Media training: Print and broadcast

Helen co-hosts a fully comprehensive media training session with fellow author and business journalist Alex Blyth.

Being able to delivering your brand’s message in a clear, persusavie, succinct and logical way is the one single most important thing for your professional and personal image.

Unlike other media training programmes, we incorporate important groundwork into our media training sessions to help you formulate and organise your ideas and key philosophies so that you can articulate them into media friendly, highly quotable soundbites. Media-speak is much more fast paced than normal conversation. We’ve learned the hard way that you can only say something effectively once you know what exactly what it is you want to say! We are here to help you learn the easy way.

Helen has cross-platform media experience from both sides of the newsroom. As a journalist she has interviewed senior figures from business leaders to politicians to academics for TV, radio and print media. As an author and a relationship commentator she is also frequently on the other side of the interviewer’s chair giving interviews herself. Helen has also had to handle many awkward and confrontational interviews following the publication on Sugar Daddy Diaries and so knows the most effective techniques to graciously handle awkward questions.

We split our one-day course in two halves – print media in the morning and broadcast media in the afternoon. Together the session provides all the knowhow to increase your media coverage and to perform  to your full potential in interviews for newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and various multimedia platforms.

Prices  detailed below.

Click here to register interest or book

 

What does it cover?

In a full-day session we cover the following:

- How to present your message in such a way that the journalist has to use it
- How to prepare for an interview and how to back them up with anecdotes (and how to do it when short of time!)
- How to control the conversation
- Techniques for a clear, calm and successful delivery
- How to handle crisis interviews
- How the broadcast / print / multi-media interviews work and how you can increase your presence across all.
- How to find out contacts and how to ‘pitch yourself’ for interview.
- The crucial gestures for on-camera interviews
- How not to be misquoted

We keep our theory to a minimum because the best way to learn is through practice. Our sessions are packed with as many practical role play interviews as we can fit in. Alex will specialise in coaching the print interviews and Helen will deal with the broadcast interviews. After each role play we evaluate performance, providing constructive personal feedback to each delegate.

We also provide each delegate with recording of each broadcast interview from the day. Note the smaller the group, the more interviews we can squeeze in. For this reason we don’t recommend any booking of more than six people.

Who are we?

Print media training – Alex Blyth
Over the past decade Alex has been published in titles such as The Independent, Director, People Management, Media Week, Accountancy, Revolution, Training & Coaching Today, Marketing Week, Third Sector and PR Week, to name just a few. He has written three books – ‘How to grow your business for entrepreneurs’, published by Pearson, ’365 Ways to Cut Costs’ published by the Directory for Social Change, were released in 2009, and “Brilliant Online Marketing”, was published by Pearson in late 2010. For more details see here: www.alex-blyth.co.uk

Broadcast media training – Helen Croydon
After starting her career as a breakfast newsreader and editor at Silk FM in Cheshire, Helen Croydon spent five years at ITN, first as a radio reporter and presenter, then a video producer, reporter and presenter for ITN On. ITN On provided video content for a variety of leading multi-media platforms including Telegraph TV, Blinx TV, Canoe TV, YouTube, Yahoo and MSN.

Helen then moved to Current TV to launch and then head up a new news service. She now freelances as a news producer and reporter for several national and regional broadcasters including ITV News, NBC,  ITV London and ITN Productions. Her broadcast experience also expands into print and she writes for The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and several magazines. She also writes a monthly column for The Erotic Review. For more details click on relevant pages above.

Client Testimonials

“I’ve got to say it was one of the best training courses I’ve ever had. For so long I’ve used PR and been passionate about it’s role as a potential marketing channel for the business. I now feel that things have slotted into place and it all makes sense. Perfect sense.

” You’ve created a very excited person that is eager to engage with journalists now I understand the approach. In fact I was immediately on the phone with Andrew Stone of the Sunday Times and we booked in a rough timeline for the feature on Crunch.”

- Darren Fell, MD of Crunch.co.uk

“Over the years we have had several media training sessions and to differing degrees these have been of some use. However I never felt that any of these activities were based on a deep understanding of our industry. Recently Alex ran a series of media training workshops and training sessions for us. These sessions were not only based on a deep understanding of our industry but were also
very enjoyable. They’ve produced a significant positive shift in the way we engage with the media and actively promote ourselves. I have recommended Alex to numerous people and we will definitely be using Alex on an ongoing basis.”
- Neil Svensen, Chief Executive and Founder of Rufus Leonard – training delivered to his senior team of 16 people in January and February 2010.

“You managed to tell a couple of people who do not respond well to criticism that we weren’t very good, in a way that meant we didn’t walk out. Well done – that’s probably a first.”
- Richard Perry, Chief Executive, GyroHSR – training delivered to him and Chief Operating Officer, December 2009

“Thank you! Great refresher. Learnt some new tips and tricks. The structure of the 20 points made it easy to follow, and it was also great to look at others’ work and learn about their issues as well as my own. 10/10!”
- Victoria Morris, Head of Corporate Communications UK & Ireland, Henkel plc

How much does it cost?

Prices are on a sliding scale based on the number of delegates taking part. This is because we tailor each session to the individuals taking part. We prepare each role-play according to the delegate’s job title and news issues relating to the company and make sure that each delegate gets detailed one-on-one feedback. So the more people in the group the more preparation involved and the the more time taken.

One-on-one session: £1000 per day
Two people: £1200
Three people: £1400
Four people: £1600

(Tailored packages or shorter training day for tight budgets can be arranged on request).

We also offer a follow-up interview service where we can set up a mock print or broadcast interview remotely. After the interview we provide detailed personalised feedback and a recording of the interview. This is popular for delegates as a last-minute fresher ahead of a TV or radio interview.

We charge a fee of £25 for each mock interview.

To discuss further please e-mail or call:

Alex Blyth: ab@alex-blyth.co.uk – 07940 768353
Or contact Helen: mediatraining ‘at’ helencroydon.com