Thoughts on media work

Leicester FoE has been quite successful recently in raising its media profile. In August 2007, for instance, we got into double figures with both interviews on radio and TV and with items in the local paper. One day I did two TV interviews and one radio interview in one morning and another member also did a radio interview.

Given how successful our media work has been I thought that it might be useful to include a page of thoughts on why, as a possible help to other groups trying to generate media interest. In addition, I hope that some of the contents of this page may assist and encourage other members of Leicester FoE to help boost our media profile even further. (See particularly the final section on this page). I hasten to add; however, that I am not a media professional and any additional thoughts and advice from people who are would be very welcome, if you want to contact me.

Most of our recent press releases can be viewed in the archive.

Media coverage has been generated in five main ways:

By issuing rapid press releases in response to events and issues in the news;

By organizing events and actions and issuing press releases around them, both in advance and afterwards;

By writing to the letters page of the local paper, who publish a high proportion of the letters they receive;

By offering the local paper peices for their "First Person" column;

Through the media approaching us proactively, for comment and interviews regarding topical events and issues.

I think that a number of things have proved helpful in generating coverage:

In responding to things in the news it is very important to respond quickly, while something is still newsworthy. I monitor both the national and local news daily and try to put press releases out straight away, when I identify a suitable issue. I couldn't do this if the group didn't allow me a lot of freedom to act on my own initiative;

The local media are mainly interested in local news. They are much more likely to pick up on something if it is local, or you can find a local angle. I have tried to take this on board;

TV and to some extent the press are more likely to pick up on something if you can offer them good pictures. We have made good use of props to do this, such as Abigail the Leicester FoE orang-utan, for our campaigning on bio-fuels and gas masks, from an army surplus store, for our anti-incinerator actions;

Controversy also helps and we generated good coverage for the anti-incinerator campaign from the "secret briefings" that Keith Kondakor from Nuneaton FoE was able extract from the County Council, using freedom of information legislation. We also got good coverage during this year's Climate Camp, by offering phone interviews with members at the camp and by letting it be known that the M1 widening project might be the target of next year's camp;

We haven't focused just on the local paper. I also send all my press releases to a number of local radio and TV stations, including East Midlands Today and MATV, the local asian cable TV channel;

As we have raised our media profile we have been approached proactively by the media more and more, asking for comment and interviews even when we haven't put out a press release on something;

A media officer can't be an expert on everything, so the national FoE website has proved a valuable resource in helping me get up to speed on some issues, when fielding unsolicited media approaches, or trying to respond quickly to something in the news. Google and Wikkipedia are also valuable resources for this.

It is hard to evaluate how much difference the style of our press releases makes, but there are a number of things that I try to do:

I try to find an attention grabbing title. Failing this I try to find a title that will at least make it apparent what the press release is about;

I try to include the essential points in the first paragraph, or the first two at most and I try to include in this the five Ws - who, what, when, where and why;

I try to avoid assuming too much background knowledge and to include a paragraph, or two to provide background. This is not just about what knowledge I can assume of journalists, it is also about what knowledge they can assume of their audience, since I am always trying to provide something that a journalist will feel able to use with as little alteration as possible;

I try to keep to one side of A4. Often I don't succeed in this, but I never use more than two;

I always try to provide at least one quote. I think that I used to make these too long, but I have started trying to keep them shorter and more focused on the key points that I want to make;

I have started to make use of bullet points, to make the key points stand out;

I always include a contact name and a mobile phone number. This is particularly important for broadcast media as they usually want someone who they can do an interview with. This means that you need a contact who can be fairly flexible about their availability. I usually give myself as contact, but I hope to enlist more members in the future, since there are times when I get a bit swamped with interview requests and, as I have said, I can't be an expert on everything. Also, I don't think that I am particularly good at interviews (although I do think that I am getting better with practice);

I try to provide some links to other sources of information, to get any journalist who wants to do more background research started, although I think that I have tended to get a bit carried away with this in some of the bio-fuels press releases. Too many links probably risks the most important ones being missed, especially since in the past I have often failed to provide a clear description of the material that the links are to.

When e-mailing my press releases I always include the text in the e-mail, as I suspect that it will often not get read if available only as an attachment; however, for some time I have also attached a word version, for ease of reading if the e-mailing process messes up the layout and as a better format to work on, if a journalist wants to use the release with minimal alteration, or if they want to cut and paste bits from it.

In terms of future media work there are a number of ways that I think we can do even better:

I have been inconsistent in the past, with regards to the presentation of press releases. I think that I need to stick to a consistent style, in terms of font, font size, etc. Since they are mainly going to be read on a computer screen helvetica/arial probably offers the best readability, of the common fonts and a fairly large font size such as this is probably also desirable;

In future I need to resist the temptation to include too many links in press releases and I need to provide a clear description of what each link links to. Being able to provide a link to this web site should help reduce the temptation to try to include too much in the press release itself;

Having a web site will hopefully also generate even more unsolicited contacts from the press, as well as making it easier for people to find us after hearing about us and our views in the media;

If I am going to make past press releases available on this web site, in the archive, I need to start dating them in future;

I write quite a lot of letters to the Leicester Mercury, identifying myself as being a member of Leicester FoE, but we could increase our exposure further if more members did the same. You can click here to do so now;

I think that we need to make more use of the Leicester Mercury "First Person" column. Contributions need to be in a personal capacity and the person to contact, to offer a column, is Jim Matthews, Community Editor.

I would like to encourage more members to volunteer to act as a contact person, to do interviews, etc. This is one reason why I have asked everyone with a special responsibility to let me put contact details on this site. I probably also need to be more proactive in approaching other people to ask if I can put their details in press releases and I need to make sure that I always have contact details for other members on me, if they are available to do interviews.

I would like to encourage individual campaign co-ordinators to put out press releases too, as I only have time to do so many. I would urge people to let me know what they are doing though, so that we don't duplicate. Hopefully this page will provide a resource to help people to do press releases too. This is my current circulation list. Suggested additions and corrections very welcome.

About six months ago I tried to interest the Leicester Mercury in running a competition, linked to the introduction of the Climate Bill. The idea would have been for them to invite readers to send in suggestions for policies that they would like to see the Government introduce, to help cut CO2 emissions. These suggestions (including suggestions from our members) could then be published in a supplement, with prizes for those judged the best, by reader's vote and/or a panel. Leicester FoE and two local MPs, Peter Soulsby and David Taylor, were all prepared to put up £50 each towards prizes. Unfortunately the Mercury didn't pick it up. Despite this I think that it is probably worth floating again.

Finally, I feel that I probably need to make more effort to cultivate a relationship with individual journalists, particularly those with an interest in environmental issues (so any journalists reading this, do feel free to contact me, to arrange to meet up).

I hope that at least some people have found this page interesting and helpful.

Best Wishes and Good Luck in your own efforts.

Malcolm Hunter
Leicester FoE Media Officer
27.12.07.

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