Dan Humphreys - Broadcast PR

Dan Humphreys began his career as a journalist on a local newspaper, before moving into PR by joining one of the press teams he had previously been harassing for comment – that of the London Ambulance Service. A number of in-house PR roles followed, including several at ITN, in particular as Press Manager for Channel 4 News.

It was perhaps that experience that attracted Dan to Markettiers4dc, a PR agency that specialises in broadcast media, and which enables its clients to get radio, television and online coverage, partly by creating bespoke the kind of audio and video content that will appeal to resource-strapped broadcast journalists, and TV, radio and web producers.

We spoke to Dan about his career to date, and asked him for an insight on changes in the broadcast media, and the impact that is having on the PR profession.

By Unicorn Jobs

How and why did you start working in PR?

Mainly through being a pain in the ass. I bypassed uni after a couple of months by landing a job as a reporter and photographer on my local newspaper. For the next three years I covered everything from sports and features to hard news in a pretty lively patch of Essex.

This meant making contacts with the local police, fire and ambulance stations to get the inside info on juicy happenings in the area, and then harassing the press offices of the Met, London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service for the official response on issues like cuts to services. Probably to stop me bugging them, the LAS recruited me.

Why did I do make the move into PR? The challenges facing the LAS at the time – this was 1996 – were immense, and it looked like a great challenge to help restore the reputation of a beleaguered but ultimately critical service in the capital. And I got to drive around with blue lights and sirens blaring!

What jobs did you do after the London Ambulance Service?

This could take a while, so get a cuppa now… I very deliberately set out to get as much experience as I could in-house across a range of sectors. I left the LAS to join Sport England, promoting sports participation from grassroots to elite level.

For a sports fan, this was a dream job, but a contact working at ITN gave me a shout about an opportunity there, and I joined them to look after LBC Radio and five news, gaining a first-hand insight into the machinations of the broadcast news agenda.

From there, I joined another contact at Thomas Cook, as Senior Press Officer, handling the JMC Holidays brand. This was where my rather odd love for crisis media relations came in handy, as it was rebuttal for breakfast, lunch and dinner…everyone from ‘Watchdog’ to local papers were taking a pop at us, so I led a robust strategy for a hard, fast and honest response to issues.

Then 9/11 occurred, which had quite an impact on the travel industry. With Thomas Cook moving HQ out of London, I was asked back to ITN, this time as Press Manager for Channel 4 News. Without doubt, this show is the finest news programme in the UK and, I would strongly argue, the world. First class correspondents, with the trust of a strong editorial management team, able to pursue the sort of journalism that no one else can touch.

My job was basically to ensure that the C4News got the credit it deserved for setting the news agenda. Being there for the Iraq War, with Lindsey Hilsum the only UK correspondent on the ground in Baghdad when the bombs started dropping, was a humbling privilege.

From C4News, my former boss at ITN asked me to join him at Camelot, where I became Deputy Head of Publicity. At the time, the lottery was suffering falling sales and getting a major hammering in the media. Helping to restore the faith of the public, and to then see an upturn in sales, was hugely rewarding. After a couple of years there, I was just about to start out on my own when markettiers4dc MD Howard Kosky asked me to join.

This was a deliberate step out of my comfort zone, a deliberate move away from what I’d been doing for a decade. There would be no more dealing with the media, no more working with print (markettiers4dc is a specialist broadcast consultancy), and I’d have a role helping to run the business. I went for it.

Markettiers4dc is an interesting company – tell us about what you guys do

Quite simply, we help clients maximise their effectiveness in broadcast media: radio, TV and the one that surprises most people, online. We do this by helping clients create audio and video content that broadcast media then utilise, providing those clients with coverage.

We have an online role because broadcast tactics – audio and video production – can secure online coverage too. More than ever, because audio and video content online is forming an ever-larger part of consumer media appetite.

