using dairy farm lexicon, Werne explains that she “milks every promotional opportunity for what’s it’s worth” and that with the various stunts and events she has thought up over the years, it’s plain that she “takes pride in bringing cheese to the park.”

An Introduction to Crisis Planning: How to Deal with Media when Your Facility Is in the Middle of an Emergency! Are you in the middle of an emergency? Did a guest just call 911? What do you do now? Not only must you take care of the immediate situation, but you must also be ready to deal with the news media that is probably already at your facility. Let Paula Werne and her colleagues help during “An Introduction to Crisis Planning,” an educational seminar on Tuesday, Nov. 13, during IAAPA Attractions Expo 2007 in Orlando. This session focuses on media survival 101: What you need to know now to make sure guests will want to visit your facility again in the future.

Paula Werne Profile Born: May 19, “several years ago” in Brockport, New York Married: Gary Werne, a dairy farmer, on Aug. 7, 1982 Children: sons Thomas, John, and James Current position: public relations director, Holiday World, Santa Claus, Indiana, since November 1991 Currently lives: on a dairy farm near Ferdinand, Indiana— Gary is the fifth generation to farm and live on that land. Education: double major—telecommunications and French—from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, in 1981 First public relations job: served as general manager and public relations representative at an outdoor drama at Lincoln Amphitheatre Paula’s PR philosophy: “In media relations, it’s important to build relationships, and top priority should be to give media what they need in a timely fashion, or sooner.” Favorite read: nonfiction, history, biographies, and true crime Favorite TV: old movies on Turner Classic and AMC. “I love news; I’m a news junkie.” Favorite radio: XM Satellite Radio, which “I keep nine of the 10 programmable stations on news and talk radio.” Favorite music: “I keep the 10 th button on ’60s music. It makes me feel happy.” Favorite movie: “A Christmas Story” (1983). Most watched movie: “1776” Mentor : Bill Koch. “One phrase he used all the time, ‘don’t fight,’ reflected his magnificent wisdom. It meant don’t sweat the small stuff.” What people would be surprised to find out about Paula: “I have been married to a dairy farmer for 25 years and never milked a cow; I performed in a chorale group on the stage of the Kennedy Center; and I used to edit a magazine, Pizza Today.