Delivering Your Message To The Media

Print, radio and television are very different when it comes to packaging the news for their audiences. To position yourself as a good media source you need to understand the differences and respond accordingly. Here are some tips to help you prepare your messages:

1. Delivering Your Message to Print

Print news stories on average are 3-5 times longer than any other media. They are usually more serious as they have the room to provide additional information, facts, quotes and opinions. As a result a print media interview is usually the longest and involves the least ‘performance’ from you compared to other media types.

2. Delivering Your Message to Radio

Radio is usually the shortest of all media engagements as stories are often fewer than 100 words. In a radio interview you will normally be asked to answer a couple of questions over the phone so it is important to know what you want to say ahead of time and to be succinct and clear.

3. Delivering Your Message to Television

Because the visual aspect of television is so important, it’s often about putting you in a context that supports the story. As a result setting up for the interview will normally take far longer than the interview itself. Think of a television interview as a performance, you have to look, act and speak right.

Practice Talking In ‘Sound Bites’

The average television news item is less than 90 seconds. Of that time the studio presenter will have 10-20 seconds to introduce the story, then the reporter will have around 60 seconds to ‘tell’ the story. That leaves only 10-20 seconds for quotes from sources and since there is normally more than one source to balance out the story, you have very little time to make your point.

Radio is much the same and even the print journalist will be on the lookout for those few words that sum up your position, for their headline or lead paragraph.

In preparation for the interview work on one to two succinct statements that convey your message, then have additional background information to provide if asked.

How to Deliver Messages to the Media

When you are talking to the media, or even writing a media release you need to communicate the opposite of how you would normally communicate in business.

In business you would build your case, providing reasons, arguments, facts and proof and then finish with a strong conclusion that gives your point of view on the issue. This is the opposite with the media.

The media want your conclusion first. They want to know your opinion or position on the issue. More often than not they don’t have the time or space to report on ‘why’ you think the way you do. So in an interview always give your conclusion first then back up your point of view with facts, statistics or proof.