I should stress, we’re not just a facilities house – we have a very creative role in the content we create. We pride ourselves in the quality and originality of our creative. We know what makes a story, and what will make it work in the media. That’s what keeps us coming in every day.

What is your personal role at Markettiers4dc?

It’s a flat structure here, so although I’m Associate Director and report directly to the board on behalf of the editorial division, everyone from the MD down gets involved in client projects, campaigns and delivering the coverage. With my in-house experience, I look after major accounts with the likes of Vodafone and Camelot, and stray across all our direct client business.

Why do companies need to have current broadcast material as part of their communications activity?

To create opportunities for broadcast journalists to engage with your organisation, on genuine issues. In the age of 24-hour live rolling news, it’s our responsibility as communications professionals to ensure the businesses we work for respect this and are ready to work with broadcasters, and not just by having a bit of old ‘B roll’ to fling out, and then expecting that to satisfy a news editor, or a viewer for that matter.

How does broadcast PR work differ from PR activity primarily targeting print journalists?

You need a good story, regardless of which media you are talking to. But for broadcast, you have to think of what a broadcaster wants: audio if it’s radio, and picture for TV. It’s not enough to just pitch in a story, you need to have a voice to bring it to life, and to have something to see.

Looking forward, I think we’ll ultimately see the demise of journalists working only in text, and all will be required to multi-skill, by recording audio or video with their interviewees to file online, before making it into print. It’s happening already. Then all PR people will need to consider audio and video content.

Do you mainly target news broadcasters, or do you try and get coverage for your clients in other areas of TV?

We’re driven by the target audience and the objectives. Media appetite is hugely fragmented now, with so many media channels serving segmented interest groups. If you’re interested in health, you might well be listening to your local radio station for news, but you’ll also be looking online at health websites, watching the TV channels dedicated solely to the subject on Sky, and are probably downloading some podcasts. You may also be in a relevant group on Facebook, or connected to others interested in health on LinkedIn. Therefore we will devise a strategy for a client to show them how to reach this audience beyond news broadcasts.

How has the broadcast media changed in recent years, and what does that mean for PR people?

This could be a huge answer, but to massively paraphrase, radio has seen the biggest changes.

Our love affair with radio lives on, with 9 in ten of the population listening. But there are less people involved in making a radio station’s output as the recession bites, so stations are ‘hubbing’, which means a single journalist recording audio for more than one station in their area. A savvy PR will know how to help a massively overstretched radio journalist get what they need, when they need it. This is a big opportunity.

TV has celebrated two decades of rolling news this year – Sky launched in 1989 – and still PRs struggle to get their clients to adjust to a 24/7 news agenda, so again, that’s another simple opportunity to exploit.

What impact has the internet had on broadcast media and broadcast PR?

The internet is a broadcast medium. Broadband stopped it being about just dull text and pictures. An online strategy without broadcast tactics is one with a rather large hole in it.

What would you say to someone working in print media PR interested in moving into broadcast PR?

First of all, can you help your current employer become less print-centric, and to better embrace broadcast media? If you can’t, then best to go somewhere with a more progressive attitude to it.

What advice would you give to someone right at the start of their PR career?

Remember, you are a punter! So watch TV, listen to the radio, read papers, surf, blog. Understand that you are someone’s target audience, so your own media appetite reveals a lot about our behaviours and where we get our media from.

At the same time, look out in the media for the examples of best and worst practice. When you’re sitting in front of a potential employer, use this experience to demonstrate you understand audiences, the media, and how reputations are influenced.

There are no shortage of candidates doing interviews with good grades, passion and commitment. Show you’ve got a heightened awareness of media and an intrinsic ability to make a difference to the employer’s organisation.

What are the best and worst things about your job?

When a client says ‘brilliant’ and has the confidence in you to deliver what you’ve just proposed, that’s cracking. The worst thing is when a great broadcast opportunity is missed because some of the basics we’ve discussed here aren’t followed. That’s a bit of a bugger, but it means there’s a challenge to change it around for next time.