From the category archives:

Media Communications

How Much Does Media Training Cost?

I’ve had a few people ask me just what goes on during a Media Training Seminar since I posted the article How to Survive the Media Interview. Some were nervous about the idea of practicing the techniques in front of others, of being videotaped, of hearing the sound of their own voice. Others wanted to [...]

Read the full article →

Using CleanBottle to Illustrate Strategic Communication

A lot of people and organizations have trouble grasping the basic principles of Strategic Communications and Marketing. I recently ran across a real life marketing phenomenon that goes a long way to graphically explaining the concepts. CleanBottle is a plastic water bottle for bicyclists, runners, hikers and others that solves a gross problem with ordinary [...]

Read the full article →

How To Survive the Media Interview – Talking With Reporters

Given the rapidly failing state of the news media business in North America and Europe it is becoming ever more important that people be very careful when agreeing to do a media interview. Ethical and professional standards have slipped badly in the last several years, particularly in television news and even more so in local [...]

Read the full article →

Social Media Networking For People Who Need Publicity But Can’t Pay For It

The other day I was asked for some help in setting up a news conference in another country, which meant that the costs in getting me there to do the work simply weren’t worth it. But I was able to provide a fair bit of free information over the telephone and I referred the person [...]

Read the full article →

Amid the Ruins – A Poor Kind of Journalism

  An odd thing is happening to journalism amid the chaos of humanitarian disasters these days.   It’s becoming as managed, influenced, nuanced and manipulated as the worst of government spin controlled journalism. Over the past years I’ve experienced at first hand a most remarkable change in how the media works  in humanitarian disasters such as [...]

Read the full article →

Crisis Communications – 10 Top Tips

A Media Crisis is when every reporter in the world seems to want to talk with you. If you or your organization is believed to have done something bad, then that is a Media Crisis. But if the story is Big Good News then you still have a problem, and if you don’t handle things [...]

Read the full article →

How to Hold a Press Conference

A news, or press, conference is way of imparting information to journalists in a rapid and efficient manner. Instead of having to inform news organizations and reporters individually of something you can shotgun a bunch of them in a little less than an hour and move onto something else. But don’t get me wrong. There [...]

Read the full article →

How to Write a Press Release

or News Release if you are a purist. Here’s a guide to writing a Press Release. It’s meant to help people who have never done one before. After I’ve given you a workable blueprint I’ll include a few words about why you might want to rethink why you are writing the thing in the first [...]

Read the full article →