What PR Pros Need to Know About the New Media Landscape
City AM’s Martin Kimber: How PRs can adapt to video and audio
The guest of this week’s edition is a man who needs no introduction to PRs. Former Sky News producer and reporter Martin Kimber was poached by City AM and starts in the hot seat today where he will lead the charge in evolving the outlet’s multimedia output.
Today’s your first day at the new job! What prompted your move from Sky News to City AM? I loved my time at Sky News. I learned from some of the best in the industry and worked across a wide range of programming. As many of my former colleagues will confirm, I only really found my passion when I joined the business team. So, it was a sad moment when Sky decided to cancel Business Live - a programme that had, like Doctor Who, regenerated into various iterations over many years with different presenters and producers. It also happened to coincide with the very moment my predecessor at City AM decided to move on to pastures new, creating a vacancy. City AM is, for good reason, one of the most respected publishers in business and economics so of course I had to apply!
Can you tell PR/comms pros a bit about what your new job entails? I can’t give too many specifics yet but the role will involve overseeing the production of short-form and long-form video and audio, including podcasts. We’ll be looking to get as many great CEOs and founders through the door as possible as we cover daily breaking news, trends and pursue longer-term stories. I’ll still be working with PRs to set up interviews, filming ops and great picture stories that fly the flag for UK PLC. I’ll also be taking on some responsibilities in making our content as appealing to advertisers as possible, with an eye to attracting more sponsorship for our brilliant, original journalism.
City AM is evolving beyond the traditional newspaper identity. How should PRs be adjusting their strategy as a result? Where do you see the biggest opportunity for reactive, visual or audio-first coverage? This is a trend that’s permeating almost every newspaper title on “Fleet Street” now. PRs are no longer pitching newspapers; they’re pitching multi-media companies. This might require a little extra thought and planning (all the usual broadcast PR tips still apply to digital) but the pay-off will potentially be considerably bigger. No longer do you stand a chance of just landing a newspaper article, but if you make a compelling offer of a spokesperson, location, B-roll, data or trend, you could well end up with a reel and a podcast appearance too. The next time PRs pitch City AM, I want them to think about how their stories can be translated into an exciting visual offer because there’s every chance we might want them on screen as well as in the paper.
Reflecting on your former job...when it comes to a breaking broadcast story, what criteria do you use to decide whose voice gets to air? I think speed is still key. If you have a decent voice then it tends to be first come first served within 10 minutes of the big event breaking. One of the last breaking news stories I guested for Sky was a fault with air traffic control. I booked two aviation experts on zoom links within 10 minutes of the Sky News push notification reaching people’s phones. It’s hard to screw three or four TVs to your living room wall so it’s key people are in the office Monday to Friday with screens showing Sky, the BBC, GBN, CNBC to monitor what they’re leading on - otherwise you’ll be guessing and likely sending pitches that aren’t relevant.
What are the best practices you wish more PRs would adopt (or would stop doing) when it comes to reactive coverage? I’ve been offered guests pretty quickly after putting the ask out for a breaking story, only to be told half an hour later the client can’t in fact make it. Please don’t offer someone you don’t know for a fact is available. As 24-hour broadcast news pivots further towards live and breaking news, reactionary coverage will become increasingly important and likely to land your client on TV.
Where can people contact you? My new email address will be with Roxhill this week.
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