To tell you the truth Paul, I probably did fall into the trap of not being concise enough with the journalist. For the committee presentation, I was able to practice it numerous times and get it down to a concise 12 minutes. Even then I had to try hard to resist the urge to expand at length on every single point. I tend to get a bit passionate about these things. The journalist caught me unawares though, so I probably did rabbit on a bit too much! Talking to the press is not something I'm used to. I have now got hold of some guidelines for dealing with journalists which I'm planning to read and digest before I get caught again. Derbhile, I wonder if you have any good guidelines or resources you could share with me?
Mark On 2 Apr 2009, at 21:37, Paul Dromey wrote:
Ah Derbhile, that’s spot on. Journalists can write a really comprehensive piece but the sub editor is king when it comes to fitting it into the available space. Unfortunately, the writer usually gets blamed for leaving things out when it’s really a space issue.If any of you are doing interviews with journalists, it’s worth prioritising your bullet points beforehand and making them in a concise manner. It’s so easy to get enthusiastic about a given point and the journalist gets lots of quotable things from you and has over-written before incorporating all the issues you want to include.Mark, I’m sure you didn’t fall into the trap, this is intended for future reference and comes from someone who has had too much experience from both sides of the media business.PaulFrom: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ] On Behalf Of Derbhile DromeySent: 02 April 2009 14:16 To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Campaign on move to digital TV urgedHate to say it, but they've only got so much space and they clearly were making an attempt to cover all basis within a couple of hundred words. Ruthless editing was involved, I assure you.My own PC Live piece was bumped back by a month, but should be out in this month's edition. Will keep you posted. That makes mention of audio description!Derbhile I am using the Free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 854 of my spam emails to date. The Professional version does not have this message.
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