Press interviews

Whether you’re talking to a limited circulation trade magazine or a big name correspondent from a national broadsheet, the same rules and opportunities apply. Our media training courses will show you how to define your core messages and deliver them in a lively and engaging style which will maximize their chance making the final copy.

We offer two press interview formats:

The telephone interview. In this extremely lifelike format you’ll get a phone call from a journalist/trainer who will conduct a fifteen minute interview with you on a subject of your choice. Within an hour they’ll deliver the copy they would have written were they doing it for real. Has the piece said what you really wanted it to say? Are your core messages given prominence? Are they even mentioned? As with the press conference, we’ll then get together and collectively work out the best answers to any given questions before giving you a second go.

The one-on-one interview. We frequently hear the comment, ‘Yes, I know what to say, but I don’t know how to behave with journalists.’ This media training provides the answers. We’ll show you how the ‘manage’ the interview to make sure your messages are heard. How best to control the agenda by giving the journalist news they can use. We’ll also show you why the journalist isn’t necessarily going to be your best friend, but why they aren’t your enemy either.

As well as the rules of engagement, which apply to both types of encounter, you’ll also learn:

• Why nothing’s ever off-the-record
• How to cope with difficult questions
• How not to comment
• Whether deadlines are important to you
• If you can ever ‘trust’ a journalist

The press conference.
Here, you’re bombarded with a range of questions about a real issue you or your organisation is facing. Our trainers, all of whom are working journalists, will prepare as they would if the encounter were for real before you’re put in the hot seat. They will ask the questions you can expect to face in real life. At the end of the session your answers are deconstructed before we collectively establish the best answers to any given lines of questioning. We then repeat the process giving you the chance to improve. We’ll also show you how to ‘manage’ a press conference to your best advantage.

In this session you will also learn:

• The best times and places to hold press conferences
• Who should appear
• Journalists’ etiquette and journalists’ tricks
• How to ‘fail safe’ on tricky questions
• What to provide in press kits and background briefing
• Ending the encounter gracefully