The other week I had the chance to speak to Robin Elias, managing editor of ITV News who talked about the challenges of being a news editor and what it takes to get a story into the a national news programme.
Robin is an old hand in the business. He was programme editor during some of the most dramatic events in the last 25 years including Princess Diana’s death and the 9/11 attacks. He now has responsibility over news content at ITV which produces the most watched commercial TV news programme in the UK reaching 8 million viewers every day.
ITV’s flagship news programme is News at Ten. Developing this successful show requires tough decision making from journalists. On an average night, the programme features between 10 and 12 stories, cherry-picked from a couple of thousand potential stories. So how is the selection made and how can the PR community influence the process?
Obviously stories need to be relevant to the audience in question but there are five tips that will help PRs to engage with national television news:
- Communication – Know who to pitch to. Every news organisation has a planning department which is working on the schedule for the next days or weeks. Approaching the planning desk is the most direct way of getting in front of a journalist whose job it is to decide what stories to put forward to the programme editor. Hence, the first news selection is already made by the programme planners.
- Timing – Timing is crucial as it can make or break the story. News broadcast organisations often plan about one week ahead, therefore pitching stories on the day they happen is unlikely to be successful. ITV’s News at Ten team meets on Thursdays to plan next week’s coverage – so pitching at the end of the week before the story happens is best to ensure the editors can consider it.
- Focus – PRs needs to be absolutely clear as to what the story is about and why it is relevant to the audience. Newsrooms are extremely busy places and journalists receive a lot of information every day. A straight forward pitch is essential for them to make a decision.
- Access – Spokespeople access is decisive as sound bites from commentators help bring a story to life. PRs will know that it is often difficult to have access to senior spokespeople but to ensure a successful broadcast interview, flexibility is key as a full broadcast crew, studio availability and travel to the studio location are required. News clips are 15-20 seconds long so speakers need to sum up their story in two sentences without sounding nervous.
- Examples – The nature of broadcast is to look for visual imagery and supporting case studies are what really sells a story to TV outlets. Generally ITV is also more likely to tell a story through human examples rather than policy makers.
Ticking all the above boxes is a good start to influence the news selection. However, understanding the specific programme and its audience to determine what is really relevant to them is also an important factor you should always bear in mind before pitching.
In a few days we will post an interactive exercise which will demonstrate the thought process from the perspective of the man who is running ITV News.
Check back in soon!
image source: wikipedia