How to Communicate With the News Media

How do you communicate to the news media? It is very different from giving a speech or holding meeting. There can be people who are the greatest public speakers in the world. You get them in front of a TV camera, they're awful. They have quotes that ruin their career. It's a different skill set. The most important thing is when you're talking to the news media, you need to have a clear, focused message. No more than three message points. Something you can say in 30 seconds or less. Next, you need to be able to package your messages with sound bites. A sound bite is simply a more interesting way of stating a message. Sound bites or quotes all come from 10 speech patterns. They're either analogies, bold action words, cliches, humor, pop culture references. If you want all 10, all you have to do is write to me, tj mediatrainingworldwide.com and I'll send you not one but two of my media training books free of charge just for asking if you mention this podcast. Also, if you are interested in more detailed media training tips, you may want to subscribe to my weekly podcast, the Media Training Tip of the Week and you can get more and more tips on that. Finally, if you are speaking to the media, the best thing to do is to do practice interviews on video. Have someone ask you questions or ask yourself questions. Record it on video. Figure out what do you like, what do you not like. Keep practicing until you like every aspect of style and substance. Then, and only then, are you ready to do the media interview.