The relationship between a journalist and PR professional is synergy in its simplest form. As a young communications professional, I was drawn to the high pressure, tell-all world of journalism, but it was PR that ultimately won my heart.
Prior to my time at Pinstone, I was a magazine editor, working in a niche, B2B focused area of equine sport. This is a very targeted industry and its similarities to the agricultural sector, are what attracted me to Pinstone. My skillset very easily transitioned from one side of the marketing communications industry to the other.
As I tell the internal team, in my former editorial role I was the person at the end of the phone, being sold in to, accepting press releases and commissioning features. I understood how my publication worked, what I was looking for, what angles would work within my planned issue, and most importantly, how someone could get my attention.
Since joining Pinstone, I have sought to bring my journalistic and editor skills to the fore, providing the team with training for media targeting and selling-in processes, as well as interviewing techniques.
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This training forms part of the Pinstone PDP, our personal career development programme. As part of Robin’s Pinstone Ladder blog, he spoke about the power of the PDP and how it drives our team to progress and improve not only our agency’s service, but also our individual skills through skill sharing, internal training and collaboration.
By leading internal training sessions, I hope I have helped those looking to progress up the Pinstone ladder, and at the same time champion their PDP individual goals, to locate their inner journalist and get to the heart of every story.
Jen’s top tips for preparing for an interviewing:
- Consider your output type and tailor content to suit
- Know your subject:
- Topic
- Person
- Know your purpose
- Prepare a tentative theme
- Prepare your questions
- Use a spider diagram
- Pose open ended questions
