An interview on the business slot of this morning’s Radio 4‘s Today programme reminded me how important it is for broadcast spokespeople to make their arguments clear and concrete even if they think their desired audience already knows what they are talking about. From recent professional experience I know that the issue of TTIP – i.e. […]
Storming out of a live TV interview never ranks among the top tips of media trainers. Exasperating as interviewers can be, walking off set more often comes across as petulant than defiant, particularly when it’s the kind of fodder today’s political and media journalists love to cut (selective) clips from in order to create a […]
In the digital age, how physically accessible should senior politicians make themselves to a public that is more turned off and cynical than ever about the way politics functions? Depending on your viewpoint, social media has or hasn’t aided the democratisation of politics. But what is clear is that in many cases it has not […]
In Brussels over the coming week, the new EU Commissioners (technically Commissioner-designates) are presenting themselves to the European Parliament. I’m working with other communications consultants in Belgium to ‘live blog’ the hearings and assess how each of them does. We decided to do this project partly because the EU’s standing is at an all time […]
Who should decide what counts as ‘news’? An interesting piece in this weekend’s FT highlighted the challenge that ‘corporate news’ now poses to traditional journalism. By which I mean the trend for companies not only to bypass the media by self-publishing PR stories, blogs or video clips but also to create their own community news […]
With changeover in the European Commission and Parliament well under way, this year’s Brussels rentree (‘return to school’) has almost certainly been busier than usual. If you are one of the many people moving out of the EU institutions or between communications roles, then chances are you will soon be doing a lot of writing […]
The article below first appeared in the Institute for Materials, Minerals and Mining. You can find it here. PVC 2014 took place in Brighton in April 2014. The world’s leading forum on vinyl spanned three days and delegates were treated to talks from the best in the business. On day one, Laura Shields, Brussels Director […]
When, if ever, is it acceptable to describe something as a ‘game-changer’ to a journalist? One exception might be when a multibillion-dollar tech company suffers a shock defeat in a court case which has landmark implications for the rest of the sector. That’s probably acceptable. Just about. But only because it’s probably an accurate reflection […]
Very little can rouse me from a post-migraine stupor when I’m feeling sorry for myself as I was this morning. However, while listening to Woman’s Hour on Radio 4 (a live special on midwives which was being broadcast from a hospital in Liverpool) I heard an interview with Dan Poulter, the Health Minister which was […]
A lot of clients ask me how they can keep their new skills up to speed following our media training sessions. Obviously, the answer I want to give is that they should buy more training and do so on a regular basis! But I appreciate that budgets and circumstances don’t always allow for this, which […]
