176: How to Write a Royally Good Media Advisory

Sunday, February 20, 2022 Buckingham palace released a media advisory announcing bits of information about a big story.

We're going to interrupt that program because we have heard in the last few minutes that Buckingham palace has confirmed that the Queen has today tested positive for COVID 19. Monarch is experiencing mild cold like symptoms, we are told, but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming weeks. She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all appropriate guidelines.

Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast where we use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. Whether your role in PR or communications uses a media advisory template or not, it's always helpful to understand how to use them and how to use them effectively. Media advisories serve as a communication alert to tell the press to cover something specific. Breaking news is often big news, so you want to have a written communication when there isn't a spokesperson on a particular story. In this episode we'll examine the media advisory, why to write one, how to write one, and using a recent one as an example. Whether you call them a media statement, an advisory or an alert, it's a tool in the PR toolbox for professionals to use to manage the release of an event. It typically provides the media with the basic information of a timely story, such as a news conference, special event, announcement or an incident event that is short on information but long on press interest. Take Her Majesty the Queen. Throughout the month of February, the Palace had been dealing with a lot of speculation that the Queen was ill. Now it was understood that a number of people had tested positive at Windsor Castle, which is where the Queen resides, and that included her son, Prince Charles. He had met with the Queen two days before his diagnosis, one that was a second positive diagnosis for him. This had happened 10 days before. The announcement also diagnosed his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. She had tested positive days after her husband with COVID symptoms generally appearing from 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus. Fleet Street Royal watchers, social media, everyone was watching. Would the Queen receive a positive Covid diagnosis? The statement that I had mentioned at the top had a goal. The palace needed to play down a sense of alarm while providing enough information to satisfy the press and the public alike. At the top, I played a clip from the BBC announcing the Queen's diagnosis. I want you to take a look, listen to more of the clip to get a sense of how a media advisory works. Note what happens in this announcement.

Monica is experiencing mild cold like symptoms we are told, but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming weeks. She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all appropriate guidelines that is just coming in to us from Buckingham Palace. So I'll just read that statement again that the Queen has tested positive for COVID 19 says the palace and is experiencing mild cold like symptoms but does expect to continue light duties at Windsor over the next few days and is going to continue to get medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines.

There's a story. End of story. The statement structure provided enough information for the BBC and many other news outlets to go on the air with breaking news. So there was enough information to broadcast, to print, to post with the hope that the story diminishes and is replaced by another news story. It's how the news cycle works and what the palace did was follow a very simple structure for their statement. I'm going to share the format of a media advisory using the media statement used from the palace from Buckingham Palace. So a media advisory or media statement starts with a header. In this case it was Royal Communications. Next it's the headline. Buckingham palace confirmed that the Queen has today tested positive for Covid. Next in the body is the who the Queen. The what tested positive for Covid. The where they mentioned continuing light duties at Windsor and the when she was diagnosed on Sunday 20th February 2022 and that was it. Anyone can google the statement if you want to see it, you can look to the show notes. I included a link to the statement, but it's basic, it's simple. It's a structure that tells just enough of the story to give the press information, to broadcast it, print it and share it. But it's not enough for it to become an ongoing news story. And as if to emphasize the business as usual approach, there was a tweet that the Queen was back at her desk the morning of the announcement to sign off on a congratulations message to the Winter Olympic curling team. So this was courtesy of the Royal family Twitter account. The Queen has sent a Message of Congratulations TombGB Team Great Britain curling teams following their success at Beijing 2022TeamGB and then Elizabeth R sends her warmest congratulations. It's a message from the Queen right on the heels of the COVID announcement. It's a strategy to move on from the story. So if the story does swing back around at Buckingham palace and there's another part to the story, the media advisory provided enough information, truthful information as background to continue the story as it continues and grows. Now some formatting bits to remember as you create your own media advisory. If there isn't a person or a who, it can be removed. Other structure points it is a one page document, no more than that. Another format could have short bulleted items rather than one long paragraph. You can also add a photo or a video to support the statement. You could also add social widgets if you want. If you wanted to drive someone to your offline to your online accounts and the final sentence could direct the media to additional information. It could be a website, RSVP or a media contact. You can use media advisories not just for big breaking news. If it is an event. If it is something happening in a timely manner, you want to use a media advisory now. In every podcast I include an indestructible PR tip. These are the tips to leave behinds that help build indestructible reputations. Don't let your media advisory create another PR issue. The media advisory is perhaps the most highly scrutinized form of PR writing during breaking news because it's often spotlight time. When you write the advisory, make sure the facts are solid, then make sure they're solid again. Don't release an advisory too quickly. Don't release it before all the information is confirmed and properly vetted. If you would like more PR tools like a template to a media advisory, remember we have the Indestructible Online Community. It is a program that offers online training modules, audio modules and also monthly video trainings live as well as live Q&As. So if you want to find out more information you can head on over to my website, Molly McPherson, you can join as an organization or as a solo PR or communication expert. We love love to have you in the trainings. That's all for this week. Bye for now.