Interviews with editors and journalists on how they choose their stories, their regular slots & feature formats and how to pitch

The Media Insider is meant to educate people on how to get into the media. Each episode features an interview with an editor, writer or producer at a different publication or current affairs programme about their regular ‘slots’ or features, how they plan their content, what makes a story and the best way to pitch to them. Editors are always asked for their pitching no-no’s and often give funny examples of being pitched completely irrelevant articles. It’s aimed at PRs, freelance journalists and anyone who wants to get their story into the media.
 

I started The Media Insider because as an ex-journalist, and now a PR, I am aware of how little the general public (and even PRs) understand about how the media actually works. I was a journalist for 15 years, writing for national papers and working as a producer at a national news broadcaster. So, I have been pitched by many PRs who clearly don’t understand how the story planning process works. Now, I am on the other side of the fence as a personal PR specialist, and I regularly pitch my clients to the media. But despite my own experience, I find it hard too! There are so many different media outlets and platforms that it’s impossible to know the different ‘slots’ or formats for different publications. So, I wanted to start a podcast that zeros in on a different publication or outlet each episode, to help listeners understand where the opportunities for media coverage are, and the different formats of stories.

I am an avid podcast listener and while I knew of many media-themed podcasts featuring interviews with successful journalists about their careers, there weren’t any podcasts explaining how everything works inside the media.
 

It took much longer to launch and produce the first episode than I thought! My first job was in radio news. I read, wrote and producing news bulletins for local radio, and later for a national radio news agency called ITN, where we provided a networked news service for all the commercial radio stations around the country. So, I know how to edit audio and how to get the best and concise soundbites. Yet I hadn’t anticipated the logistical challenges.

Finding and booking guests was difficult at first, because I didn’t have a proven online presence and audience. Then there was knowing which hosting platform to use. I chose Podbean but in retrospect I wish I selected one in which the landing page links to other major podcast apps. That way, you have one URL and people can click through to the episodes on Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts etc according to their preference.

It takes around 4 hours in total to produce each episode. Two of which are editing, the rest is logistics. I take time to remove repetition and only keep quality, insightful comments. Some podcasters just ‘top and tail’ their audio, which is quicker, but leaves in the small talk, which I feel isn’t of value to time-poor listeners.
 

I don’t have sponsorship and I’ve never looked for that. I started my podcast because I genuinely thought there was a knowledge gap for how the media works. I wanted to educate people on the news cycle, and educate myself on different media slots and regular features. I run a PR agency called Thought Leadership PR, so I don’t need my podcast to be an income stream. The podcast helps me build relationships with my editor and journalist guests and that helps me deliver media relations for my clients. And, because many listeners are people who want to get into the media, it can help us get business leads.
 

I find my guests either by reaching out to an editor or journalist cold at a publication I want to know more about, a new publication or a relaunched publication. Or, I reach out to an editor or journalist who has been vocal about how PRs pitch to them. It’s a common sticking point in the media industry that PRs don’t understand how journalists work and pitch totally irrelevant things. So, if I see that a reporter has tweeted something about this topic, I know they will have lots to valuable things to say on the issue! So I may send a DM and invite them on.

Pre Covid, I always recorded in person. I used a device called Zoom H4N (expensive but quality!). But after Covid, when the world went online, I started recording remotely on Squadcast. This made production much more time-efficient and so I continue to record virtually. I would never advise recording on Zoom because you need a platform which records separate audio tracks so you can rid background noise in the edit and move audio around if two voices talk over each other.
 

I market organically using social media. I promote on my own personal social media channels, as well as my business’s social media channels (Thought Leadership PR). My in-house social media manager produces a ‘quote graphic’ and a sub-titled video clip for each episode and we post these on social media around 2-3 times each.

I also make sure The Media Insider is submitted to all the latest podcast directories. Another good tip is to have a website where each episode has its own URL, so that your podcast guest can promote their episode easily to their followers.

I got a surge of listeners after I pitched myself for an interview on a platform which is exactly my target audience. Response Source is a large database that many PRs subscribe to to pitch to the media. It has a blog and so I knew that the people who read this blog will definitely find my podcast valuable – because my podcast is all about how to pitch to the media. So I suggested that I write an article on key learnings from my podcast. They said yes and it was very effective.
 

Don’t take short cuts when editing. I use Audacity, which is free but I’ve taken time to learn beyond the basic features as this is where your quality will show.

Find the right podcast hosting platform. Research and compare their features. If you are unsure how to launch, consider asking an agency to help you launch your first few episodes to set you on your way. At Thought Leadership PR, we’ve helped several clients do this. We give them a lesson on editing and producing so they can take it on themselves once it’s all set up, or we continue the production for them.
 

About the podcast: www.themediainsider.fm
About my PR agency: www.thoughtleadershippr.com
Social media profiles:
Twitter:
@Helen_Croydon
@thoughtLeadPR
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-croydon-2b2521a/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/8833600/admin/