How to be media friendly
A great deal of public relations effort still goes into courting media coverage and to maximise your chances you naturally need to be media friendly. So try comparing your organisation against this ten-point checklist and see how you perform. I’ll be very surprised if you can say you’re doing all of this and more! read the full post »
17 May 2013 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : communications strategy, journalists, media coverage, media relations, public relations.
Media training: outsiders work best with your executive team
No-one doubts the value of hiring an ex-journalist to teach people how to get the best out of media interviews. I’ve done it myself on numerous occasions. After all, who better to help you understand the best techniques, tricks and traps than someone who’s been on the other side of the fence? But not all journalists make great trainers or providers of wise counsel for that matter, and even assuming ... read the full post »
26 October 2012 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : adding value, communications strategy, journalists, media interview training, media relations, media training, PR firms, public relations.
Using blogging and Twitter to defend yourself from media attack
Not so long ago it used to be the case that when you were contacted by a powerful journalist and asked to respond to potentially damaging allegations at short notice, all you could do was to try and make the best of a bad situation. Usually caught on the back foot, it was a race against time as you scrambled to piece together your best defence from whatever facts you ... read the full post »
02 April 2012 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : blogging, communications strategy, Edward Staite, media relations, reputation, social media, The Sunday Times, Twitter.
Preparing for a media interview: ten starting points
This post was inspired by the closing remarks of Harry, the 'difficult client' in this clip from Absolute Power, a BBC comedy series about a public relations firm starring Stephen Fry. I've posted the entire clip but the salient comments are towards the end. Most people, I'd hope, would be starting from a stronger position than ... read the full post »
12 October 2011 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : interviews, media coverage, media publications, media relations, public relations.
Using dead bodies and kitchens to get your message across
If you find yourself having to explain something important but potentially boring, it can be tough to find the right language and keep people listening. It gets worse when the subject also happens to be abstract and complex. And the pinnacle is when you’re called upon to do it live, in front of many of the country’s most influential people. ... read the full post »
14 September 2011 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | 2 Comments »
Tagged : BBC, BBC Radio 4, communications strategy, media coverage, media relations, message planning, Today programme.
A journalist calls asking for your comments. What should you do first?
Most business people are understandably wary of talking to journalists because they know they don’t control the outcome. They worry about looking stupid, being misquoted or misunderstood. There are techniques you can deploy to minimise all of these possibilities but for this posting I want to talk about another danger: finding you’ve ended up offering the unintended ‘contrarian’ viewpoint. This happened recently to a university professor who was invited alongside ... read the full post »
30 May 2011 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : communications strategy, media coverage, media relations, public relations, selling.
Pleading and humour aren’t enough to get you into editorial pages
Some people find this Youtube video of a mock-plaintive junior at PR agency Ten Yetis amusing. Maybe it did the trick but it left me feeling a little embarrassed for her. If I was her client, I’d be wondering if that’s all there is to pitching journalists – and wondering if I didn’t need a little more marketing savvy injecting into my PR efforts. read the full post »
03 May 2011 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : adding value, media coverage, media relations, pitching, PR firms, reputation, selling, USP, YouTube.
The crucial role of subject lines in email pitches to editors
There was a good illustration recently of why it’s so important to think carefully about the subject line when pitching story ideas by email to journalists. It arose at a recent breakfast briefing organised by media information firm Gorkana with The Independent on Sunday’s Julian Knight. Knight edits the newspaper’s money and property section. He’s got ten pages to fill each Sunday on his own, so it quickly becomes ... read the full post »
18 April 2011 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : Independent Newspaper, media coverage, media relations, pitching.
The FT meets ‘The Body’ and a PR car crash ensues
Earlier this month Elle Macpherson, one of the original ‘supermodels’, was interviewed by Lucy Kellaway in The Financial Times. You can read the article here (although you may need to register). It’s a great read, though it left this formerly neutral reader, and I suspect many others, with a rather dim view of ‘The Body’, as she used to be known. It made me wonder read the full post »
25 October 2010 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : communications strategy, marketing, media relations, PR, PR firms, public relations, reputation, The Financial Times.
Why University College London may soon have a reputation to rival Scrooge
What on earth is going on at University College London (UCL)? On the evidence of a recent major story in the London Evening Standard, its president Professor Malcolm Grant seems to be going through a Marie Antoinette moment. read the full post »
25 September 2010 | Posted by : Andy M Turner | Comment on this post »
Tagged : crisis, London Evening Standard, media relations, reputation, University College London.