SPEND MAY DAY WITH A NATIONAL JOURNALIST – AND ME!
On February 14th I ran my first PR planning day with national journalist; Clare O’Reilly, who lives in the South West and works across multiple national titles.
It was an amazing day, and one where the people on the day learnt from Clare, exactly what national journalists are looking for – and what they are not. It was an important lesson, because I’m always having to explain to business owners that their expectations are often overly inflated especially when it comes to national coverage.
Clare helped to backup my comments that ‘local’ and ‘trade’ media are as valuable if not more valuable than national coverage. When it comes to national coverage – sending out loads of press releases is largely a big fat waste of time.
During the morning, initially I talked about what PR is, and gave some insight about how to approach journalists – and how not to! The best way being to build a relationship, by engaging with them.
Clare talked to the group about national stories she had worked on. The stories she picked all share the point that almost all of them rested on personal experiences or the ability to provide expert comment on someone else’s story.
After this, the whole group broke into smaller groups to think about ideas that they might have coming up for April, May and June – and how this might work for local, trade or national press.
Then we stopped for lunch, which as always on my courses is provided by another client of mine – Dave Nelson of Truffle & Thyme. During the lunch, there was an opportunity for chat and laughs.
In the afternoon, the groups pitched their wide ranging stories – were ideas for both local and national, after which, Clare and I gave feedback.
Clare told two business women, they would make great columnists, two were told that a podcast would work brilliantly for them, and two are already in discussions around their particular stories.
Everyone left the day, full of energy and enthusiasm for the future.
My next PR day with a journalist is on May 1, in the Cotswolds between 9.30am and 4pm.
The journalist joining me then is Liz Perkins, who is the night news editor for the Daily Express.
Alongside this role, she successfully changed the law through the eight times award-nominated End This Injustice campaign that led the Government to pledge to overhaul the Family Court though the Domestic Abuse Bill.
She has great experience of working across the national press from the Daily Telegraph, to the Sunday Times and is a double award winner for breaking the exclusive on sexism and misogyny in the Welsh Rugby Union in the Daily Mail. Her job has taken her across the world, including Afghanistan six times, reporting at Wimbledon and also visiting the home to interview Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos.
If you’d like to join me on May 1 for what I know will be a wonderfully enlightening day, then please email me – three places have already gone. The early bird cost is £250 plus VAT for the day and that includes lunch. Places are limited. My email is: