For PR or HR professionals who need to hire a Media Trainer and are not sure what to look for.

1. Ten Tips:
How to choose a media trainer

2. What is media training?
Professional training for anyone who is
expected to be a spokesperson for
their organisation.
Objectives
• Reduces risk of things going wrong
in interviews
• Helps the organisation to be shown
in the best light
• Makes spokespeople more
comfortable
First …

3. Look for training run by ex-journalists not PR
people.
Why? Ex-journos are much sharper and more realistic and can answer lots of
supplementary questions.
But they need to have experience at handling senior people (as clients) and
they need to be serious about training. Some aren’t.
Tip one

4. Tip two
Ask ‘Do we need a
cameraman’?
Most interviews are done for print
media – newspapers or trade press.
Most media training focuses on
television interviews.
Buy the appropriate training and if you
want to cut costs use a trainer who is not
using a professional cameraman.

5. Tip three
However, if you have the budget, a
professional cameraman will enhance the fun
of the training and allow trainees to see
themselves even if they are role-playing a print
interview.

6. Tip four
Ask ‘Do we need to pay
for fame’?
Famous television ‘personality’ trainers
tend to provide an experience rather
than real training. They are the most
expensive.
Ex-journalists who are now professional
trainers, will be more focused on
delivering real training benefits. And
they’ll be cheaper.

7. Tip five
Find a trainer that
knows about
messaging.
Whilst there are some important
tricks and traps to be aware of
when dealing with the media, the
key to good performance is
rehearsed credible messages.
Message building should be central
to the training and is much more
important than hours spent
discussing what to wear on camera.

8. Tip six
Don’t pay for ritual
humiliation.
Some trainers love to do really tough
and aggressive interviews claiming it
psychologically prepares
spokespeople.
This is rubbish.
Rehearsing tough questions is
important but ritual humiliation does
not promote learning. In any case very
few interviews are highly adversarial.

9. Tip seven
Talk to the trainer before
you hire them.
Hire those who explain exactly how
they will run the session.
Hire those who ask questions about
the needs of your organisation and
the objectives of the training.
Beware those who tell too many
stories about themselves.

10. Tip eight
Consider going direct.
Lots of PR companies sell media training as part of their
service and they will often outsource this to a trusted media
trainer. But you can hire trainers directly from media training
companies.

11. Tip nine
Long-term relationships can really pay off.
If the trainer knows you, knows the company, follows the cuttings and can be
flexible, you will reap real value. The training will be more realistic.
And you’ll be able to call on them, even at short notice, to help get a spokesperson
up to speed.
Emergency media training – or interview rehearsal – is surprisingly common.

12. Tip ten
Find a trainer who will give
detailed written feedback.
The training event is over all too quickly and
there is a lot to take in. Notes that arrive
later will ensure the trainee has a reminder
of his or her own strengths and weaknesses.

13. Final thought
Use media training to
enhance your career.
People typically love media
training. It has the wow factor.

14. Written by
Lindsay Williams
MD The Media Coach
lindsay@themediacoach.co.uk
themediacoach.co.uk