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EAPN: Fighting for a Social Europe Free of Poverty

Getting heard

in the media

EUROPEAN ANTI-POVERTY NETWORK

RÉSEAU EUROPÉEN DES ASSOCIATIONS

DE LUTTE CONTRE LA PAUVRETÉ ET L’EXCLUSION SOCIALE

Nellie Epinat

Communications officer

Training on Information and Communications Technologies

12-13 Dec. 2013, Leuven

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Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama
How they work
Getting your message across
Practical work

Press releases

Interview techniques

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Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama

Brussels press corps has been shrinking

(1200 => +/- 900)

Economic crisis

Internet revolution

The last Latvian

“Ina Strazdina, the last remaining Latvian journalist in the E.U. press corps, accepted a pay cut of more than 50 percent. She now does three jobs to make ends meet”.

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EU institutions broadcast themselves

Risk: only official information

“The idea of communicating from the institutions to the people directly is the totalitarian dream,” Lorenzo Consoli – API/IPA

European Broadcasting Service (EC Audiovisual Services)
EuroparlTV
NATOTV
The EC on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/eutube

Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama

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Diversity of Brussels correspondents

132 Germans

99 Brits

56 French

86 Belgians

Press agencies

Reuters (many journalists in Bxl and very specialised)

Associated Press

Agence France Presse

Bloomberg (not only business)

National Agencies

Xinhua

Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama

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Printed Press

Kiosko (.net - front page all newspapers in the world)

European Voice

Europolitics (daily, EN+FR)

Euobserver

Agence Europe

Radio/TV

Agencies (Reuters,…)

International broadcasters (Euronews, …)

National Broadcasters

Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama

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Other online media

Euractiv

National only-online media

Social media profiles (Commissioners, journalists…)

Facebook

Twitter

Journalists’ blog (J.Quatremer, N. Gros…)

Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama

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European media circulation

Bild - 3.5 million

The Sun

The Daily Mail

The Daily Mirror

Le Monde – 300,000

FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) – 366,000

Ouest France – 780,000

Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama

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media in trouble, quality going down

“British newspapers have spent the last five years or so chasing each other downmarket, leaving little room for foreign news that might require readers to engage their brains and think about stories that are important but unsexy, or require empathising with foreigners (as opposed to gawking at them or gossiping about them). In fact, I think the true situation of British foreign reporting is even worse than it looks: there are still lots of correspondents in all sorts of posts, like Brussels, Paris or Rome, so it all looks reasonably healthy. But ask those same correspondents what sort of political stories they get to write: too often they most easily make the paper with stories about Nicolas Sarkozy's height, Silvio Berlusconi's love life, or how much Catherine Ashton is paid.”

The Economist, Journalists deserting Brussels, 15^th March 2010.

Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama

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Getting journalists’ contact details

National representations’ websites
API (International Press association)
Public Affairs Directory
Brussels media blogs

Overview of European media

Reality and Panorama

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Overview of European media

How they work

Daily routine

Noon briefing http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/ebs/schedule.cfm
Deadlines

Shorter // new technologies
Best before 10
At least before 12

Go Early
No free lunch?
Embargoes

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Overview of European media

How they work

When to send press releases (Bxl)?

Mondays
Fridays (as less happening at EU level)
Avoid Wednesdays (EC meeting)
Keep eye on EU agenda!

Strasbourg weeks – journalists there
Informal Councils
Summits
August holiday, Christmas
June/December to avoid

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Overview of European media

How they work

Pooling

Target one journalist first to avoid 40 journalists at same time. The one chosen is the “pool”.
Make it clear if “on” or “off” the record

On record: the person is quotable.
Off record: you can quote the institution but not the person or use some vaguer form of attribution.
Provide background

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Overview of European media

How they work

Media use each other
Press agencies - 74 %
FT - 64 %
Economist - 41 %
Le Monde - 36 %
Der Spiegel - 22 % (English editions - NRC, Politiken, etc)
Wall Street Journal Europe - 12 %
Google news 1 % ! (reliability)

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Priorities/constraints for journalists

Money
Ethics
Time
Space
Interest

Overview of European media

How they work

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Overview of European media

TO SUM UP...

Shrinking media corps competing for shrinking space.
Bombarded by information
How to make yours stand out …..

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Overview of European media

Contact with journalists - Rules

Be Realistic, Honest, Reliable, Accessible

Answer as fast as possible
Call back if you promised to

Call them
Email title stands out – Don’t start by “European Council…” or anything they hundreds of emails on
Avoid attachments to email

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Overview of European media

Tools for journalists

Press release
Press kit (images > documents)
Website (up to date!)
Media conference / briefing

only for big events
To reach small group of journalists, breakfast briefing

Phone / direct contact

Call journalist before sending PR

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Overview of European media

Getting your message across

Working on the message - fundamentals

Defensive
Reactive (quickly!)
Pro-active
Importance of timing
Avoid Clashes
Piggy-backing - You have a big story – you issue a PR, using that story to give your position on it

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Overview of European media

Getting your message across

Working on the message - What holds people up?

