Making the most of the spotlight: Advice from Today Show presenter Jessica Ridley
05/29/22 • 57 min
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“Media networks are running on the smell of an oily rag – they really are. So there's actually an opportunity there for PRs and for spokespersons to guide and influence the direction of the story.” –Jessica Ridley, Today Show Presenter + BTW Media Founder
This episode of It’s PR Darlings, Jo Stone and Greer Quinn chat with journalist Jessica Ridley whose voice – and face – you’d recognise from national TV reporting roles, news-reading gigs and live crosses.
It’s PR Darlings invited Jess on the podcast for two reasons – one is her years of experience in TV and her insights into post-covid television newsrooms in particular, but also because of her experience in media and presentation training, which is a specialised training that all PR, communications and marketing managers should be doing regularly with clients who have to front the media.
From taking sips of water and regulating your breathing to small-talk before an interview, Jessica provides the media interview tips and tricks that’ll see you invited back.
“Visualise that one person sitting at home, eating their dinner, watching the 6:00 pm news – that's the person you're talking to,” Jessica says.
A chance to hold the microphone on national television presents a rare moment of influence, but talent sometimes falls short through poor preparation or mindset.
“If you get that chance for a couple of minutes on national television, those opportunities are far and few between,” Jessica says.
“I definitely see a lot of people that could have done with just a little bit of preparation, you know, some key messages prep as well, so that they're going in and they're really clear about what they want to say and their position on the issue.”
During Season Four, It’s PR Darlings is providing insight into some journalistic tools to help you hack the newsworthy algorithm to create content the media want to publish and follow. A cornerstone to that is news values, which journalists use every day to measure newsworthiness. This episode’s news value is a journo favourite – it’s “unusual” or “bizarre”.
It’s PR Darlings is produced by Jo Stone from Sticks and Stones PR and Greer Quinn from Forward Communications. Jessica will be joining Jo and Greer on stage during Mumbrella 360 in July. Please get in touch for tickets and guest discounts.
It’s PR Darlings
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https://www.facebook.com/ItsPRDarlings
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We acknowledge the traditional landowners and pay our respect to elders past and present, and all Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Media networks are running on the smell of an oily rag – they really are. So there's actually an opportunity there for PRs and for spokespersons to guide and influence the direction of the story.” –Jessica Ridley, Today Show Presenter + BTW Media Founder
This episode of It’s PR Darlings, Jo Stone and Greer Quinn chat with journalist Jessica Ridley whose voice – and face – you’d recognise from national TV reporting roles, news-reading gigs and live crosses.
It’s PR Darlings invited Jess on the podcast for two reasons – one is her years of experience in TV and her insights into post-covid television newsrooms in particular, but also because of her experience in media and presentation training, which is a specialised training that all PR, communications and marketing managers should be doing regularly with clients who have to front the media.
From taking sips of water and regulating your breathing to small-talk before an interview, Jessica provides the media interview tips and tricks that’ll see you invited back.
“Visualise that one person sitting at home, eating their dinner, watching the 6:00 pm news – that's the person you're talking to,” Jessica says.
A chance to hold the microphone on national television presents a rare moment of influence, but talent sometimes falls short through poor preparation or mindset.
“If you get that chance for a couple of minutes on national television, those opportunities are far and few between,” Jessica says.
“I definitely see a lot of people that could have done with just a little bit of preparation, you know, some key messages prep as well, so that they're going in and they're really clear about what they want to say and their position on the issue.”
During Season Four, It’s PR Darlings is providing insight into some journalistic tools to help you hack the newsworthy algorithm to create content the media want to publish and follow. A cornerstone to that is news values, which journalists use every day to measure newsworthiness. This episode’s news value is a journo favourite – it’s “unusual” or “bizarre”.
It’s PR Darlings is produced by Jo Stone from Sticks and Stones PR and Greer Quinn from Forward Communications. Jessica will be joining Jo and Greer on stage during Mumbrella 360 in July. Please get in touch for tickets and guest discounts.
