RGC - News Conference Guidlines

General Guidelines for Holding a News Conference

[Extract from the RGC Media Seminar]

Note-- these guidelines will not work unless you have prepared the ground with Phases I and II

If you have any choice, hold the newser in the morning rather than the afternoon. 1030hrs will give you coverage on noon newscasts and the drive home, supper shows. Mid afternoon, 1500 at the very latest will give you some supper shows, the late shows at 2300, and the morning papers. A late newser is unlikely to result in national television supper hour coverage unless it's really hot news. The big television supper hour shows are lined up and locked into place by 1600 hrs eastern at the latest.

Never hold a newser late on a Friday afternoon unless you are trying to very quietly announce something.

Weekend news conferences are only for emergency news or a pitch to regional media for their weekend coverage. Weekends are bad for attracting the national media. The exception is a Sunday night series of phone calls to selected reporters to deliberately leak a story. Sunday night leaks always get nice play in Monday morning newspapers and on the networks. Watch how often "Unnamed Washington sources said last night. . . ." stories show up on Monday mornings.

Don't try this trick unless you really know what your are doing. If you are deliberately trying to trick or manipulate the media you will be found out and whatever message you have will be destroyed.

Journalists live and die by the clock so don't hold the newser miles out of town, far from their filing points. If your company makes tractors and is located past that far range of hills on the horizon then book a hotel meeting room downtown.

Hire an audio visual company to install a sound system that radio and television reporters can plug their recording equipment into.

If there is going to be a lot of media attending, then get a riser into the back of the room for the camera crews otherwise they will fill up the front and the rest of the reporters in the room will see nothing.

Hand out copies of your news release and background material as reporters enter the room. Your message should be self contained in this material because some reporters, in particular the wire service reporters, may not have time to stay for the full event yet must still file a story.

No more than two people should host the news conference. One is best. If you have more than two then things will drag out horribly and reporters will constantly be charging up to the table or podium to readjust their microphones for the new speaker.

The principal speaker should have a short opening statement; no more than ten minutes before questions. If at all possible that opening statement should be made from notes and not read from a prepared speech.

If there is to be any kind of crowd of reporters there should be a person to traffic cop the room. The news conference manager should point to individual reporters to pose their questions. The news conference manager can make or ruin the event if they aren't in control, can't anticipate a bad line of questioning or aren't fair in identifying reporters.

The first round of questions should be limited to a main questin with one follow up. Once the first round of questions has been completed then longer series of questions from individuals can be allowed, but still controlled.

The spokesperson should be available for one-on-one interviews with reporters at the end but those arrangements must be made through the news conference manager.

If you get to the 45 minute mark without any obvious disasters then you've had a very successful news conference. Cut it off anytime after 45 minutes and resist the temptation to go past one hour. Get out while they still like you.

>> top

Main, Services, Expertise, Writing, Contact