Protected: Richard Uridge does Skomer
Posted: 8th September 2011 by Rich in General, Media relationsTags: ACM Training, Manx shearwater, nature, Pembrokeshire BBC Radio 4, Richard Uridge, Skomer
No surprise that a certain be-knighted football club manager should try to ban the reporter with the temerity to ask a question about Rhino. But deeply disturbing that the 199 or so other hacks at the news conference agreed to abide by some PR lackey’s arbitrary rule not to ask the very questions on everyone’s lips. Asking awkward questions – however unwelcome – is at the very heart of being a journalist and once that right is abdicated one becomes a sychophant and a cipher. A sad and sorry example of just how neutered the modern so-called reporter has become. Evidently the swarthy-faced footballer has more balls than a roomful of sheepskin-clad yes men. That starlet, whose name is not dissimilar to the glass of Sanatogen I am sipping as I write this, is clearly a lucky duck. (Note to subs: yes duck).
A FUNGI TO BE WITH – eating wild mushrooms for the BBC
Posted: 19th November 2010 by Rich in General, Media relationsTags: BBC Radio 4, hugh fearnley-whittingstall, mushrooms, Open Country, Richard Uridge
Sometimes you have to suffer for your art. Take tomorrow’s Open Country programme on BBC Radio 4. There I am scrunching through the leaf litter in the New Forest looking for wild mushrooms when my guide, the mycologist John Wright (off Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage show), says to me “go on try that one.” So I do. With interesting consequences. Listen out for the sound of spitting tomorrow, Saturday, morning just after six or the following Thursday lunchtime.
And if you can’t catch it on the wireless then you can listen here once it’s been broadcast.
POURING TROUBLE ON OILED WATER – part two
Posted: 9th November 2010 by Rich in Communication, General, Media relationsTags: BBC, BP, crisis communication, Deppwater Horizon, emergency planning, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Money programme, Tony Hayward
So at last Tony Hayward has admitted BP was ‘not prepared’ for the Gulf oil spill. In an interview for the BBC’s Money programme – his first since the disaster – the former oil company boss said BP wasn’t ready to deal with the fallout of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the media “feeding frenzy” that followed it. Hayward said as the face of BP he had been “demonised and vilified”, but he understood why.
“If I had done a degree at Rada [The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] rather than a degree in geology, I may have done better, but I’m not certain it would’ve changed the outcome,” he said before adding ”But certainly the perception of myself may have been different.”
Tony you could have saved yourself the time and expense of a degree in dramatic art and simply booked a couple of ACM Training’s media, crisis communications and emergency planning courses. They’d have set you back £99 per person or £999 per workshop but think how much you might have saved? The debacle is estimated to have cost BP £30 billion – of which a significant chunk was knocked off the company’s share price simply because of the spectacularly bad PR.
In just one day we could have helped you gaze at the “disaster horizon” and see (without yet another degree – this one in clairvoyance) which direction the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse might be coming from. Then armed with the certain knowledge that if you drill for oil one day that oil is going to get spilt we’d have helped you draw up a very simple media plan complete with a number of straightforward, credible and punchy key messages that even a geologist could deliver.
Sorry for the sarcastic tone Tone but I still cannot quite grasp the fact that a company the size of BP should have been so useless in PR and media terms. There are small business across Britain bp than BP (better prepared than BP).
So if you’re reading this Tony give me a call or drop me a line and avoid another costly mistake in future. And if you’re not Tony Hayward but would like to know how we can help you and your organisation deal with the media in a crisis then visit our website.
Protected: EMERGENCY CALL HANDLING & CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
Posted: 8th November 2010 by Rich in GeneralIS NAD BAD OR MAD?
Posted: 7th November 2010 by Rich in Communication, General, Media relations, New mediaSo Nadine Dorries, the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, admits her blog is 70% fiction 30% fact. See the BBC’s website for details. Does that make her refreshingly honest, worryingly dishonest or just plain stupid? I know which gets my vote. Decide for yourself at http://blog.dorries.org/
AVOID CLICHÉS LIKE THE PLAGUE
Posted: 5th November 2010 by Rich in Communication, General, Media relations, Organisational developmentTags: bullshit bingo, clichés, office jargon, office-speak, samuel johnson, writing for business, writing for the web
So much writing (and speech for that matter) is lazy. People peck at their keyboards or open their mouths and let whatever comes to mind spill out. Which very often is cliché-laden, jargon-strewn nonsense. Take a look at “50 Office-Speak Phrases You Love to Hate” and you’ll see what I mean.
No excuses. Think before you write. Take Samuel Johnson’s advice. The 18th Century English writer of dictionary fame said: “What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” Or Ernest Hemmingway’s. “The first draft of anything is shit.”
Avoid clichés like the plague. Don’t make your readers as sick as proverbial parrots. Please them with your well-crafted words. Let me show you how with one of my writing workshops.
BEAT THE CHANCELLOR – or why we’re knocking off what he’s putting on
Posted: 30th September 2010 by Rich in Communication, General, Media relations, New media, Organisational developmentTags: media training, presentation skills. training for trainers, training for charities
We know how hard it is making ends meet in the Third Sector. And George Osborne’s decision to increase VAT to 20% from January 2011 can only make it harder still. But we also know that maintaining investment in staff development is vital if the Third Sector is to continue delivering high quality services to some of the most needy and vulnerable people in society. So we’ve introduced a new charity rate for all of our training and consultancy services to help training budgets go that little bit further.
To cancel out the VAT increase registered charities qualify for 20% off our “pay-later” prices and 10% off our online “book-and-pay-now” rates.* But we’re not waiting until the New Year to bring in the discount. It takes immediate effect. To ensure that you receive your discount you must enter your charity registration number in the promotional code box on our booking page. Please note that your registration number may be checked against the Charity Commission’s records in England and Wales or with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator in Scotland.
We run media training courses, provide training for trainers, can show you how to write a press release or how to make a podcast. We train people in presentation skills and public speaking and can help with writing for business
Click here to browse all our workshops, check dates and venues and book your discounted places.
*Workshops that are already discounted for promotional reasons will not be discounted by an additional 20% under this scheme but will receive discount from the full price at whichever is the higher rate.
JUST A MINUTE or GONE IN 60 SECONDS
Posted: 29th September 2010 by Rich in Communication, General, Media relations, New media, Organisational developmentTags: media training, presentation skills, training for trainers, writing for business, writing press releases
Whether you’re a Radio Four fan and listen to Just a Minute or are more into movies and like Nick Cage in Gone in Sixty Seconds, a new feature has been added to the ACM Training website. You can now listen to our trainers give a minute long “taster” of selected courses – like media training, writing for business, writing press releases, presentation skills and training for trainers – by clicking on the media player below the hourglass icon on the workshop pages. Try it! Click here for Richard Uridge’s presentation skills course summary.