Media Training update w/c 29th July

Morning all. It’s Monday 29th July 2024. Welcome to the final Briefing before the summer break.

Monday: The Chancellor sets out her public spending analysis

Nominations close for the Conservative leadership contest 

Tuesday: BP and Microsoft results

Wednesday: UNESCO World Heritage decisions adopted

Meta and Boeing results

Thursday: Interest rate decision

EU Artificial Intelligence Act enters into force

Apple, Amazon and Shell results

Friday: Edinburgh festival begins

Adele begins summer residency in Munich

Saturday: Pro-Palestine national demonstration in London 

I’ve referenced The Rest Is Entertainment podcast a couple of times in recent briefings, because it’s excellent. The latest episode has hosts Marina Hyde and Richard Osman “doing a tight 5 minutes” (as they like to say) on media training.

Their view on the reason for, and impact of media training is the antithesis of what we set out to achieve with our coaching. However it’s still an interesting take. The section on trap words is relevant to everyone, and stories about Sir Andy Murray and cricketer Chris Woakes worth a listen.

One other line Richard Osman says about media training: “Either you make them more charismatic or you make them more boring.

You’ll be pleased to hear we aim for the former every time…

LISTEN HERE (16 minutes in)

Part 3 of Year Of The Expert is complete. Our 7 part audio diary on how to prepare for interviews is now a 20 minute podcast, joining earlier sections (Part 1 – Why Engage? and Part 2 – Where to Appear).

LISTEN HERE

Behind the scenes as a moment of history is recorded…

And while “a moment of history” may be stretching things, Rachel Reeves’ first interview from inside Number 11 required some serious kit…

The new Labour government’s approach to dealing with the media has been fairly well-received so far. One thing the PM does need to do however is widen the very small (and predictable) list of journalists he calls on at press conferences.

As Politico’s Emilio Casalicchio observes: “Mine was the sole hand up at the Starmer press conference in Farnborough this morning. He ignored it & stuck to his list of hacks that aides gave him beforehand. The ‘list regime’ equals less diversity of thought, more press control from No.10 & no hope for smaller media outlets.”

Hard to disagree.

Brilliant to see new models for the provision of quality local journalism thrive…

READ MORE

Footnotes:

The Briefing takes a break for a few weeks but we’ll be back, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the beginning of September.

We’re still around during August and it’s always a pretty quiet month for us, so a good time for an online catch up or a coffee.

I’ll leave you with this…

On this day: The wedding of Charles and Diana, in 1981.

Weather: Highs of 24 degrees in Exeter today and 22 in Durham.

Mutts: The obligatory dog photo. Stan and Leo’s mate Roxie…

Bye for now.

All at Inside Edge