Media Training pUpdate w/c 20th April

Edition 532

Morning, it’s Monday 20th April.

In 23 million years of media training I’ve never told a single person they talk too slowly on air. Let’s kick off this week with 5 reasons why we talk too quickly:

Pace



1 – We speed up over the familiar. Phrases and sector specific terms we are used to using regularly will be rattled off at 100mph. It’s exactly the point in the narrative where we need to slow down. 

2- We speed up when we’re nervous. Being in the right headspace for interviews is crucial and something we get into at length in media training sessions. 


3 – We speed up when we are overly-energised. Conviction is important in interviews but not at the expense of a well-paced delivery. 


4 – We speed up when we are trying to say too much. Trying to cram in those five crucial factors in one answer will inevitably cause us to rush.


5 – We speed up when other people are speeding up. If a fellow guest or a presenter pressed for time is talking quickly, don’t let their pace become ours. 

“In the opening days of the war, as missiles lit up the sky and the outside world scrambled for information, CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen made his way into Iran – driving nine hours to the border, then walking the final mile across on foot, hauling gear along a gravel path into a country suddenly at war.”

The Poynter team talk to Frederik about what happened next…

Monday: Keir Starmer addresses MPs on Mandelson vetting scandal.

Tuesday: Possible strikes begin on the London Underground.

King Charles hosts reception to mark 100th anniversary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth II.


Wednesday: Two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran expires.

UK inflation data.


Thursday: UK public sector finances data.


Friday: Final day of committee stage debate on the assisted dying bill in the House of Lords.


Saturday: Trump attends White House Correspondents’ Association dinner

Sunday: London Marathon.

Footnotes:

“There is a supreme irony. It’s very difficult to be a tabloid disruptor in a world that has become so tabloid.” David Yelland 


The FT asks if the traditional British tabloid can survive the digital age. It’s behind a (very high) paywall I’m afraid, but well worth a read if you are a subscriber.


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In (loosely) related news I’m talking a lot in media training sessions at the moment about the ascendancy of the newsletter in the print and digital landscape. Here’s some more evidence of that, reported in Press Gazette: 

12 months on from its launch the Telegraph’s newsletter From the Editor has become its biggest source of new paying subscribers. Read by more than 850,000 people every day, it has a total audience list of two million, with subscriber conversions “running into the tens of thousands”.


More on this in the weeks to come.

Brutal cuts at the BBC. One in ten jobs are to go. Read more

On This Day: The Apollo 16 manned mission to the Moon lands after a seven-hour crisis which nearly aborted the mission on this day in 1972.

Our Week: Oxford and London this week for us.

The Mutt Photo: Peaceful times for Stan who is much happier with life now. (Thank you to those who checked up on him recently.)

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done, please let us know.

Back on Monday. Have a brilliant week.



All at Inside Edge