It’s PR Darlings
Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/itsprdarlings/
https://www.facebook.com/ItsPRDarlings
https://www.linkedin.com/company/it-s-pr-darlings/
Contacts:
We acknowledge the traditional landowners and pay our respect to elders past and present, and all Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Deep dive into Australia’s rapidly changing media and communications landscape
“One of the really key sentiments that came out [of Medianet’s 2022 Media Landscape Report] was the most important aspect of a pitch...is that the story’s original, newsworthy and relevant to that journalist’s specific field of reporting and audience.” -Amrita Sidhu, Director of Media Intelligence, Medianet and Mediaverse
From pet peeves to journalists’ preferred days and ways to receive media releases, the impacts of Covid-19 on reporting to media trolling and gender pay gaps, this episode offers a deep dive into 2022’s complex media landscape.
Taking us through the insights, based on a survey of almost 1,000 Australian journalists, is Medianet and Mediaverse Director of Media Intelligence Amrita Sidhu.
While public relations and communications professionals won’t be surprised Medianet’s report revealed audience relevance was the most widely valued feature of a pitch, there were some surprising and somewhat disappointing findings too, including that 30 per cent of male journalists earn more than $100,000 per annum, compared to just 16 per cent of females and 12 per cent of non-binary journalists.
Also, honouring an embargo is no longer a given within today’s competitive and social media-influenced media world, signalling a continued trend of disruption of media conventions.
It’s PR Darlings Co-hosts Greer Quinn and Jo Stone also ask Amrita to discuss some of the newer or lesser-known features Medianet offers including media call-outs, an editorial service and Mediaverse’s qualitative analysis feature – something that is offering incisive room-reads in the lead up to Australia’s Federal Election.
Following on from the last episode featuring ABC News Breakfast host Lisa Millar, It’s PR Darlings hosts continue the theme of news values during their end-of-segment education session when the duo unlock the news value of “proximity”.
Download Medianet’s 2022 media landscape report here.
Undertake It’s PR Darlings/Medianet’s collaborative crisis communications micro-course here.
It’s PR Darlings is produced by Jo Stone from www.sticksandstonespr.com.au and Greer Quinn from Forward Communications.
It’s PR Darlings
Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/itsprdarlings/
https://www.facebook.com/ItsPRDarlings
https://www.linkedin.com/company/it-s-pr-darlings/
We acknowledge the traditional landowners and pay our respect to elders past and present, and all Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Humanising tech with The Australian’s David Swan
"We have a hard paywall at the Australian. It means that bar is pretty high in terms of me taking the time to tackle something and go really in depth with it. And that often means...if there's a new story, it probably has to be exclusive to us.” – David Swan, Technology Editor, The Australian
Considered a rock star among the tech PR peeps, Technology Editor at The Australian David Swan has an uncanny ability to turn the technical into the connectable.
“I used to write for a technology news website for IT professionals, so I could use jargon and get away with it,” David explains.
“Now, anyone on the street could be picking up the Australian and reading one of my stories. So I strip back that tech and say, ‘what will this actually do? What, what will it be used for how it'll be used? How will it impact society?’ The other thing too is every founder I interview has an interesting story about how and why they founded the company – sort of like a superhero origin story, a little bit like Batman or Superman.”Co-hosts Jo Stone and Greer Quinn also probe into the X Factor elements that make David say “yes” to a story within his turf of start-ups, business and technology.
“We really need a news hook,” David said. “I think readers are pretty savvy and know when they're being fed more of an ad or a PR pitch. It has to be a really genuine news hook...it's one of those things where you kind of know it when you see it.”David also discusses some of the media conventions such as exclusives, embargoes and “first dibs” and why transparency is imperative when using these strategies.
Keeping up with Season Three’s "news values" theme, during this episode the Darlings explore the value of “timeliness”, which is all about injecting the new into the news.
It’s PR Darlings is produced by Jo Stone from Sticks and Stones PR and Greer Quinn from Forward Communications.
It’s PR Darlings
Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/itsprdarlings/
https://www.facebook.com/ItsPRDarlings
https://www.linkedin.com/company/it-s-pr-darlings/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-stone-youngleson-562809104/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/corporate-communications/
Contacts:
We acknowledge the traditional landowners and pay our respect to elders past and present, and all Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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