Media Training
Why use media training? Consider the following scenario: your PR agency or corporate communications department has arranged for you or a colleague to do an interview.
This is a great opportunity and you’re looking forward to getting some positive media coverage. But then, at the crucial moment, it all goes wrong – you fail to engage the journalist or, worse still, you fall into one of the traps and end up with a negative story splashed across the paper, the Internet, the radio or TV. Your brand is damaged and it that can take months, even years, to rectify the bad news that is now being transmitted faster and to more people than ever before.
Similarly, if you’re a PR professional you might find yourself arranging for your client or a colleague to do an interview but again they fail to put across the key messages or say anything relevant to the reporter. More worryingly, they accidently say something unhelpful or embarrassing or get led down a path that is dangerous for them.
The media, as you know, is a very powerful tool but it must be handled very carefully. Get it right and you can raise your profile in a positive way, enhance your image and do more business. Get it wrong and you’re in real trouble.
Avoiding the journalistic pitfalls
Media training can help you, your client or your colleague avoid the journalistic pitfalls and get your message across clearly and effectively during this brief but very important window of opportunity.
But it’s about more than that. Our media training courses provide our clients with an insight into the media. Everyone consumes news – be it from TV, radio, the Internet, newspapers or magazines but few people have the time to analyse what they’re consuming on a daily basis. By talking about what makes a story, how journalists work and what they’ll want to hear from you we can improve your interaction with them.
You’ll have a better idea of what to expect during an interview and you’ll also be able to work proactively to create positive news stories yourself thereby improving your media coverage. Public relations consultants and corporate communications professionals frequently tell us how much easier and productive their working relationships are with their clients following one of our courses.
We use working journalists
Our media training consultants are working journalists and TV and radio presenters with impressive, practical experience of the media and of media coaching. Not only are they used to working at the coal face of the media but they are skilled media trainers too, having worked with a wide variety of organisations to put together courses for people of all levels of media experience, from different sectors and with a variety of backgrounds.
Each of our media coaching courses is bespoke. Having taken a brief from you, we tailor make a media training session to meet your needs, your budget and your timetable precisely. Whether it’s a one-on-one press only session, a refresher before a launch or a whole day for four to six people covering press, TV and radio, we can create the course that’s perfect for you.
Practical and intensive
The courses we provide are intensive and very practical. We know from our experience that doing interviews is the best way to learn. We will challenge you during the course but we’ll support you too. We’ll put you through realistic interviews and provide detailed, helpful feedback after each one. Again each interview is as demanding as is necessary. Because we’re working journalists ourselves, we know exactly what questions journalists will ask you and how they will respond to your answers.
We can advise on how to handle difficult questions, how to take control of the interview and how to put across your key messages effectively. We can also suggest effective lines to take on any difficult subject that you might be confronted with.
We’d be delighted to send you some more detail information and some suggested course schedules. We look forward to talking to you.
Contact us today for:
Free media training interview: if you’re a business we can offer you a free media training press interview on the phone. One of our trainers can interview you, a colleague or a client and then provide honest, constructive feedback based on their experience of conducting hundreds of interviews.
You’ll also get a written report with the headline and first few paragraphs of the story, complete with quotes, so that you can see how it would appear in a newspaper or website.
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Free media health check: we offer businesses is a complete media audit. Find out in complete confidence how well placed you are to handle media enquiries of any kind, how a journalist would respond to a positive or negative issue that might affect you and what could happen in case of a crisis.
Communicate Media Consultancy – the communications specialists. We have a range of services available including:
Speechwriting and presentation writing service
Speechwriting and presentation writing courses
Maximising Media Opportunities
