The Media Challenge

When the liability capacity crisis hit the headlines earlier this year, you may have received a call from your local paper or radio station asking you for comments.

How did you react? Did you accept, knowing that your knowledge would shine through and you could win new customers, or did you decline?

There are many reasons why you should talk to the press. Winning new customers is one and sticking up for the industry is another. But how should you handle it?

The first step after taking a call is to buy some time. Say that you are interested, but need to call back. Ask what the journalist's deadline is and then arrange to call back at a mutually agreed time.

Then plan a contribution. Does it work? Have you tried it? Rehearse. Decide on what you want to get across and, as far as you can, frame it into short, simple and clear messages. Limit the number of things you are going to say to absolute priorities. Have an agenda. Don't try to blind people with science or prove your expertise by talking in industry jargon. Make sure everyone can understand what you are saying.

Remember that a journalist has to take away your words and present them, usually in a truncated form, to a readership or a listening audience. Ask yourself who is your audience? Other companies? Or is it the general public? You need to identify your audiences and talk in their language. What are the words that will be important to them. Care, help and reassurance might be appropriate, for instance.

At all times when dealing with the media present an outwardly calm and controlled appearance. Expect to be challenged on your actions and position, as the media see this as their job. What you say and do is up to you, but never lose your cool.

Journalists know their job, but you know yours too. Remember that you speak as the expert, after all that is why the media are interested in you. This also gives you a mandate to communicate what you consider are the important elements of the situation.

One quality common to all journalists is that they have long memories. If they find that you have been misleading, deceiving or at worst case deliberately lying to them they will never print or broadcast anything good about you again.

But then if someone did that to you, wouldn't you be pretty cross too, especially if your reputation rested upon the accuracy of what you reported?

Journalists are paid to find things out and lying to the media will result in them jumping up and biting you, just ask Jonathan Aitken.

Build a relationship with the media - you may need them to broadcast information on your behalf. And remember there is a mutual dependence. You need the media to get across your messages to your audiences and journalists need you as the source of their news stories.

Grasp the initiative and drive the agenda rather than being reactive. Acknowledge the bad news if necessary, but move on to what you are doing about it.

Questions that you must ask

Why have I been chosen? Do the media see you as the expert on a particular subject and have invited you to comment in this capacity? Or has disaster struck and you are being summoned to account for your actions? What is the interview going to be about? Good news, or bad? Be sure you are the right person to be involved in the interview.

What is my aim? If you cannot think of a clear, positive outcome from the interview then you must question why you are doing the interview at all. This is not an excuse for the dreaded "No comment," in fact, quite the opposite, but you are not there to follow the interviewer's agenda.

Do I have a plan? By inviting you to talk, the media feel your views are worth hearing so you've been given a mandate by the media to speak on behalf of your company. Draw on the help and advice on others in your organisation, but keep it simple. Prioritise, then memorise. What are the important points you feel people should know? Put these across clearly and succinctly during the interview for maximum impact. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.

Make notes of what you plan to say. Take them with you as a last minute reminder of your plan. But avoid using them during the interview - you'll never find the right reply written down in time and it looks amateurish.

What's my message? Tabloids are masters at the short attention-grabbing headline that draws the reader in. You must design a form of words that not only sums up your case in a few words, but also will grab the audience and make them want to listen. It is essential that people are stimulated to listen. The bigger the point you are making and the closer to the start of the interview you produce your one-liner the better. An interview on television rarely includes pictures and radio is an aural medium, so create your own pictures in the minds of the audience. "As small as a matchbox" or "the number of people you can get on a double decker bus" for example.

Do I have credibility? Disagree if you need to. Your participation gives the interview credibility. The British media see it as their job to test your case and you may be required to make a robust defence. Think smart, look smart. Use lots of positive eye contact. Smile if appropriate. Dress for the occasion - and remember that the media like to talk to the people who do the job (the guy in the hard hat). And the audience will draw as much if not more from how you look as what you say.

Jonathan Boddy is with Television and Radio Technique and is based in Sheffield. He can be contacted on 0114 242 4838 or by email on
jon@t-r-t.co.uk