In Spiegel magazine, there is a detailed and fascinating article about the team of lawyers, social workers and media advisors working with Natascha Kampusch - the Austrian girl held captive in a basement for over eight years. It deals with the many steps taken to manage her re-emergence into the world, and how her advisors helped the young lady manage the media pressure.

” … Dietmar Ecker has a plan too. He sits on his bright yellow leather chair in his media consultant’s office in Vienna’s eighth district. Everything is very stylish - high ceilings; steel and glass doors; modern art. He was one of the last to join the team of Natascha Kampusch’s advisors, the team that cares for her and protects her from the public. But today he’s the most important person in the team: It’s Wednesday, the day that an interview with Natascha will be aired on Austria’s public television channel ORF.

Ecker sports a six-day salt-and-pepper beard and drives a Porsche. Normally he works as a consultant for trade unions in difficult situations. He also does public relations work for the Republic of Serbia. Years ago, he managed to astound everyone by improving the popularity of an Austrian Finance Minister. Now he’s working for Natascha Kampusch free of charge.

Ecker is a professional. He knows how the media work. He takes a sheet of paper, draws a horizontal line and adds five numbered marks, from zero to four. The zero mark represents the day of Natascha’s escape, August 24. The last mark represents the end of the fourth week following her escape. “This is where the media normally lose interest,” Ecker says. He’s familiar with the phenomenon from election campaigns. The mechanisms are the same, he says, that’s just how these things work - the public’s attention span is predictable when it comes to sensational events …” (Spiegel magazine)

More about the media’s sometimes unseemly interest in the young lady from the Independent.Â

Holla to Marginal Revolution for the pointer.