As part of 4media Group’s commitment to sharing the latest insights from our contacts in the media, we will be hosting a series of livestream Q&As with national journalists and industry experts.
Daniel Jones, Consumer Editor of The Sun, was first up. This morning at 10:30AM, Dan answered questions that had been submitted in advance and ‘live’ by the audience and provided many interesting pointers about how best to approach the media and generate meaningful coverage in these challenging times.
Dan started by saying that Coronavirus is perhaps the biggest story many journalists will ever cover in their careers, and, as such, will inevitably dominate headlines for the weeks and months ahead.
The Sun newspaper, Dan explained, is about 50/50 in terms of content – 50 percent Coronavirus and 50 percent not; he, along with many other journalists, still have an appetite for the non-related stories.
With Coronavirus rightly being such a serious topic, many readers want to read something entertaining or light-hearted when they get through to the second section of the paper. So, stories that are illustrating a ‘champion spirit’ are doing particularly well.
With so many brands questioning whether to proceed with campaigns, Dan was asked if, in his view, they should hold off until this is over? His answer was a forceful ‘no’. Consumers are still going to buy things and want to be given information and entertainment about other things that are happening in the world.
Dan also mentioned that pitching non-Coronavirus stories as early as possible in the day is the best way to for them to get picked up. If they are strong enough, the news teams can write them up and get them submitted before focusing on the ‘heavier’ items, such as the daily late afternoon press conference with the PM.
With no end in sight for Coronavirus, he said that it is not known when, or if, people will get bored of reading about it. The stricter the measures that are introduced, the more people are going to be interested in hearing about it.
In terms of topics that are still getting picked up, Dan suggested ‘green’ stories and travel-related items, such as how tourism, airlines, hotels are coping. Sustainability continues to be one of the biggest stories of our time and is still prominent in all the papers.
Travel writers are in desperate need of stories. So much of their content is first-hand reviews, and with travel locked down across the world, these journalists are looking for stories to fill their pages. Stories about staycations would, obviously, do well currently.
In terms of trying to relate a client or brand to Coronavirus, Dan stated anything that puts a question out there, or pressure on the government, is good for them. Stories about the rights of the self-employed, for example, with case studies, have done well.
4media Group will be hosting regular livestream Q&As for the foreseeable future. We are in daily contact with the media to get ideas for our campaigns and to see what they are interested in covering. If you have any questions for us, or if we can help with anything, please contact us.