Tell a story!
News, events
emotion, controversy
Figures, concrete info, statistics
background, context

= make everything easy for the journalist

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Overview of European media

Getting your message across

Write useful info:

Don’t say “we protect the environment” but

show what your NGO does to protect the environment.

Avoid cliches, hyperbole
Stick to facts
Always in 3^rd person, like newspaper report
Active, not passive voice
Simple, direct language; short sentences; one idea per sentence / quote
Paragraph – 2-3 lines

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Overview of European media

The Press Release

Content
Structure
Delivery
Follow - up

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Think of a press release like a news story
Short, sharp, strong angle, attractively packaged, attention grabbing.
News – something is happening, just happened, about to happen.
Human interest
Controversy / Scandal / Conflict
Quirky / Unusual / Off beat
Celebs
Useful – News you can use

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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Think of a press release like a news story
Short, sharp, strong angle, attractively packaged, attention grabbing.
News – something is happening, just happened, about to happen.
Human interest
Controversy / Scandal / Conflict
Quirky / Unusual / Off beat
Celebs
Useful – News you can use

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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Useful distance:

Put some distance between yourself and your subject (no personal emotion)
Avoid jargon
Look at the press release like an outsider, who does not know the subject
What is your target audience? (Specialised/general, national, local, tendency?...)

Reaction – be prepared for questions

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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Limit PR to 500 words, 3,000 characters

All on one page

including logo, contact details, headline, boilerplate, etc.

Headlines

Short and snappy (80 characters max)
Grab attention
Nothing superfluous
Write it at the end

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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Subheader, useful:

enables to flesh out your angle
Additional hook to pull the reader into the story

Lead paragraph

Dateline (Where it’s happening, date)
The most important paragraph

Peg to grab the reader
What, why, where, who
Short – 30 words
Start with the news, not the organization

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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Bulk of the text : Backs up the lead and the headline

2^nd paragraph: A quote

Short, simple, punchy, straightforward, no jargon, dramatic s – short, stand alone

Biggest name available (Director, Sec Gen…)

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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3^rd paragraph: nut graf

Hard facts and figures
Develop: Context, what it means, why it matters

4^th: Another quote from same or other person

5^th: put into wider context, big picture, impact. Human interest (notably for potential readers)

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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Boilerplate

= Background on your organization, hard facts, who you are

1) Description

The European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN) is an independent network of 29 national networks of voluntary organisations and grassroots groups and 18 European organisations.non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and groups involved in the fight against poverty and social exclusion in the Member States of the European Union, established in 1990.

www.eapn.eu

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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2) For more information, please contact (name and position) on: +32 2 226 58 50; (mobile) ; (email)

Make sure those people are available.
Offer interview with people quoted.

Website link up to date with more info to support release – photo, video, background

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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2) For more information, please contact (name and position) on: +32 2 226 58 50; (mobile) ; (email)

Make sure those people are available.
Offer interview with people quoted.

Website link up to date with more info to support release – photo, video, background

Overview of European media

The Press Release

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Tips for Interviews

Stick to KEY MESSAGES
Support key messages by STATEMENTS/FACTS/FIGURES
Keep FOCUSED
Start with most important

Be concise, start with a short hook – key messages
Back up with key facts
Then supplementary messages

Turn questions BACK TO YOUR POINT
Use WIDER CONTEXT – why it’s important

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Tips for Interviews

Clarify ON / OFF record – attribution
AVOID:

negative statements
“no comment”
answering hypothetical questions
yes or no – use questions to get point across
Jargon
long complex answers

DON’T:

Don’t guess – if you don’t know, say so, get back to them.
Don’t let them put words in your month
Don’t give information you’re not asked for or want to give

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Tips for Interviews

Focus/Stick to your key messages by:

FLAGGING UP YOUR KEY MESSAGES

The most important thing here is … (key msg)
The best part is …
The three most significant areas are …
Let me put that into perspective …
Let’s take a closer look …

BRIDGING

Making the link from question to your key msg
That may be the case, but ….
That’s a good point, but …
We all agree with that, but what’s at issue here is …
That’s certainly
important, but don’t forget that …

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Tips for Interviews

Focus/Stick to your key messages by:

STEERING

The real issue is …
In all of this the thing that really stands out is …
So, in a nutshell …
The end result is …
The bottom line is …

Sticking to key messages:

Ensures consistency
Provides control
Keeps you focused
Avoids risk of misquotes

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EUROPEAN ANTI-POVERTY NETWORK

RÉSEAU EUROPÉEN DE LUTTE

CONTRE LA PAUVRETÉ ET L’EXCLUSION SOCIALE

SQUARE DE MEEUS, 18 – 1050 BRUSSELS

TEL: 0032 2 226 58 50 – FAX: 0032 2 26 58 69

www.eapn.euwww.eapn.eu - team@eapn.eu

Thank you for your attention

For more information, please contact :

Nellie Epinat

Communications officer

Nellie.epinat@eapn.euNellie.epinat@eapn.eu or team@eapn.eu