Media training

MEDIA TRAINING COURSES

Practical training to ensure you make the most of your media opportunities

People apply their knowledge best when they take an active role in their learning, receive immediate constructive feedback and have fun.

That’s why we make our bespoke media training courses as practical as possible, whether they are delivered face-to-face or online.

These courses have helped thousands of organisations prepare for television, radio and print interviews. And improved their media handling ability by developing a roster of spokespeople who can communicate with clarity and confidence.

Whether we are interviewing a delegate in one of our radio or TV studios, door-stepping them outside your offices or putting them through their paces with an online down-the-line interview, participants will get the chance to develop their skills in a real-life setting.

What makes our media courses different?

We believe media courses can take many different forms.

You may have experienced spokespeople who want to refresh their media skills ahead of a crucial announcement. Maybe you want to increase your pool of media spokespeople who can help tell your story. You might want to improve the media handling skills of your comms team so they can better manage enquiries from journalists.

Whatever you need, our dedicated account managers will devise a course that meets your requirements and exceeds your expectations.

And it will be delivered by one of our experienced journalist tutors who will be supported by off-site telephone journalists and camera technicians with all equipment.

They ensure participants learn the most up to date and relevant communication skills to manage the modern-day media, whether it is television, radio or print.

This includes techniques for handling challenging and unexpected questions, ensuring messages resonate, and delivering memorable sound-bites and quotes.

And delegates are given opportunities to put their new skills to the test, with courses packed with broadcast and print interviews.

We have more than 30 tutor journalists from national, regional, trade and local media – and you’ll recognise many of them from TV and radio news programmes.

They equip delegates with skills and techniques to execute strong media performances, control difficult and hostile interviewers, and deliver memorable sound bites.

And they ensure you spokespeople do not become media trained talking robots. Our training empowers people to find their own words and manage challenging questions in line with corporate messaging.

We have been delivering media training for more than 35 years and currently work with more than 40 of the FTSE 100.

What are my training options?

We will work with you to build a course that meets your needs and requirements and those of your delegates.

How that training is delivered is entirely up to you.

Face-to-face media training

This is our most popular way of delivering training. We know people love the opportunity to put their skills to the test in broadcast-quality studios, whether it is at our office in Reading, or one of our studios in London or across the country.

Our face-to-face training can also be carried out at your offices or any hired room.

Wherever it takes place, your delegates will be able to look forward to personal coaching and feedback, together with seamless playbacks of their interviews, ensuring they reach their training goals.

Videoconferencing media training (Zoom / Teams)

Our videoconferencing options allows delegates to access all the brilliant media training we provide in our classrooms and studios from anywhere in the world, without having to travel.

And it has been an invaluable option during lockdowns, allowing organisations to continue to develop their people even though they could not meet face-to-face.

It has also helped prepare spokespeople for an evolving media landscape where many broadcast, print and telephone interviews continue to happen.

The sessions are typically shorter, with more breaks and a greater focus on one-to-one coaching. But they still include everything you’ve come to expect from our face-to-face training, with practical sessions that are recorded for playback and coaching, and full-written feedback of every delegate’s performance issued after the course.

The training is delivered by current working journalists who are all kitted out with professional video, audio and lighting setups and high-speed internet. And they are supported by our in-house technical team to ensure the training isn’t interrupted by any annoying glitches.

And, because we know comms teams often like to observe our training, we’ve made sure you can dip in and out of the online training at your convenience.

Blended media training

Our blended option combines the best of our face-to-face training with the ease and convenience of courses available whenever and wherever you need them.

During the first part of this training, you and your delegates will attend a ‘self-taught’ online course taking you through all the theory and techniques needed to carry out brilliant media interviews.

It will take about an hour and is ready when you are – it just needs to be completed before the second part of the training.

And then delegates get to put what they have learnt to the test in a session with our journalist tutors that includes television, radio and print interviews.

Those interviews will be played back for feedback, analysis and coaching to enable delegates to achieve their goals.

More than a training day

Whatever media training course option works best for you, your delegates can look forward to a training course that is more than a training day.

Your delegates will have access to our online refresher course for 12 months after their time with us.

This will help them refresh their learning and skills ahead of media opportunities and stay on top of all the good stuff they learnt with us.

What are the benefits of media training?

There are many benefits of media training both for your organisation and your delegates. Here are just a few:

• Spokespeople who feel confident, prepared to face the media and able to tell your story
• Better understanding of what the media and journalists look for and need
• The skills to handle the awkward and uncomfortable questions
• Messages that resonate with new and potential customers
• Greater brand awareness
• Skills that easily transfer into other parts of working life

What next?

If you like the sound of our training and want to join the growing list of organisations that trust us to best prepare their spokespeople for the media spotlight, have a chat with one of our account managers.

They’ll answer any questions you may have, take you through all our training options in more detail, and help you start to build your course.