Blog Relations

Be Available

BCC viewers have been complaining to Ray Snoddy, presenter of the feedback programme, NewsWatch,
that certain pundits are over-used. In particular, they mentioned Shami Chakrabarti of the pressure group Liberty. Some viewers complained that the unelected Chakrabarti was wielding undue influence in the land. All I can say is that the backers of Libery must be pleased with her.

The editor of the Newsnight programme was hauled in to explain why Chakrabarti and a few other select pundits appeared so often. He mentioned that Chakrabarti was a woman with an ethnic minority background, and that she was a fluent speaker, but this didn’t quite explain why various other white males are so frequently used. The one quality that he kept on mentioning, in each and every case, was that these pundits made themselves available. When the clock is ticking for a deadline, and a speaker is willing to turn up at the TV studio, of course he/she is the one that gets on the air.

A lot of the “secrets” of good media relations seem obvious to me. But whenever I run a media training course (with my friend William Essex) it becomes apparent that people in business often have very little understanding of now the media works.

If you want to project your message, whatever it is, then there is no point in hiring an expensive PR firm unless you are ready to talk to the media yourself. Journalists do not want to talk to the PR company. If you suggest that they should do so, they will become annoyed an make a mental note to annoy you back one day. At best, they won’t call you again, and they may well delete your name from the office contacts list or write a note by your name (”waste of time”). Media opportunities come and go with great rapidity, in a matter of hours, and sometimes minutes. The logic of good media relations means returning a journalist’s call within the hour, and making yourself available to visit the television studio or accept the cameras into your office, albeit at an unsociable time of day.