media training Archives - Clapperton Media

Want to confuse a journalist? Tell them everything you know about your top subject, don’t worry about focus, just come out with all of your experience. That’s what a number of our media training delegates do in the first interview practice sessions we run with them and it almost never helps.

It’s like this. Journalists are experts in many things: storytelling, interviewing, maybe editing a video or audio package together, collating quotes into a written article. As they progress they may become superb managers and developers of young writing and interviewing talent. They are superb at working to deadlines (or they won’t last long).

They might – just might – also be an expert in your client’s field. Equally they might not. So let’s say your spokesperson has been doing whatever they’ve been doing for 20 years and the journalist uses a light opener like “tell me about yourself” – and the well-intentioned interviewee comes out with everything they can think of that might help.

It comes from a good place and a wish to help. But without focus it’s going to damage an article. If someone is not an expert in your field already, telling them 20 things about it is more likely to end up in confusion than clarity. And that’s when mistakes and factual errors creep in, not because anyone is stitching anyone up but because the interview just wasn’t clear.

Focus is essential

The classic picture of a media trainer is someone who tells you to pick three things and come out with those whatever the question might be. This is extreme and likely to offend journalists who know when they’re being ignored. It’s worth going into interviews with three prepared messages, though, for three reasons. First, you need some area of focus just to stop yourself rambling. Second, if the interview goes off piste then you’ll have something to get back to. Third, it’s actually courteous to the journalist to think about what you want to say in advance.

Stick to a few core messages and try to ram them home. By all means answer the rest, the politician’s trick of ignoring the question is something the listeners and viewers will spot at some distance and it makes the spokesperson look arrogant – but there’s noting wrong with having an intention and a focus for every media interaction.

If you’re reading this then the chances are that you’ll be in PR and you’ll have noticed the problems you face are multiplying and going off in different directions. The chances are that you’re facing a “credibility crunch.”

Here’s where it starts. You can use AI to write a press release in seconds, but so can everyone else. This has led journalists to become more cynical than ever – only last week on Reddit I was engaging with someone who’d had a pitch rejected by a journalist because a piece of software had identified it as AI-generated (he was quite annoyed because he’d written it himself).

At the same time, AI search engines (like Perplexity and Google’s SGE) are prioritizing “original expert opinion” and “lived experience” to rank brands. So AI content doesn’t help and false positives when people use software to root out the non-human stuff are a real problem.

(We will pause here to reflect that the journalist using software to detect AI was also using AI so more than a little hypocritical – OK, as you were.)

So PR professionals are under immense pressure to put their executives forward as “thought leaders” because they’re human and then we’re back to the spokespeople being terrified by a live mic or cynical journalist with a difficult question. Many will resort to going really bland and slipping into what I think of as “corporate droid” mode in which case you might as well have gone to AI in the first place.

Help your spokespeople to be human

This is where it’s worth getting help and by all means I have a vested interest. There can be good reasons to opt for external input: someone like me can say something to a C-suite director without having to bump into them in the lift the following day, I will have a different set of experiences to most internal PR professionals and probably more experience as a journalist.

If you want to keep it internal, though, be aware that the needs of media training have changed quite a bit. Here are some examples”

Podcasts are a thing so chattier approaches are more acceptable than they were. Just check what’s happening on popular TV; if you’re in the UK then you might be aware that “The Apprentice” is back but instead of the audience-based review aftershow “You’re Fired” we have the podcast-ish “Unfinished Business”. You can read my thoughts on why “podcast” is becoming a meaningless term here but the informality is probably here to stay.
A consequence is that changing topics in an interview and steering away from uncomfortable areas is still a thing but an audience can spot a clunky change of gear at several paces.
Journalists and other media professionals increasingly expect a personal side to an interview. Not only will they appreciate it but a good interview full of engaging stories and individual content will feed the algorithms and help AI-based searches to find it. Until they change it all again.

The same goes for your own pitches. Not only is using AI to generate them a bad idea but it’s worth checking to see whether your style sounds a bit robotic so you don’t join my contact on Reddit and get the boot for being AI when you’re not!

We recently had a chat with a colleague who had a familiar dilemma: how do you make LinkedIn posts engaging when you have to talk about a product?

The colleague’s concern was valid — they didn’t want to bore their audience by focusing only on features and specifications. They wanted to post something more engaging, something that resonated. And they were right to think that way. In the world of press releases as well as social media, people will switch off if you start talking about products for which they are not searching.

Whenever possible, content — whether for LinkedIn or the press — should be built around issues and client pain points, not the product itself. That’s what connects.

But in media relations, things aren’t always that simple. Sometimes there is a product launch that needs attention, and unless the client happens to be Apple, Samsung or Google (where “a company known for making phones is going to make another phone” is apparently thrillint), it can be difficult to make that story sparkle.

Or so it seems.

Issues with wheels

To illustrate the point, one of our trainers tried to think of the dullest but most useful product imaginable — and searched for a picture of a wheel.

Thousands appeared. Car wheels, bicycle wheels, haycart wheels, even the London Eye. It turns out that a wheel isn’t dull at all — it depends entirely on the story you tell about your wheel.

If you’re trying to attract a journalist’s attention to a new wheel, you need to explain what makes your wheel in particular matter. What problem does it solve that other wheels don’t? Who benefits from it, and how? Is there a bigger market trend around wheels that you could comment on?

Of course, even then, not every journalist will be interested. That’s where Plan B comes in: stop talking about the product altogether, and start talking about the issues it solves — the problem it fixes for your audience.

A wheel, after all, helps people travel farther than they can walk. A bicycle wheel adds exercise to the equation. A car wheel might improve safety or reduce costs if it’s more durable. Each story is different because each audience is different.

And that’s the key.

Whether you’re writing a press release or a LinkedIn post, the focus should always be on the reader, not the writer. The best messages are about the audience’s challenges and aspirations, not the speaker’s achievements.

A useful exercise is to review your own content — LinkedIn posts, website copy, even pitch emails — and ask: Is this about us, or about them? If it’s too much about you, reframe it around your ideal client’s needs and concerns.

Don’t expect instant results — the payoff is in the quality of the engagement you attract, not the quantity.

In both media training and communications, the same truth applies: the message that resonates isn’t about what you sell — it’s about the issue you address. And if you’ve read the market right then your target readers will recognise themselcves immediately you start talking about those issues.

This morning I was halfway through a full day of media training — four delegates before lunch, five in the afternoon, all online. At one point, one of the delegates paused after a question and said:

“I’m glad you asked me that.”

He meant it. The question had landed right in his sweet spot, giving him the chance to shine.

Moments like that are great, but in truth they’re often a fluke. In real interviews, you can’t count on the journalist asking what your client wants to be asked.

That’s why, if you want to get the most value out of media training, the focus shouldn’t just be on the comfortable questions. PR professionals can add real impact by briefing trainers on the questions their clients don’t want to hear.

Start with the hard stuff

A simple but powerful exercise is to ask your client: “What do you really hope you’re not asked in an interview?” Once you have the answer, make that the starting point. Ask it in the training. Push them to answer. Refine the response. Ask it again. Repeat until they’re confident.

It might feel uncomfortable. The client might even leave the session thinking they’ve been put through the wringer. But that’s the point. A tough training room is infinitely better than being blindsided on live radio or TV.

Better tough now than unprepared later

Media training isn’t about rehearsing easy wins — it’s about preparing spokespeople for the moments that really matter. A well-handled difficult question can build trust and credibility far more than a polished soundbite ever will.

So next time a client asks you about media training, or even just about how an interview is likely to go, start here: what’s the one question they really don’t want to be asked? That’s where real preparation begins.