Media relations for West Midlands businesses and organisations
The difference between an organisation that manages its media relations well and one that doesn’t is usually visible the moment something important happens. The business that has built press relationships, understands how journalists work, and has a spokesperson who’s been properly prepared handles a difficult story from a position of some control. The one that hasn’t is at the mercy of whatever angle a reporter decides to take.
ZenithSpark provides media relations support grounded in experience on both sides of the microphone. Rich Jarrott has given multiple radio interviews per month throughout his career, for commercial music radio news bulletins and BBC local radio programmes, and currently presents on community radio, including regular live shows. He has published bylined articles in the Shropshire Star regional daily newspaper and written for trade publications. He understands how editorial decisions are made, what journalists need, and what prepared spokespeople do differently to unprepared ones.
Broadcast media – radio and beyond
Radio remains one of the most immediate and credible media environments for business and organisational communications. A live interview on BBC local radio reaches an attentive local audience with a level of trust in the medium that most other channels can’t match. Done well, it positions your organisation as a credible, accessible, and authoritative voice. Done badly, it does the opposite.
Rich Jarrott presents on community radio currently, covering live sport and music programmes, and has been giving broadcast media interviews throughout his career. The media training and spokesperson preparation we provide is grounded in what live radio actually demands, because the person preparing your spokespeople is the person who was on air last week. That’s not a theoretical understanding of broadcast media. It’s a practical one.
For clients seeking broadcast coverage, we identify the right programmes and stations, develop the story angle that makes it worth a producer’s time, handle the pitch, and prepare whoever is speaking on your behalf.
Press releases that get used
A press release is not a news announcement dressed in a template. It’s an editorial pitch — a piece of writing that gives a journalist or news editor a story they can use, in a format that makes their job easier rather than harder. The vast majority of press releases are ignored because they’re written the way the organisation wants to present itself rather than the way a news desk wants to receive information.
We write press releases to editorial standards, with a news angle that’s genuinely newsworthy, a structure that puts the most important information first, and quotes that say something worth quoting. Our experience includes press releases that have been picked up by regional daily newspapers and broadcast news bulletins, and we apply the same standards to every release we produce, regardless of the size of the organisation.
Regional and trade press
The regional daily and weekly press across the West Midlands, the Birmingham Mail, the Express and Star, the Shropshire Star, the Wolverhampton Chronicle, and others, remain influential for local business communications, and editors are receptive to well-pitched stories from credible local sources.
Trade and sector press carries different weight, a piece in a relevant industry publication reaches a smaller but more targeted audience and carries the credibility of editorial endorsement within the sector. We’ve written trade press content published under client bylines, and we understand how to pitch stories to specialist titles whose editors are experts in their own right.
Spokesperson preparation and media training
Being interviewed by a journalist or broadcaster is a specific skill that most people aren’t naturally good at. The tendency to answer the question asked rather than the question that serves your communications objective, the hesitation in the face of a hostile or unexpected line of questioning, the habits that read badly on radio, these are all addressable with proper preparation.
We prepare spokespeople for both planned and reactive media appearances, drawing on direct broadcast experience to simulate the conditions they’ll face and develop the habits that produce good interviews rather than ones they’d rather forget.
If your organisation wants to build a more effective media presence in the West Midlands, handle a specific story, or prepare someone for a broadcast appearance, get in touch with ZenithSpark. We’ll tell you what’s realistic and give you the support to achieve it.