Do you work with journalists and need to know more about how they work and why they have such difficulty following a corporate brief? Why, when you ask them what questions they want to ask your client, they come out with one thing and then ask something completely different?

This course will tell you all of that and more. It starts from basics like the journalist's understanding of phrases like "written independently" and the work you may have to put in before approaching them; why they so often regard the words "brief" and "guideline" as interchangeable and how to make a working relationship function throughout.

This course will look at the presuppositions the PR industry can make and where they go wrong - and how crossed wires can end up causing costly business errors.

It will cover:
  • Independent journalism and corporate work: how journalists square the circle
  • Why a journalist doesn't appear all that worried when you point to a typo in his/her text
  • "Production" - a word with two meanings
  • "Written independently" - what you say, what a journalist means
  • The pre-briefing - what journalists tell you about the interview they've planned and why it's almost always different
  • The hostile journalist on the phone
  • Structuring the press release so it looks like news
This will be a practical course with role-played phone calls and writing exercises. Candidates will leave with a better understanding of journalists and how to work with us to make the best of every engagement - and how to manage client expectations.

This course takes takes place in an IT suite.